Review Summary: ...should come as a delight to anyone searching for something different. It's loud, quiet, fast, slow and definitely exciting.
When I downloaded Boredoms' "Vision Creation Newsun", the only info I was privy to was that the band's frontman is Yamantaka Eye, and the weight his name carries. For the unitiated, Mr. Eye is quite the reoccuring figure in extreme music, having worked with John Zorn in Naked City and his own veritable noise disasterpiece Hanatarash (seriously, look up "hanatarash bulldozer") Eye has his wet-concrete footprint in the stuff. This being said, I went into this thing not knowing whether it was going to be a sludge-doom-jazz epic or a sonic barrage of breaking plate glass and shredding sheet metal. Vision Creation Newsun turned out to be what I'll describe as a kickass cross between This Heat, Can, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
The record begins with a whisper and reversed effects, within minutes transforming into a bright sea of cymbal-splashing-psych-guitaring-happy-chantingness and then again changing into tribal drum festivities. This sort of evolution/deconstruction is the thing Boredoms' dreams are made of. Parts on the album reveal hidden string sections, chorused percussive whatevers. The last track prominently features glitched-out vocals and beautiful guitar harmonics. The whole album serves as an aural planescape of psychadelia, and constantly surprises the listener with fascinating sounds and their modulations. I'm a fan.
The aesthetics of Vision Creation Newsun are alive and energetic, it definitely sounds like Eye and his gang had a blast making it. Like its cover art, it's very sunny and fun. It doesn't take itself too seriously, not soaked in the pretense that an experimental rock album of this sort tends to carry.
Vision Creation Newsun isn't a very difficult listen for the open-minded, and should come as a delight to anyone searching for something different. It's loud, quiet, fast, slow and definitely exciting.
