Boredoms / Pop Tatari

1972

preorder formats available

Starting in the mid-’80s as a bedroom-recording project by vocalist Yamatsuka Eye, Boredoms attracted widespread recognition in the early-’90s alternative music scene; their arty, aggressive approach to hardcore, punk and psychedelia gained fervent champions in kindred experimentalists such as Sonic Youth and John Zorn and has provided an indelible influence on the noise-rock scene ever since. 1992’s Pop Tatari was comparatively accessible in relation to the band’s early Eye-helmed recordings. Released stateside on Reprise Records, it generated an enormous amount of excitement among the open-minded edges of the alternative nation and earned the group a spot on 1994’s Lollapalooza festival. Its imaginative concoction of primitive hard rock and sludge-punk bluster, short-attention-span performance art, cartoon scores, screaming psych and sharp short blasts of brutal, cutting funk / rap was marked by an undercurrent of demented humor. The album’s textures and volumes change and shift in an extreme manner, abiding by its own sonic logic and collection of disparate influences; its cacophonous fusion was so far ahead of every other musical endeavor that it still sounds futuristic. It continues to be considered one of the most “out” recordings ever released by a major label. While its creation lies in the seeds of musical adventures sown by Captain Beefheart, Devo, Minor Threat and Merzbow, Pop Tatari has forged its own cult of equally important art-rock bands and aficionados such as Mr. Bungle / Mike Patton, Wolf Eyes and Lightning Bolt.