Concert Preview by SUZANNAH TARTAN Eye Yamataka is a rock god. Not the blow-dried, mincing pop star kind, and not the "significant album every three years" kind, but a Dionysian force of nature -- a latter-day shaman of rhythm and noise.
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His group, the Boredoms, is the most influential Japanese band that most people have never heard of. Beginning with "Soul Discharge," their first volley beyond Japan's shores in 1989, the Boredoms almost single-handedly brought the Japanese underground international attention. Their rare shows abroad are instant sellouts.
The band is usually described as a noise group, but that is a critical copout. Though cacophony is a large part of the Boredoms mix, the core of the group (Eye, Seiichi Yamamoto on guitar and Yoshimi P-Wee on drums) have an almost psychic connection that gives the Boredoms' chaos a contradictory tightness.
If the Boredoms' early work crashed into the skull at full force, their more recent work is slightly less direct in its attack. Though still punctuated by dizzying, noisy crescendos, Boredoms 2001 is almost a live, improvised techno group. Their latest releases are a series of Boredoms remix albums done by Ken Ishii, DJ Krush and U.N.C.L.E.
The evolution toward the dance floor is not unexpected: Eye is also an accomplished, if eccentric, DJ, and Yamamoto plays with psychedelic techno group Rovo.
There has always been something ecstatic in the fusion of performer and audience at a Boredoms' gig anyway. Eye explodes into a maelstrom of sinewy energy and flying dreadlocks. The crowd undulates in perfect response, ripping at his clothes and crashing the stage. For those who can tolerate the auditory onslaught (the Boredoms are LOUD), it is very close to religious.