On Vision Creation Newsun, Boredoms continue to pursue the phoenix-like transformation first revealed on 1998's Super Are, from rock's modern primitives to elemental prog-mired magi. But although, on first listen, their music seems to have adapted to a more user-friendly format, they've lost none of their bloody-minded awkwardness. This nine-track song cycle features symbols for titles. The 13-minute opening track is an epic paeon to new aeon sun worship that centres around a circular rock riff, a firewall of free-form tribal drums and snatches of Beach Boys-style vocal harmonies that burns out in a haze of sweeping analogue synths. It sets the tone for what is to follow. Successive tracks bleed blissfully into one another, an ebb and flow of elemental energy riding successive waves of distortion and clear blue sound. Time signatures are perverted with phase and delay. Like the movement of a tape loop around the spools, the slack is reined in to a tight merciless groove backing lunar chants and solar madrigals. So expansive it literally defies description, Vision Creation Newsun literally provides an infinitely rewarding listening experience. --Chris Campion-