Super Roots is the first installment of the Super Roots EP series by Japanese experimental band Boredoms, released in 1993 by WEA Japan, in 1994 by Reprise/Warner Bros. Records in the United States, and rereleased in 2007 by Very Friendly Records in the United Kingdom and Vice/Atlantic Records in the United States.[1][2][3]

Super Roots
EP by
ReleasedSeptember 25, 1993 (1993-09-25)
GenreNoise rock
Length19:19
LabelWEA Japan Japan

Reprise/Warner Bros. Records United States
41559

Very Friendly United Kingdom
Vice/Atlantic Records United States (rerelease)
ProducerBoredoms
Boredoms chronology
Pop Tatari
(1992)
Super Roots
(1993)
Wow 2
(1993)

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [3]
Pitchfork(7.6/10)[4]
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide     [5]

In a review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek described the music as "joyous insanity," and stated that the tracks "are fun; they're wild; they're virtually unlike anything else out there."[3]

Pitchfork's Dominique Leone wrote: "much of the record takes on a tribal ambience with pitter-patter percussion and the feeling that all of this is happening amongst island natives cooped up in a studio on their one foray into the city."[4]

Deborah Sprague of Trouser Press called the album "the most overtly playful" release of the Super Roots series, and noted that "skittery schoolyard giggles like 'Ear? Wig? Web?' and 'Budokan Tape Try (500 Tapes High)'" set "a giddy mood."[6]

Writing for Frieze, Mark Fisher described the album as "a compendium of yelps, chants, wah-wah trumpet and acid guitar," and "an absurdist Rock miscellany, a series of fragments and offcuts."[7]

A writer for Freq stated: "The inane collides head on with the insane... This album sounds like the end product of demented nihilist dada antimusic that has collapsed into entropy."[8]

Track listing

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original WEA Japan CD release (1993)
  1. "Pop Kiss" – 0:54
  2. "Budôkan Tape Try (500 Tapes High)" – 1:41
  3. "Finger Action No. 5" – 0:42
  4. "Chocolate Out" – 2:09
  5. "Pitch at Bunch on Itch" – 0:44
  6. "Machine 3" – 1:04
  7. "Monster Rex & Sound'a'Roundus" – 2:50
  8. "Nuts Room" – 1:28
  9. "Ear? Wig? Web?" – 1:51
  10. "96 Teenage Bondage" – 2:31
  11. "Super Frake 009" – 2:32
  12. "Used CD" – 0:53


Reprise/Warner Bros. Records CD rerelease (1994)
  1. "Pop Kiss" – 0:54
  2. "Budôkan Tape Try (500 Tapes High)" – 1:41
  3. "Finger Action No. 5" – 0:42
  4. "Chocolate Out" – 2:09


Very Friendly and Vice/Atlantic Records CD rereleases (2007)
  1. "Pop Kiss" – 0:54
  2. "Budôkan Tape Try (500 Tapes High)" – 1:41
  3. "Finger Action No. 5" – 0:42
  4. "Chocolate Out" – 2:09
  5. "Pitch at Bunch on Itch" – 0:44
  6. "Machine 3" – 1:04
  7. "Monster Rex & Sound'a'Roundus" – 2:50
  8. "Nuts Room" – 1:28
  9. "Ear? Wig? Web?" – 1:51
  10. "96 Teenage Bondage" – 2:05
  11. "Kou" – 0:26
  12. "Super Frake 009" – 0:59
  13. "Otsu" – 1:32
  14. "Used CD" – 0:53

References

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  1. ^ "Details for release: Boredoms — Super Roots". Exposé Online. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  2. ^ "Boredoms: Super Roots". ArtistInfo. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Jurek, Thom. "Boredoms: Super Roots, Vol. 1". AllMusic. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Pitchfork Media review
  5. ^ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide Guide. Simon & Schuster. p. 95.
  6. ^ Sprague, Deborah. "Boredoms". Trouser Press. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  7. ^ Fisher, Mark (April 15, 2007). "Super Roots". Frieze. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  8. ^ "Boredoms – Super Roots 1,3,5,6,7,8". Freq. June 30, 2007. Retrieved April 17, 2023.