n some Japanese traditions, it is believed that if one’s heart does not have a correct posture, “kokoro gamae,” then there can be no resolve of the mind and all actions are by nature flawed. Kokoro gamae has to do with sincerity: having one’s heart (intention) properly postured behind one’s deeds.

Almost everything, Osaka’s Boredoms has ever released shows an obvious sincerity of purpose. But behind Seadrum/House of Sun beats a collective heart that is postured supine: not lazily but exhausted. Here mind and heart are severed and concept crumbles under its own weight.

This release, made up of two songs, “Seadrum” and “House of Sun” is something of a mystery. The band ceases to be, yet, out of the blue, this enigmatic record shows up like a coded letter from a dead friend. There are no liner notes, no credits, no recording or publishing dates, just an opaque blue case and the disc.

With a little digging, a few things were learned. Most importantly, the recording is several years old, probably cut around the same time as the source material for 1999’s brilliant Vision Creation Newsun. Like most people, I was hoping this was a sign of new life instead of a rehashing of older materials not quite good enough, or too unsuitable, to make it on to other albums.

“Seadrum” (23:03) falls quickly into late-Boredoms-typical percussive throb: the familiar sound of the band’s intergalactic hyperdrive kicking in. But while these driving rhythms have, in the past, been the gravity that bends layered sound like light, here the band never achieves critical mass and things seem stretched thin.

“House of Sun” (20:03) would have made for a fantastic 7-10 minute track. Metallic bowed string sounds drone in circles of various size as immaculately toned guitar ragas weave between audibility and the subconscious. But alas, just when you feel you’re almost there, a brick wall of stalled ideas prevents you from leaving your galactic interiority. This record is worth having, but offers little more than a slow orbiting tour of familiar Boredoms territory.