Perhaps it’s naive to attribute spiritual powers to a musician, but one could easily mistake Yamataka Eye for a shaman. He certainly acts like one when performing with his comrades in the Japanese avant-rock quartet Boredoms. Surrounded by three drummers, Eye massages his electronics, waves his limbs, and shouts toward the sky, conducting a swirling, sun-seeking seance. This ritualistic display may be the polar opposite of Boredoms’ art-punk origins, but trace the band’s history step by step and the resulting arc is as compelling as any mythical tale.

Eye first made noise in the mid-1980s Japanese underground, performing as the Hanatarash (a slang term for a bratty kid that translates as “the snotnosed”). He formed Boredoms a few years later, intending the band’s moniker literally; early shows were marked by meandering inactivity that often lasted longer than the music itself.

Before long Boredoms’ music was anything but tedious. Frantically mixing hardcore punk with absurdist humor (captured in song titles like “Bite My Bollocks” and “Hairhole Burners”), the group’s weird stew evoked the trippy nightmares of Butthole Surfers and the hyper cartoon scores of Raymond Scott.

Early Boredoms releases such as 1990’s chaotic “Soul Discharge” caught the ear of American musicians, most notably John Zorn (who added Eye to his jazz-punk outfit, Naked City) and Sonic Youth (whose members helped Boredoms garner a slot in the 1994 Lollapalooza tour). The band subsequently earned record deals with Warner Brothers subsidiaries in both Japan and America.

Soon, the band expanded to a sextet with two singers, two drummers, a guitarist, and a bassist, and began to chop up elements of classical, jazz, and abstract art. Two resulting albums – 1993’s “Pop Tatari” and 1994’s “Chocolate Synthesizer” – stand among the strangest works ever financed by a major label. It sounds as though the group channeled its airy music, its members acting more as a conduits than creators.

Under no pressure to repeat itself, due to an unusually liberal recording contract, Boredoms continued to traverse uncharted realms. A mid-1990s series of releases called “Super Roots” injected the influence of electronics and experimental dance music.

Adding a third drummer in 1998, the band steered toward a more fluid sound akin to the communal Krautrock of Can and Amon Duul. By the time of 2001’s “Vision Creation Newsun,” Boredoms eschewed guitars completely, establishing the three-drummers-plus-Eye format that persists today, diving headfirst into wavy crescendos and deep, psychedelic hues.

Eye reinvented Boredoms again in 2005, describing the band as a giant DJ deck and renaming it V8rdeoms, with the V and 8 meant to represent a stylus and turntable. (The group’s official name is currently unclear, though records and concerts still bear the moniker Boredoms).

Later that year, the sound of “Vision Creation Newsun” was stretched into a far-out extreme on the two-track epic “Seadrum/House of Sun.” Partially recorded on a beach (with some mics even placed in the surrounding water), the album shot the group so far out into space that even diehards expressed disappointment.

On closer inspection, “Seadrum/ House of Sun” can be seen as the purest Boredoms effort to date. Opening with the beautiful vocal purrs of longtime drummer Yoshimi P-We, the album melts into a long ascension through mesmerizing percussion and glistening piano, ending with a winding drone that rivals the minimalist innovations of Tony Conrad and Terry Riley.

“Seadrum/House of Sun” seemed to represent the farthest possible extension of the Boredoms’ current aesthetic, but the group’s latest project just might go further. “77 Drum,” opening July 7 at Deitch Projects in Manhattan, is an installation of 77 drum kits, intended for use as “artwork, architecture, and activation.” Two Boredoms concerts using this massive web of percussion will accompany the opening.

Given Boredoms’s history of creative expansion, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine “77 Drum” becoming the band’s standard mode of performance. Galleries and clubs hoping to host future Boredoms shows might want to think about clearing out some extra space just in case.

Boredoms (with Lightning Bolt) on July 2 at Webster Hall (125 East 11th Street, 212-388-0300).