[ aquarius records catalogue

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Recently we listed a cd by Diza Star & The Pink Ladies Blues, the French/Japanese psych band formerly known as Acid Mothers Temple & The Pink Ladies Blues, entitled Featuring Mani Neumeier. That particular personage being the drummer from '70s krautrock legends Guru Guru. Well, the REAL Acid Mothers Temple couldn't let their Pink Ladies pals & doppelgangers get away with scooping 'em on jamming with Mr. Guru Guru himself. So here's AMT's Makoto Kawabata (guitar) and Atsushi Tsuyama (bass) teamed up in a cream-dream power trio with ol' Mani. Together they unleash a whole hour of long, lumbering, loud, out-there psychedelic rock, five tracks total, mostly improvised live but winding up with a wild version of the Guru Guru classic "Bo Diddley". We bet Kawabata and Tsuyama were grinning stupidly for weeks afterwards.

MPEG stream: Stonerrock Socks
MPEG stream: Bo Diddley

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Finally, Andee's tUMULt label releases some new shit! Yes, it's been *months* since tUMULt's last releases (Guapo, 7000 Dying Rats). But don't be fooled. All that time has been well spent preparing stuff by Japan's Solar Anus, the soon-to-be-huge OCS [the prolific John Dwyer of Dig That Body Up It's Alive (also coming soon on tUMULt), Coachwhips, and Pink And Brown], Finland's Worms, Norway's Brainbombs, SF black metal one man band Leviathan, a new Circle -and- a new Iran, for imminent release! But for now, we can revel in this, the latest installment of psychedelic majesty from Japanese avant-hippy heroes Acid Mothers Temple. This is the debut entry in a series of 12" picture discs (future volumes to include Skullflower, Troum, Circle, Reynols, Loren Chasse and more) to be released over the course of the next 12 months and quite an auspicious start it is too. Recorded well over a year ago, this is AMT at their absolute prime, featuring special guest star Tatsuya Yoshida of the Ruins! Two extended tracks (35 + minutes) of transcendental psych-drone. Side one has to be the most beautiful track they've ever recorded. Uncharacteristically tranquil and captivatingly beautiful. Droning, shimmering chimes coalesce into some sort of cosmic Ur-drone, punctuated by simple caveman thuds and epic swooshes, resulting in a grand and gorgeous ambience! Side two is a single track separated into two apparent movements. The first sees AMT back on more familiar ground, with swooping synths and freak out guitar. A stumbling kosmic krautrock, with motorik rhythms and free guitar, amidst a swampy wash of rumbling low end and squealing synths. The track erupts into bubbling atonal out-rock exploration splattered with mad scientist synthesisers as the whole thing slowly mutates into 'cosmic slop' of the nth degree, becoming gradually free-er and free-er. The second 'movement' is all slithery free jazz with bubbling cauldrons of synth sputter, wild keyboards and Can-like rhythms until the whole thing gets all dreamy, eventually blissing out completely. When Andee asked AMT to do a 12", they weren't yet Wire cover stars with so many dozens of releases out -- but this is still one of their absolute best recordings! As you might have guessed, this is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Hand stamped sleeves. A gorgeous picture disc, with a striking flowers/UFO image on one side, and a scintillatingly saucy photo on the other (you'll just have to buy it to see it!) Frustratingly (for Allan at least) only available as a picture disc lp, although there will be a cd version in the near future, but (even more frustratingly for Allan) the tracks on the cd will be completely different!

That *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* emergency warning alarm has been going off pretty much continually here at Aquarius over the past couple weeks, driving us all batty. We thought it must be broken or something but no, there's just been THREE more releases from those hairy Japanese hippies known as AMT plus another Kawabata collaboration (w/ Daevid Allen of Gong). So let's assess the threat. This one's a cd reissue of a limited, long-gone vinyl artifact, documenting as the title indicates the Acid Mothers Temple (and Melting Paraiso U.F.O., let's not forget) performing their cosmic jams live in the US of A back in Y2K. With all the AMT product out there, do you care about a live album? Well, actually, this is pretty great and we have to recommend it to fans for sure. Straight out of the gate "Acid Tokion 2000" is a hard-rockin' beast, furry with feedback and noisy guitar. Acid space rock for the biker on the cover. Things then take a turn into heavy, Trad Gras Och Stenar style drone-plod with a 13+ minute version of "La Novia". Next up, "Pink Lady Lemonade" calms down the proceedings a bit. The album continues with "Speed Guru" and "God Bless AMT". The recording is a bit murky and distorted, but that's more to do with how the band sounds live than anything else, and is perfect for these '70s worshippers anyway. And they're even replicated the 'bootleg' style paste-on cover of the original vinyl edition on this cd digipak. Nice.

MPEG stream: Acid Tokion 2000
MPEG stream: La Novia

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Now on cd! Originally a vinyl-only live document from everybody's favorite Krautrock-obsessed and uber-prolific Japanese hippy freak ensemble, recorded September 10th, 2001 (hence the title). There's two long tracks, the first listed as "Space Age Ballad / La Novia (including In E)" and the second "La Novia-Speed Guru". So you can see they're incorporating several compositions beloved by AMT fans, though of course improvisation plays a large part, and these tracks both flow rather seamlessly -- swirling electric mists of psychedelic monkish folk drone near the start gives way to an endless chugging rock distortofest, super spacey and stoned and indulgent. The "classic" AMT line-up is on board, including Cotton Casino with her beer & cigarettes, "Cosmic Joker" Atsushi Tsuyama, "Dancin' King" Hiroshi Higashi, Ichiraku Yoshimitsu on drums and of course #1 speed guru Kawabata Makoto on guitar. Who also appears on the cover, in a drawing paying homage to the cover of Amon Duul II's Yeti, with Kawabata in the role of Shrat, wielding his scythe.

MPEG stream: La Novia-Speed Guru

More wiggly, wacky psychedelic hijinx from Japan's number one export: Acid Mothers Temple. These hardworking hippies are back yet again, this time on the UK's Space Age Recordings, who usually release stuff by British psychsters like Spectrum and Spacemen 3. So AMT are right at home. As always, the AMT brand ought to alert y'all to how freaky this is likely to be. And it is, but with interesting twists and turns. The disc is nicely varied and well-programmed. After the chaotic rawk opener "Daddy's Bare Meat", which sounds like live AMT on autopilot, we're treated to something just a little bit different, the doo wop pastiche of "Suzie Sixteen"! That's followed by the very lovely, fucked up folkish Pink Floydian number sung by Cotton Casino, "Hello Good Child" (from the limited Ochre 7" we reviewed not long ago, saying it sounded a bit like Crosby Stills and Nash, but doused in lighterfluid and liquid LSD). That drifts right into another gorgeous acid-folk trip, "The Assassin's Beautiful Daughter". Effects bubble around the gentle, classical guitar and flute... Very krautrock. Then, things get somewhat heavier (but remain quite krautrocky) with the Amon Duul II styled "Dark Star Blues". That's the longest piece on this album by far, clocking in at 25 spaced-out minutes. Although, the next and final track on the album, "The Transmigration Of Hop Heads" is also a drowsy doozy, 18 minutes of slow-building bliss-drone. Nice. So, we've gotta say, this all adds up to another excellent AMT album! If you're a fan, this is one to get...or, if you don't already have a shelf sagging with AMT product, you could do worse than start by checking this one out.

MPEG stream: Suzie Sixteen
MPEG stream: Hello Good Child

*Acid Mothers Temple alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple alert!* Those alarm bells are ringing extra loud 'cause it's not just ANOTHER always amazing cd release from these Japanese hippie-kraut-psych-prog freaks... no, it's a tour documentary, their first-ever DVD, with live footage of fan faves "Pink Lady Lemonade", "La Novia", and big improv jam... also plenty of off-stage, on-the-road, behind-the-music, culture shock stuff (Japanese band, French filmmakers, USA tour). Bonuses on this DVD include a clip of AMT playing at the WFMU studio, and more. Limited to 1000 copies!

I know we're all thinking the same thing: Enough with the Acid Mothers Temple already! Can't Makoto Kawabata and his band of krautrock-obsessed Japanese pyschedelic hippy freaks go on a six-month nature retreat or something, and give us (and our wallets) a break? But, the fact remains, that for fans of psych-rock weirdness, very few of the many AMT releases have been disappointing, really. So, then, what's the deal with this one? "Electric Heavyland" (one thing Kawabata & co. are NOT good at is titles) is a bit unsubtle, wearing its intentions on its all-black sleeve (or, rather, obi): this is AMT's stab at non-stop, super-heavy rockin'. Alien8 compares it to "Mellow Out", the now out-of-print first album from Mainliner, the High Rise related group that Kawabata played in prior to AMT's debut. (They even point out that "Electric Heavyland" even LOOKS a lot like "Mellow Out", something which hardly seems all that meaningful or significant...I mean, c'mon.) Regardless, it's certainly in the ballpark. Sloppy, noisy, spacey, utterly indulgent, this is the sound of a stoner heavy psych band fully amped up, plugged in, and jacking off. The blown-out, sub-Stooges motorcycle metal of Mainliner (and High Rise) is perhaps more purposeful than this, without the spacey detours, synth fx, and wordless female vocalizing of this disc. But, when you're in the midst of "Loved And Confused" or "Atomic Rotary Grinding God" or "?Quicksilver Machine Head" on this disc (see, decidedly un-subtle indeed), that hardly matters. Not the heaviest ever, but heavy enough. Would Monster Magnet dare take 'em on tour?

RealAudio clip: Loved And Confused

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* What do you get for the Acid Mothers Temple fan who already has dozens, if not hundreds, of AMT cds? Well AMT dvds of course! This is, like, their third in a year. You pretty much already know if you want it, if you're a fan of this Japanese band of spaced out hippie freaks -- particularly if you don't get many chances to see them live. This one, filmed live in Nagoya on the 9th of December 2006, is extra special 'cause it's got krautrock drumming legend Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru as a special guest. Also vocalist Jun Kuriyama from a band we don't know is another guest. The usual AMT suspects are also present: Kawabata Makoto of course, Tsuyama Atsushi, Higashi Hiroshi, and Tabata Mitsuru. Tracks include "Pink Lady Lemonade", "La Novia", and Guru Guru's "Bo Diddley" amongst other cosmic hits. There's also a drum solo from Mani, and a "plate solo" too, where he plays small metal plates scattered on the front of the stage. He must feel like it's 1971 all over again. Especially with the wild psychedelic liquid light show that bathes the band in swirling colors. All regions, NTSC, a professional production shot with five cameras. And limited to 1000 copies only, ever. (For total overkill, also new in stock, haven't watched it yet: AMT's Never Ending Space Ritual double dvd!)

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Super limited 7" from everybody's favorite Japanese psych band (and if they're not, they soon will be based soley on their massive, endless output). One side sounds a bit like the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" or "Baba O'Reilley", only instead of some pimply faced teen smoking pot, blasting it in his souped up Camaro parked behind the 7-11, it sounds more like some teen alien badass, cranked up on some futuristic drug, parked in orbit around a starship, hiding out from interplanetary truancy officers. The other side sounds a bit like Crosby Stills and Nash, but doused in lighterfluid and liquid LSD.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Here's a 44 minute, two song Acid Mothers Temple cd they released to promote and sell as merch on their 2004 US tour, back in May/June. You get the title track, a jam about a half-hour long that starts off pulsing, swooshing, and tumbling over itself in sheer wonderment of psychedelic excess before calming into a jew's harp driven piece of minimalist electronic drone... however the whole band kicks in again before it's over, bringing things back up to overload levels. Definitely music made by/for dancin' kings, sleeping monks, speed gurus, cosmic jokers, and the erotic underground. And then there's a 16 minute "special bonus track" recorded live at some sort of "70's Rock Tribute" night. Imagine that! More riff/boogie/silly oriented but still super spacey and psychedelic. So if you didn't buy this at one of their shows, now's your chance -- we're really speaking to AMT completists (of which we know there are many) here, not to the more casual AMT consumer, who is probably still digesting "Mantra Of Love" or "A Thousand Shades of Grey" or "Born To Be Wild In The U.S.A. 2000"! And it's in a slim cardboard sleeve so it won't be hard to squeeze into your AMT shelf!

MPEG stream: Hypnotic Liquid Machine From The Golden Utopia

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. An out of print Acid Mother Temple cd from four years ago now briefly available on the vinyl format, thanks to the AMT-fan-freaks at Eclipse. Here's what we had to say about it originally: Japanese guitarist/guru Kawabata (Toho Sara, Mainliner, Musica Transonic) and his band return with their third album of avant-hippy insanity. This pretends to be a soundtrack to a supposed "psych-nonsense" film by alleged "Russian mondo film" director Ivan Piskov. "Tumultuous psychedelic trip sound...Potentially massive frontal lobe damage. Real punch-drunk music!" it says here. As always, recommended for fans of epic guitar psych noise weirdness.

Japanese psych overlords Acid Mothers Temple have made a LOT of albums, as you probably know. Experts that we are, we still can't claim intimate knowledge of 'em all. But, if someone asks us for a favorite AMT recommendation, this one is definitely does come to mind more often than not. It's one of the AMT essentials, in our book. So we're glad it's at long last been reissued, on vinyl, again! It was first issued as an lp on Eclipse long ago back in the year 2000, then went out of print, and was eventually put out on cd by Swordfish. La Novia is a dark and droning take on the usual Acid Mothers Temple mix of hippie freak rock and experimental psych weirdness, with lots of faux-throat singing. Apparently this is based on traditional "Occitanian" folk music, which from the album graphics would appear to be a region of France. Hmm? (Later AMT projects have continued to make this particular, peculiar ethnic connection.) In any event, it's a heavy, forty-minute trip-out mixing everything from distorted guitar and spacey synth to violin and bouzouki. Plus another twenty haunting minutes, via the bonus tracks. Really great, heavy duty stuff. One of our all-time-favorite AMT discs - and that's saying something, since there are now so many, and most are so good. On La Novia, Makoto Kawabata and Co. (this album including erstwhile member Cotton Casino) certainly furthered their quest for ultimate psychedelic world domination! This reish limited to 1000 copies, packaged in a thick gatefold jacket.

MPEG stream: La Novia
MPEG stream: Bon Voyage au LSD

*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* Another limited edition AMT label release, live in Tokyo 1999. And why is it (or was it) their "Last Concert In Tokyo" you may ask? Well according to the sleeve notes, although this was just their third ever gig and they didn't have an album out yet, they were soooo disappointed that less than thirty people turned up to see them that they haven't played again in Tokyo since, and say "understandably we have little intention of doing so in the future." Hmm. Hey that was, like, four years ago guys, maybe you should give your hometown another chance. Anyway, they recorded the show and now you can join that meager handful of Tokyoites in hearing what they sounded like that night: wild and wooly and definitely psychedelic enuff to justify song titles like "Golden Bat Blues Dead" and "Satori LSD 1999". Four songs, forty minutes, one track. Fans should note that this was Atsushi Tsuyama's first gig as an official member of AMT, wielding "monster bass" it says here -- and oh yeah, you can hear it!

MPEG stream: Astro 69

The deluge continues unabated. Lp after lp after cd after double cd after double lp after 12" after picture disc after double 7". Phew. And for those that still need even more, the 'Temple do not disappoint. This is a massive 40 minute slab of live mayhem. From squealing free-noise workouts to relentless Stooges-ish riffing to super distorted, fuzzed out Mainliner style psychedelic

RealAudio clip: Acid Tokion 2000
RealAudio clip: Pink Lady Lemonade

I've been trying to figure out what to write about first, how great this record is, or what a complete fucking rip off it is. Well let's start with how great this record is and move on to the ripoff stuff later. This disc collects the first three Magical Power eps, adds a fourth track and new cover art (if you've already bought the first three, spent $33 on three cds with less than 20 minutes of music on each, all with the same cover, and have just learned that you now have to spend $15 to get the extra song/new cover art, and you're pissed, skip down to the next paragraph) and is quite possibly the best Acid Mothers Temple record in some time. The first track is a 20 minute slab of space-y shimmer, buzzing synths and plucked sitars, bombarded by bleeps and blips, reverb and delay, and ghostly female vocals. A futuristic raga, undulating and slowly shifting, with a faraway Eastern melody winding subtly through the druggy haze. Blissed out and hypnotic. Track two is a thick slab of gorgeous, psychedelic freak out, with wailing female vocals and space-y swooshes and interstellar bleeps and beeps. A fifteen minute burst of damaged psych brilliance. The third track is a dreamy wash of ambient space-scape of swooshing, bleeping, blooping, analog-synthesisers-set-on-dreamy-spaciness, almost new-age, Hawkwind-intro-stretched-as-far-as-it-will-go effervescence. So now we get to the bonus track, the final installment. Is it good enough that all of us suckers that bought the first three volumes need to get this one as well, making the others obsolete (unless you need both covers, then you're screwed either way). Hard to say. Volume three was our least favorite, sounding a little tossed off, sort of like synths left to bleep and bloop and space out on their own, and the final track follows the same sort of pattern, dark outerspace ambience with lots of swooshing sythnesizers that sound remarkably like sixties sci fi B-movie special effects, Not necessarily essential, but as a piece of the whole, it's a nice way to finish off this spaced out psychedelic travelogue. Okay, now to the rip off portion of the program. What the hell?! What were they thinking? For a while we weren't even going to list this we were so pissed. It would have been different if they had let everyone know that there was a fourth track that would be available -with all of the other tracks- eventually, on a single fifteen dollar disc, so those folks who aren't collectors, and just wanted the record, wouldn't have to shell out $33 and then be faced with shelling out another $15 for mostly the exact same music. And one of the first three volumes was 15 minutes long for chrissakes!! And it was still $11! We were mad enough when we first realised that all three volumes had the EXACT SAME COVER. Especially after the big deal made out of the 3-D lenticular artwork. And now this collection has -different- 3-D lenticular artwork, so if you do care, you can't just get rid of the other three. Arghhh. So lame. For those of you who didn't buy the first three, and if this rant didn't make you mad enough to not want to support the fleecing of music lovers, then by all means buy this one. It's pretty great. For those of you, like us, who already own all three, you'll have to decide if you really need this one, and you can always sell those other ones on ebay and hopefully make a little bit of that $33 back.

MPEG stream: Cosmic Funky Dolly

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. I know it seems like we must be joking, but it's true. ANOTHER Acid Mothers Temple record. And not just a new record, PART ONE IN A THREE PART SERIES!!!! But then it wouldn't really be a list without some new sonic missive from these guys on the far away fringes of outer spacerock. But let's start with the packaging. We were all practically stunned into silence by the packaging. Seriously. It is so beautiful. The cover is like one of those vintage 3D sort of multi-layered lenticular postcard, showing a tiny spaceman standing at the edge of a canyon, while a flying saucer swoops down and shines lasers or beams of light and a gorgeous red sunset shimmers in the background. You really have to just see it. And the disc is a 3" cd embedded in a clear 5" cd with some very Yes-like spacescapes. Really nice. Volume two is going to have a lot to live up to. As we seem to be telling you everytime we review ANOTHER Acid Mothers Temple record, although you think that the quality would slip, or this would all get boring and BAD, 'Magical Powers' beats the odds again, and is actually really, really nice. A 20 minute slab of space-y shimmer, buzzing synths and plucked sitars are bombarded by bleeps and blips, reverb and delay, and ghostly female vocals. A futuristic raga, undulating and slowly shifting, a faraway Eastern melody winding subtly through the druggy haze. Blissed out and hypnotic.

RealAudio clip: Magical Powers From Mars Volume One

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Okay, this is volume two in Acid Mothers Temple's Magical Powers From Mars series and while we raved about the first one, I'm afraid we have to be a little harsh this time around. Not on the music. No, the music is great, as always. And if you bought the first one, you're gonna need this one too. AMT can do no wrong it seems. This is a thick slab of gorgeous, psychedelic freak out, with wailing female vocals and space-y swooshes and interstellar bleeps and beeps. A 15 minute burst of damaged psych brilliance. But that's where the trouble starts. Fifteen minutes! For $11!! The first volume was nineteen minutes and was also $11. By our thinking, both those tracks, hell, even the forthcoming less-than-twenty-minute volume three could all fit on ONE CD. But that would be fine, conceptually, there's nothing wrong with a series of EP's. And the 3-D lenticular cover on volume one was really something to see. So we resigned ourselves to buying all three. But what's this? Volume two has THE EXACT SAME COVER?! As will volume three we discovered! What the fuck?!? And the cool 3" cd embedded in a 5" plastic disc with crazy space art? EXACTLY THE SAME. Kind of shitty if you ask us. Basically, you're looking at $33 for 50+ minutes of music and three practically identical cases/covers. But of course, if we've learned one thing: liking Acid Mothers Temple is all about COLLECTING, so collect away!!

RealAudio clip: Diamond Doggy Peggy

That *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* emergency warning alarm has been going off pretty much continually here at Aquarius over the past couple weeks, driving us all batty. We thought it must be broken or something but no, there's just been THREE more releases from those hairy Japanese hippies known as AMT plus another Kawabata collaboration (w/ Daevid Allen of Gong). So let's assess the threat. This one's a brand-new studio effort, and is quite appropriately titled "Mantra of Love", starting out as it does with the lovely vocals of Cotton Casino drifting over a dreamy, mellow backdrop, spacey fx gradually building. One of just two loooong tracks here, opener "Le La Lo" is, like their classic "La Novia", one of the fruits of AMT's obsession with traditional Occitan troubadour song. It's a half-hour in length, and ranges from the aforementioned dreaminess to a dose of Kawabata's psych-guitar-heroics and back before it's done. That's followed by "L'Ambition Dans Le Miroir", an AMT original that continues the droning and beautiful medieval spacerock vibe of "Le La Lo". A worthy addition to your (hopefully sturdy) shelf of AMT music.

MPEG stream: Le La Lo (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Le La Lo (excerpt 2)

Last list we presented a fab four-cd AMT box set entitled The Penultimate Galactic Bordello Also The World You Made. Now this week we've got Minstrel In The Galaxy for those of you who a) have already absorbed all four hours of the Galactic Bordello box and want more, b) didn't spring for the Galactic Bordello box but still need an AMT fix, or c) got the Galactic Bordello box, haven't even cracked it open, but want to stock up on the AMT cds just in case a nuclear apocalypse arrives and, a few decades down the road in your underground bunker, you run out of other AMT to listen to! Joking aside, this is another spacey trip from everyone's favorite Japanese retro-psych ensemble. Three tracks, one of 'em in the 40 minute range, super droney and druggy and dark and delightful. AMT fans should note that this marks the first studio release from a new AMT line-up, that sees long time fan fave singer/keyboardist Cotton Casino replaced with not one but two women, who themselves are a band, the Osaka duo Afrirampo.

MPEG stream: Minstrel In The Galaxy

Woah. This prolific band of Japanese hippies (fresh off a by-all-accounts kick-ass US tour with Mammatus as openers) is back, again, with a new album on Ace Fu. It's one of those one-track, one-hour jobbies, rather overwhelming for those of us trying to write up a quick review! We can tell you that the whole thing is based around an ancient and popular Buddhist mantra, from whence this gets its title. We'll direct you to that font of all knowledge, Wikepedia, for more information (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_Myoho_Renge_Kyo). Apparently this mantra has appeared also in a Ludacris song, on an episode of the Monkees, and in Revenge Of The Nerds II! Of course AMT don't just chant it this mantra. They turn it into an epic, outerspace/innerspace, psychedelic rock opera. Whooshing FX, a chorus of voices, droning electronics, guitar overload, ethnic acoustic instrumentation, plodding drums, heavy jams, it's all here. Basically they've fully Amon Duulized their rendition of Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, as is their usual wont. We don't know if most practicing Buddhists will find this to their liking, but we're loving it! Another awesome automatic "yes, please" for AMT fans.

MPEG stream: "Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo
MPEG stream: "Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo

This newest Acid Mothers Temple dvd release, a double disc set, is pretty much essential for fans of that prolific Japanese freak-hippy musical commune. And we're not just saying that, like we would about any of their millions of releases. This is extra-essential 'cause it's intended as a "history of" the whole AMT phenomenon. And it pretty much proves them to be a "Never Ending Space Ritual" indeed! Heck, the menu loops alone are pretty cool... naked ladies and explosions and psychedelic effects, all right! The first disc has two main sections. One features an example of archival live footage from each year of the band's existence, 1998 to 2007, plus an "early years" concert that's remarkably jazzy. The other section includes video from a bunch of AMT "family" offshoots, including Acid Mothers Temple SWR, Acid Mothers Gong, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, and one we hadn't heard of before, Acid Mothers Temple & The Incredible Strange Band. During the Acid Mothers Gong segment, Daevid Allen pretty much out-freaks the entire band just by dancing (and wearing an outfit handed down from Madonna in her conical bra phase)! On disc two (the main menu of which features video footage of the Father Moo album cover photo shoot!), you get an interview with Makoto Kawabata (in English), a bunch more live concert footage including performances of such faves as "La Novia" and "Pink Lady Lemonade", and a selection of extras -- among them a "guitar smashing medley"!! So, even if you don't buy every last AMT thing to come your way, if you're at all into this band, this would be one to seriously consider picking up. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 5IVE "Hesperus" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 ABSOLUT NULL PUNKT "Absolute Magnitude" (Blossoming Noise) cd 14.98 AHMED, MAHMOUD "Ere Mele Mele" (L'arome Productions) lp 16.98 AJA ROSE & GABRIEL SALOMAN "s/t" (Self-Released) cd 9.98 AJATTARA "Kalmanto" (Spikefarm Records) cd 17.98 AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB "Golden Age" (Merge) cd 14.98 ANAAL NATHRAKH "Hell Is Empty, And All The Devils Are Here" (Feto) cd 14.98 APPLES IN STEREO "The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone" (One Little Indian) cd 14.98 AUTISTIC DAUGHTERS "Uneasy Flowers" (Kranky) cd 14.98 AVERSE SEFIRA "Advent Parallax" (Candlelight) cd 13.98 AXA HOUR OF DARA BLEU "Clones Of Eros" (Fire Museum) cd 13.98 AXELROD, DAVID "Seriously Deep" (Dusty Groove) cd 14.98 B-52'S "Funplex" (Astralwerks) cd 14.98 BAUHAUS "Go Away White" (BMI) cd 14.98 BLUES CONTROL "Puff" (Fusetron) cd 14.98 BORATTO, GUI "Annunciation" (Kompakt) 12" 11.98 BORN RUFFIANS "Red Yellow & Blue" (Warp) cd/lp 14.98/17.98 BOTTOMLESS PIT "Hammer Of The Gods" (Comedy Minus One) cd 12.98 BRAXTON, ANTHONY "12 + 1tet (Victoriaville)" (Victo) cd 15.98 BRAXTON, ANTHONY "Trio (Victoriaville) 2007" (Victo) cd 15.98 BRINKMANN, THOMAS "When Horses Die..." (Max Ernst) cd 17.98 BROTZMANN, PETER "Born Broke" (Atavistic) 2cd 21.00 BROWN JENKINS "Angel Eyes" (Moribund) cd 14.98 BURKETT, JOSHUA "Where's My Hat?" (Time Lag) cd 14.98 BURNING STAR CORE "Amelia" (No-Fi) 10" 21.00 CHILDREN "Death Tribe" (Kemado) 12" 12.98 CROWLEY, ALIESTER "1910-1914 Black Magic Recordings" (Cleopatra) cd 16.98 DATURAH "Reverie" (Graveface) cd 13.98 DEAD CHILD "Attack" (Quarterstick) cd 14.98 DEATH IN JUNE "Rule Of Thirds" (Ner) cd 16.98 DEEPCHORD (ECHOSPACE) "Grandbend" (Echospace) double-12" 25.00 DEL THE FUNKY HOMOSAPIEN "Eleventh Hour" (Definitive Jux) cd 14.98 DEVOTCHKA "A Mad & Faithful Telling" (Anti) cd 16.98 DISKJOKKE "Staying In" (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98 DJ SCOTCH EGG / SHITMAT (SCOTCHY AND SHITTY) "Rave like a Headless Chicken" (Wrong Music) 12" 11.98 DODOS, THE "Visiter" (French Kiss) cd 13.98 ECHOSPACE "Spatialdimension" (Echospace) 12" 11.98 FOLK SPECTRE, THE "The Blackest Medicine" (Wodsist) lp 14.98 FUZZ AGAINST JUNK "Netti Netti" (Invada) cd 15.98 GENGHIS TRON "Board Up The House" (Relapse) cd 14.98 GOLDFRAPP "Seventh Tree" (Mute) cd 15.98 GUILTY SIMPSON "Ode To The Ghetto" (Stones Throw) cd 14.98 HABITAT SOUND SYSTEM "Zebras In The Dancehall" (Gematria) 7" 4.98 HAINO, KEIJI & YOSHIDA TATSUYA "Hauenfiomiume" (Magaibutsu) cd 21.00 HALF MAKESHIFT "Omen" (Profound Lore Records) cd 13.98 HAYAINO DAISUKI "Headbanger's Karaoke Club Dangerous Fire" (UPC) cd 10.98 HEAVY, THE "Great Vengeance and Furious Fire" (Counter) cd/lp 14.98/22.00 HOWLIN' RAIN "Magnificent Fiend" (American/Birdman) cd 12.98 HUMAN INSTINCT "Stoned Guitar" (Rockadrome) cd 14.98 IRON MAIDEN "Live After Death" (Sony) 2dvd 22.00 ISIS "Holy Tears" (Ipecac) cd ep 7.98 ISLAND "Orakel" (Vendlus) cd 13.98 JANDEK "The Myth Of Blue Icicles" (Corwood) cd 8.98 JARBOE & JUSTIN BROADRICK "J2" (The End) cd 13.98 JARVINEN, ANNA "Jag Fick Feel" (Hapna) cd 16.98 JUCIFER "L'Autrichienne" (Relapse) cd 14.98 KAPITAL BAND 1 "Playing By Numbers" (Thrill Jockey) 2cd 15.98 KAWAGUCHI MASAMI'S NEW ROCK SYNDICATE "Cat Vs. Frog" (Palindrone) lp 17.98 KHAN "Space Shanty" (Esoteric Recordings) cd 21.00 KRONOS QUARTET AND WU MAN "Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic" (Nonesuch) cd 16.98 LOCKWOOD, ANNEA "A Sound Map Of The Danube" (Lovely Music) 3cd 37.00 MACHINEFABRIEK "Bijeen" (Kning Disk) cd 14.98 MELOY, COLIN "Colin Meloy Sings Live" (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98 MESHUGGAH "Obzen" (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98 METABOLISMUS "Snowy Meadows / Somnia" (The Social Registry) 7" 6.98 MGR "Wavering On The Cresting Heft" (Conspiracy) cd 14.98 MISS KITTIN "BatBox" (Nobody's Bizzness) cd 16.98 MISSION OF BURMA "Signals, Calls, and Marches" (Matador) cd/lp 15.98/25.00 MISSION OF BURMA "The Horrible Truth About Burma" (Matador) cd/lp 15.98/25.00 MISSION OF BURMA "Vs." (Matador) cd/2lp 15.98/25.00 MONO "The Sky Remains The Same As Ever" (Temporary Residence Ltd.) dvd 17.98 NAKED ON THE VAGUE "Blood Pressure Sessions" (Dual Plover) cd/lp 16.98/13.98 NALLE "The Siren Wave" (Locust) cd 14.98 NASUM "Doombringer" (Relapse) cd 13.98 NATURAL FOOD "s/t" (Porter Records) cd 16.98 NEPTUNE "Gong Lake" (Radium) cd 16.98 NERVE NET NOISE "Dark Garden" (Intransitive) cd 14.98 NORTT "Galgenfrist" (Avantgarde) cd 15.98 NUMAN, GARY + TUBEWAY ARMY "Replicas Redux" (Beggar's Banquet) 2cd 15.98 OAKEATER "Molech" (Nihilist) lp 21.00 PAN SONIC "Kuvaputki" (Cargo Records) dvd 15.98 PELLARIN "Gundso" (Statler & Waldorf) cd 17.98 POWER PILL FIST "Extra Life" (Graveface) cd 11.98 RACONTEURS "Consolers Of The Lonely" (Warner Bros.) cd 16.98 RAMESES III "Basilica" (Important Records) cd 14.98 RELIGIOUS KNIVES "It's After Dark" (Troubleman) cd 13.98 RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR "s/t" (Caldo Verde) cd 13.98 RIGOR SARDONICOUS "Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus" (Paragon Records) cd/lp 14.98/21.00 RIMPOCHE, BOKAR "Sacred Chants & Tibetan Rituals From The Monestary Of Mirik" (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98 SAMAIDON "All Is Well" (Bedroom Community) cd 15.98 SANCTUM "Of the Horizon" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98 SCULPTURED "Embodiment" (The End Records) cd 12.98 SHE & HIM "Volume One" (Merge) cd 15.98 SIAN ALICE GROUP "59.59" (The Social Registry) cd 14.98 SIC ALPS "Description Of The Harbor" (Awesome Vistas) lp 14.98 SILVER MT ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA-BAND "13 Blues For Thirteen Moons" (Constellation) cd/lp 15.98/22.00 SINGER "Unhistories" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/17.98 SLIM CESSNA'S AUTO CLUB "Cipher" (Alternative Tentacles) cd 14.98 SNOOP DOGG "Ego Trippin" (Geffen) cd 15.98 SONS & DAUGHTERS "This Gift" (Domino) cd 14.98 SOURVEIN "Ghetto Angel" (This Dark Reign) cd 14.98 SPRING HEEL JACK "Songs & Themes" (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98 STRIBORG "Autumnal Melancholy" (Dis-Order) cd 14.98 SUISHO NO FUNE "Prayer for Chibi" (Holy Mountain) cd 15.98 SUN KIL MOON "April" (Redeye) cd 14.98 SUN RA "Some Blues But Not The Kind Thats Blue" (Atavistic) cd 15.98 TALL FIRS "Too Old To Die Young" (Ecstatic Peace) cd 10.98 TERMINALS, THE "Last Days Of The Sun" (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98 TERMINALS, THE "Touch" (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98 TIDES / GIANT "Split" (Teenage Disco Bloodbath) cd 9.98 TODD, MIA DOI "Gea" (City Zen Records) cd 13.98 UNEARTHLY TRANCE "Electrocution" (Relapse) cd 15.98 V/A "Encyclopedia Asthmatica Vol. 1" (Asthmatic Kitty) dvd 15.98 V/A "Imaginational Anthem Volume Three" (Tomkins Square) cd 14.98 V/A "Shadow Music Of Thailand" (Sublime Frequencies) lp 25.00 VVEREVVOLF GREHV "Zombie Aesthetics" (Relapse) cd 14.98 WHITE, JIM "Transnormal Skiperoo" (LuakaBop) cd 14.98 WHITMORE, WILLIAM ELLIOTT "Hymns For The Hopeless" (Southern) lp 12.98 WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE SON GOD "Out of Body Diva" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98 WHY? "Alopecia" (Anticon) cd 14.98 WILL HAVEN "The Hierophant" (Bieler) cd 14.98 WOODS FAMILY CREEPS "s/t" (Time Lag) cd 14.98 WOOFAH "#2" magazine 10.98 WRATH OF THE WEAK "Alogon" (Profound Lore) cd 14.98 WRATHCHILD AMERICA "Climbin' The Walls" (Wounded Bird) cd 14.98 YOSHIDA, TATSUYA & SOTOYAMA AKIRA "Drum Duo" (Enban) dvd-r 13.98 YOSHIMIO "Yunnan Colorfree" (Shock City) cd+dvd 50.00 ZORN, JOHN "Dreamers" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER

Oh yeah, we're not done yet...there's a second Acid Mothers Temple cd on this week's list, another live one. We don't call these Japanese hippies "uber-prolific" for nothing! There's two long tracks here (as is their wont, apparently), the first of 'em "Dark Stars In The Dazzling Sky" which is definitely darker and more intense than the stuff on the Day Before the Sky Fell In cd listed above. Kawabata's clawing guitar gets cranked, honed to a heavy metal edge, and the wild vocals babble and keen like Lucifer's Friend on a bad trip... it's a mean Hawkwindy jam, knives out, grinding away and throwing off sparks. The second, longer track, "Pink Lady Lemonade" is heavy too, but in a much different, spaced out and blissful way... it drones prettily, Kawabata's guitar still soaring and scrabbling over the droning din, with the overall effect being an uplifting one. Recorded in 2004 in the US and UK with a four-piece AMT line-up (no Cotton C., and new guy Koizume Hajime behind the drum kit), this release was meant for the merch tables of their 2006 US Tour, and comes packaged in the slim paper sleeves of all AMT-label product, easy to transport on tour, just as the music will easily transport you...

MPEG stream: Dark Stars In The Dazzling Sky (aka Dark Star Blues)

This is the new album from Japan's Acid Mothers Temple, that AMT leader Kawabata Makoto contends is heavier than the average heavy AMT release, going so far as to say it's in the league of something like SUNNO))). Well, is it really?? Would he bet his beard on it? (We all ask, salivatin'.) The answer: holy shit, yes. It's like indeed kinda like SUNNO))) jamming with Amon Duul, in a relentless riff orgy. That heavy. That droney. That creepy. That kosmic. A slow screaming blackened drone-groan vomiting forth from bad trippin' hippy minds, third eyes staring dull and glassy into the spinning vortex of the void. There's about ten minutes of pure bliss-out at the end of the disc, but before that, what you get is psychedelic guitar gunk out the wazoo. Riff after plodding riff, adorned with alien electronics. Dirge, splurge and more dirge. A roar to end all roars. A space-sludge feedback fantasy. Each clocking in at about 36 and a half minutes, there's two long tracks (with long track names) here: "Eternal Incantation Of Perpetual Nightmare" and "Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness". Sound kinda black metal don't they? Actually they do. This is an EXTREME Acid Mothers Temple experience let me tell you. Boris, beware! Ufommamut, watch your backs! Electric Wizard, better take another hit!! Definitely worthy of the nifty, unmistakable Seldon Hunt cover art. Also, FYI we have this in both digital and analog formats. The vinyl version, a heavy gatefold double LP affair, is limited to 1000 copies, and it includes two bonus tracks!!! So act fast...

MPEG stream: Eternal Incantation Of Perpetual Nightmare
MPEG stream: Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness

MPEG stream: Where Are You Now - Pink Lady Lemonade
MPEG stream: Tatoe Kishiroedo

Jeepers. If the output of the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. -- everyone's favorite freaky communal Japanese psychedelic spacelords -- wasn't remarkable enough, with a new release or two seemingly sprouting up every time we blink, they had to go and put out this lil' BOX SET. Yup, this one's got four full-length compact discs! Each colorful cd containing a single, approximately hour-long track. That's, like, four hours of music total! Yowza. And the deal is, as we keep saying about these guys (but it's true), it's all pretty great stuff despite how prolific they are. If you're into their trip, we'd say this is a worthwhile purchase. We won't say essential (at this point, what is essential? we all have our faves) but actually a fairly economical deal for fans, when you work out the per-disc price. To be honest, we haven't actually yet listened to the entirety of this release...but what we've heard so far has met our expectations: either jammed-out Hawkwind-meets-Greatful Dead psych-rock or more mysterious, ritualistic dark and droney weirdness. We're really into how this is the "Penultimate" Galactic Bordello, by the way, and not the Ultimate. The implication is, the Ultimate is yet to come. So no need to mope if these four discs leave you wanting more!

MPEG stream: The Seven Stigmata From Pussycat Nebula

Gorgeous gatefold double lp. The latest in the seemingly endless barrage of recorded output from the mighty Acid Mothers Temple, Japanese hippies whose glorious din has induced pantswetting by psych/drone fans (and label owners, judging by the number of

Now on cd with extra tracks! "La Novia" is a dark and droning take on the usual Acid Mothers Temple mix of hippie freak rock and experimental psych weirdness, with lots of faux-throat singing! Apparently this is based on traditional "Occitanian" folk music,

RealAudio clip: Bois-tu de la biere?
RealAudio clip: Bon Voyage au LSD

What do you get when a trippy, spaced out communal psych rock outfit like Japan's Acid Mothers Temple decides to do a cover of classic doom metal nugget "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath? An extra-psychedelic version appropriately retitled "Space Paranoid", of course, which also is worked into the name of this iteration of the AMT collective, with their latest lp-only release being devoted entirely to slow and doomy jams, total stoner heaviness inspired by the Sabs. Sounds good? It is. And interestin', considering that on several of AMT's other recent efforts, we'd be hearing a lot of Led Zeppelin influence. Guess they decided to make it clear that Sabbath means a lot to 'em too. Though of course, AMT still sounds more like Hawkwind than either of those bands, with a heck of a lot more synth swirling around. "Space Paranoid" is but one of three tracks on this 32 minute platter, propelled by drummer Okano Futoshi, who we should note used to play in the great Subvert Blaze, probably the most Sabbathy band in Japan in the '90s! Limited to 500 copies, includes digital download.

We were getting worried. After showing up on practically three AQ New Arrivals Lists in a row (221, 223, 224), not to mention a brace of releases a few weeks earlier found on lists 217 and 218, we went three whole lists without ANYTHING new by Acid Mothers Temple to review! Well, there was that excellent Kawabata Makoto collaboration with Up-Tight that we listed on 226, but we're talking about full AMT band albums. So it's a relief to have this show up -- and it's just in time. Y'know, just in case there's a Japanese psych freak on your Christmas shopping list, and you were wondering what to get for 'em, maybe they haven't got this yet! Despite the "European Tour 2005" designation, this isn't recorded live in Europe, but at home in Japan at the Acid Mothers Temple itself, and was meant for sale as merch on that particular tour. We'd guess these copies are the leftovers, luckily enough for those of us who missed the AMT mothership's descent on Europe! There's but two songs on here (as has been AMT's wont of late), the 38 minute "Cosmic Funeral Route 666" and the 5:42 "Phantom Fire Ball". Lots of spaced-out soundz as you might expect, with "Cosmic Funeral" being an electric procession that chugs along densely before things get hushed and more spacious at about the half-way point... until the 24 minute mark when the cosmic funeral train starts a'rollin' again, and some deep, dark, cavernous guitar is unleashed unto the proceedings. The overall vibe (and that's definitely the term to use) isn't actually all that "funereal", really. This ain't AMT's take on Skepticism. It's just another krautrocky cosmic jam from these modern masters. Following that, the briefer "Phantom Fire Ball" is a bit more energetic and distorted, reminding us of Comets On Fire, with urgent vocals that also make us think (as we already were thinking anyway), "man these guys like Hawkwind don't they!" Packaged in a slim cardboard sleeve like the other discs on the AMT label, and doubtless limited... though of course if you miss this we're sure they're be another new AMT coming up soon!

MPEG stream: Cosmic Funeral Route 666
MPEG stream: Phantom Fire Ball

Yep, another new Acid Mothers Temple transmission, this one the second to come via their Finnish fans the band Circle's Ektro imprint. And, it's a good one, for those who dig the long-form AMT stuff like La Novia. We think they're serious about this Anthem of THE Space stuff. Like, there's a contest to make the music that will be playing far out in space for all time, if you could only hear it. AMT mean to win that contest! This is a seriously spaced-out AMT effort indeed. A cosmic march into the furthest reaches of where no man (or hippy) has gone before. Except Amon Duul II. 'Cause the main part of this disc, the 44 minute title track, has very much of an Amon Duul II's Yeti vibe going on! (And thus it also reminds us of the recently AQ-reviewed My Solid Ground.) Stoner paradise. Very krautrock. A heavy, mantric riff repeating over and over a loooong time. Super hypnotic. We like! That's followed by the ten minute "Poppy Rock", a track that's more like a spacey hoedown. Kinda jig-like. A quick picker-upper after the "Anthem Of The Space". Maybe we just didn't realize it before, but it appears that guitarist Tabata Mitsuru is now a member of the ever-evolving Acid Mothers Temple collective. Tabata you may know as KK Null's foil in Zeni Geva, or for being an early member of the Boredoms, or for his excellent solo and collborative releases in recent years. Well, now he's in the Temple, lending all of his psychedelic skills to the cause, getting co-writing credit alongside AMT "speed guru" Kawabata Makoto on the two tracks here. Yet again, a winner from the AMT camp.

MPEG stream: Anthem Of The Space
MPEG stream: Poppy Rock

Demons From Nipples? Of all of Acid Mothers Temple's most ridiculous titles (eg. St. Captain Freak Out And The Magic Bamboo Request, Hypnotic Liquid Machine From The Golden Utopia, or Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs?), that might be the mostest! And the music does its best to live up to that title. It's a heavily effected, way-out Kraut/psych love frolic, howling in space, kinda like an imaginary Can/Hawkwind/Guru Guru acid test jam fest with what sounds like some sort of warped, sci-fi bagpipes thrown in for good measure. That weird bagpipe sound is what's really getting us excited about this (though doubtless some might disagree). It's kinda like Comets On Fire's Echoplex or the 13th Floor Elevators' electric jug. Must be the "uilleann pipe" that a guest is credited with playing in the liner notes! Stirred in there with guitars, drums, electronics, etc. it's part of a pretty wild and dense sound. And when things calm down a bit (like, about a half hour into the title track) the combination of heavy-duty electric guitar splooge and mantric cosmic slop vocal chant is primo, with or without the pipe (any sorta pipe). This release (imported from Poland, not sure if we'll be able to get 'em again all that easily!) is the third new document in, like, the last three months to be spawned by the latest incarnation of Kawabata Makoto's Acid Mothers Temple troupe (now known as AMT & The Cosmic Inferno), featuring new members including Tabata Mitsuru (Zeni Geva, Boredoms, Leningrad Blues Machine). And like the other two Cosmic Inferno discs, this consists of but two tracks, one long and one really long. If you liked their previous disc Just Another Band From The Cosmic Inferno you'll really dig this one. Ultra-trippy to say the least!

MPEG stream: Demons From Nipples

If they weren't from Japan, we'd have a lot of trouble with an album entitled Doobie Wonderland (not to mention a song called "Do You Remember Doobie Wonderland"?). Suburban juggalos in backwards baseball caps playing acoustic-ska-punk-rap might make an album called Doobie Wonderland, and it would be as bad as that sounds. But of course Japan's AMT get a pass, we're used to their dumb/awesome song and album titles, and heck this SOUNDS like a doobie wonderland - one that we'd like to visit. Spacey, stonery, cosmic funked out JAMZ. They're having fun, you can tell, the happy, Hawkwindy vibes positively exploding from this shining disc. There's 5 long songs, the shortest just under 12 minutes, the longest, over 21. Full tilt drums collide with wild wah wah soloing, chaotic electronic FX compete with chanted vox, it's a doozy of a doobie wonderland indeed. There's some moments (say, in track 3, "Dance With The Space Gypsy Queen") that get all mellow and jangly, but utter manic-psych-groove-guitar-FX-freakout overload is never all that far away.

MPEG stream: Do You Remember Doobie Wonderland
MPEG stream: M.J. Love 666

We shouldn't be surprised. Japanese communal psych rock juggernaut the Acid Mothers Temple just released their first ever Digital Versatile Disc, like, a month or two ago. And while that one quickly sold out and is on backorder at our suppliers (drat!), now they've gone and already released -another- DVD! We have a bunch but probably they'll go quick too... Hardcore Uncle Meat is a document of a live show played by AMT in Zagreb, Croatia, 2005. It's a pro package, shot with three cameras, audio captured in 16-channel digital and mixed by Kawabata Makoto. And of course the performance is wild and heavy. So if you couldn't be there... The back cover of the DVD, by the way, reminds us of what a "supergroup" AMT have become, as the pedigree of each member of the band is listed. This incarnation of AMT includes past and present members of Zeni Geva, Boredoms, High Rise, Miminokoto, Mainliner, Nagisa Ni Te, White Heaven, Ghost, Subvert Blaze, Andromelos, and more! NTSC, region free, limited to 1000 copies. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just search on the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! ABIGOR "Fractal Possession" (End All Life Productions) cd 15.98 ANAL CUNT "Defenders Of The Hate" (Menace To Sobriety) cd 14.98 AQUARIAN, ISIS WITH ELECTRICITY AQUARIAN "The Source: The Untold Story Of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 And The Source Family" (Process) book + cd 24.95 ARCTIC MONKEYS "Favorite Worst Nightmare" (Domino) cd 14.98 AREA C "Trick With A Knife" (Trensmat) lathe cut 7" + cd-r 12.98 ART FLEURY "I Luoghi Del Potere" (Die-Schachtel) cd 27.00 BAD PLUS, THE "Prog" (Heads Up) cd 17.98 BALROYNIGRESS "Shampoo And Champagne" (Kning Disk) cd 14.98 BONECLOUD "Drawing Spirits In Crystals" (DNT) cd-r 5.98 BOSETTI, ALESSANDRO "Expose" (Die Schachtel) cd 19.98 BRETSCHNEIDER, FRANK "Rhythm" (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98 BROOM DUSTERS "Sound From The Bottom Of The Tokyo Underground" (Siwa) lp 24.00 BROTZMANN, PETER OCTET "Complete Machine Gun Sessions" (Archive FMP Edition) cd 15.98 BUCKLEY, TIM "Starsailor" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98 BUDOS BAND "II" (Daptone) cd 14.98 BURNING BRIDES "Hang Love" (ModArt) cd 14.98 CAINA "Mourner" (Profound Lore) cd 12.98 CARIBOU "Andorra" (Merge) cd/lp 13.98/16.98 COALESCE "There Is Nothing New Under The Sun" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98 COFFEY, DENNIS "Big City Funk" (Vampisoul) cd/lp 17.98/19.98 COFFINS / THE ARM AND SWORD OF A BASTARD GOD "split" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98 COMMON "Finding Forever" (Geffen) cd 14.98 CONCENTRICK "Aluminum Lake" (Drag City) cd 14.98 CONTINUUM "Volume 2" (Soleilmoon) cd 16.98 CUB "Betti-Cola" (Mint) cd 15.98 CUB "Come Out Come Out" (Mint) cd 15.98 CZAR "s/t" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 DIZA STAR & THE PINK LADIES BLUES "3" (Fractal) lp 31.00 DODHEIMSGARD "Supervillain Outcast" (Moonfog) cd 13.98 DOPPLEREFFEKT "Calabi Yau Space" (Rephlex) cd/2lp 16.98/19.98 DR. DELAY "REM Sleep - Psych Mix" (Funk Weapons) cd 14.98 EAST OF UNDERGROUND "s/t" (Wax Poetics) cd 13.98 ELEGI "Sistereis" (Miasmah) cd 17.98 ENIGK, JEREMY "The Missing Link" (567) cd 14.98 EVERGREEN TERRACE "Wolfbiker" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 EXCEPTER "Streams 01" (Fusetron) cd 15.98 EXIAS-J "Live Document 2003-2005" (PSF) dvd 27.00 EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 001 - Music From Inaudible Depths" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98 EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 002" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98 FALL OF TROY, THE "Manipulator" (Equal Vision) cd 14.98 FAMILY UNDERGROUND "Riven" (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS "The Distant Future" (Sub Pop) cd ep 3.98 FRIAR TUCK "And His Psychedelic Guitar" (Fallout) cd 16.98 GENTLEMANS PISTOLS "s/t" (Candlelight) cd 14.98 GNAW THEIR TONGUES "Die Mutter Wahlt Das Todtenkleidchen" (Corps-Morts) cd-r 7.98 GROOP, THE "s/t" (Sundazed) cd 14.98 HALF MAKESHIFT "L'Anse Amort" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98 HEAVY WINGED "Blacc Lust" (three lobed records) cd 13.98 HORSEFLESH "Journey To The East" (Chambara) cd-r 6.98 IMPERIAL TEEN "The Hair, The TV, The Baby, & The Band" (Merge) cd 14.98 IXXI "s/t" (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98 JABLADAV "3K Hum" (self released) cd-r/cassette 7.98/5.00 JAZZFINGER "Ugly For A Living" (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98 JAZZFINGER "Wixxon Flag Bearer" (DNT) cd-r 5.98 JUNIOR SENIOR "Hey Hey My My Yo Yo" (Ryko) 2cd 15.98 KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF "Jinx" (Staubgold) cd/lp 15.98/15.98 KANG, EYVIND "Athlantis" (Ipecac) cd 16.98 KELLY, R. "Trapped In The Closet Chapters 13-22" (Jive) dvd 16.98 KONDO, HIDEAKI "Structures" (Modern Music / PSF) cd 16.98 KWELI, TALIB "Eardrum" (Blacksmith) cd 13.98 LAMBSBREAD "King Of The Crop" (Skulltones) 7" 5.50 LAS MALAS AMISTADES "Patio Bonito" (Honest Jons) cd 25.00 LEVAN, LARRY "Journey Into Paradise" (Rhino) 2cd 22.00 LICHENS "Omns" (Kranky) cd + dvd 16.98 M.I.A. "Kala" (Interscope) cd 10.98 MACEO AND ALL THE KING'S MEN "Doing Their Own Thing" (Snapper Music) cd 12.98 MAIA, TIM "s/t" (Sam Livre) cd 19.98 MARDUK "Rom 5:12" (Regain) cd 14.98 MARGINAL CONSORT "s/t" (Improvised Music From Japan) 4cd 79.00 MARTIN, AARON "Almond" (Preservation) cd 15.98 MASERATI "Inventions For The New Season" (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98 MAYER, NATHANIEL "I Want Love And Affection Not The House Of Correction" (Vampi Soul) lp 29.00 MIMIR "Mimyriad" (Streamline) cd 14.98 MIMIR "s/t" (Streamline) cd 14.98 MOEBIUS "Nurton" (Blue Pole) cd 16.98 NADJA "Guilted By The Sun" (Elevation) cd 8.98 NAIMA, TONY & THE BITTERS "Dismember" (Tosom) cd 15.98 NARROWS, THE "Benjamin" (Wantage USA) cd 12.98 NAUGHTIEST GIRL WAS A MONITOR, THE "s/t" (Vinyl On Demand) lp 26.00 NEED MORE SOURCES "Shed" (Moteer) cd 15.98 NEMESIS "The Day Of Retribution" (GMR Music) cd 23.00 OAXACAN "s/t" (self-released) cd-r ep 8.98 OH NO "Dr. No's Oxperiment" (Stones Throw) cd/2lp 14.98/ PATRON SAINTS, THE "Fohhoh Bohob" (Time-Lag) cd/lp+7" 18.98/33.00 PIG DESTROYER "Phantom Limb" (Relapse) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 PROCER VENEFICUS "The Cold Gloaming" (Students Of Decay) cd-r 7.98 R. CRUMB "R. Crumb's Heroes Of Blues, Jazz & Country" (Abrams) book + cd 19.95 RAAIJMAKERS, DICK "Complete Tape Music Of Dick Raaijmakers" (Basta) 3cd 33.00 RIGGS, DAX "We Sing Of Only Blood Of Love" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98 RILO KILEY "Under The Black Light" (Warner) cd 13.98 ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET "Grand Animals" (New Line) cd 14.98 ROKY ERICKSON "You're Gonna Miss Me" (Palm / Manga) dvd 33.00 SARIN SMOKE "s/t" (Wholly Other) lp 14.98 SEPTEMBER COLLECTIVE "All The Birds Were Anarchists" (MOSZ) cd 17.98 SERPENT THRONE "Ride Satan Ride (OST)" cd 14.98 SHEARER, HARRY "Songs Pointed & Pointless" (Courgette) cd 14.98 SHITMAT "Grooverider" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98 SIGNAL "Robotron" (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98 SKREAM & CLUEKID "Sandsnake" (Disfigured Dubz) 12" 12.98 SKULL DEFECTS, THE "The Sound Of Defekt Skulls" (Utech) cd 14.98 SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "Open The Gates Of Mimer" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98 SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "Skkull" (Release The Bats) cd 14.98 SONDE "En Concert" (Oral) cd 16.98 SONDE "En Ordes" (Oral) cd 16.98 SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA "An Ocean Without Water" (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98 SPECTRE, AARON "Say More Fire" (Rag & Bone) 12" 12.98 SPIRITUALAIRES, THE OF HURTSBORO, ALABAMA "Singing Songs Of Praise" (CaseQuarter) cd 14.98 SUN RA "Shadows Took Shape" (Transparency) 2cd 15.98 SUN RA "The Night Of The Purple Moon" (Unheard Music Series) cd 15.98 SUN RA ALL STARS "Hiroshima" (Art Yard) lp 26.00 SUPERBAD "OST" (Lakeshore) cd 16.98 TENHORNEDBEAST "The Sacred Truth" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98 TODAY IS THE DAY "Willpower" (SuperNova) cd 14.98 TORSO / UNICORN "split" (Divorce) cd 8.98 TRANSMISSION 0 "Memory Of A Dream" (Candlelight) cd 13.98 TRAVELING WILBURYS "Traveling Wilburys Collection" (Rhino) 2cd+dvd 29.00 TULSA DRONE "Songs From A Mean Season" (The Perpetual Motion Machine) cd 10.98 TULUS "Cold Core Collection" (Indie Recordings) 2cd 16.98 UNDER SATAN'S SUN "s/t" (self released) cd-r 8.98 V/A "Fallin' Off The Reel: Volume 1" (Truth & Soul) cd 14.98 V/A "Feed Your Ego" (Nat Records) cd 17.98 V/A "Flying Nun 25 Years - Limited Edition Boxset" (Flying Nun) 4cd / book / box 135.00 V/A "Phoning It In" (West Main Development) cd 11.98 V/A "Reactions To Raaijmakers" (Basta) cd 21.00 V/A "Silver Monk Time: A Tribute To The Monks" (Play Loud) 2cd 21.00 V/A "The Busy Drone" (BVHAAST) cd 17.98 V/A "Total 8" (Kompakt) 2cd 17.98 V/A "War II (The Turd Hunt Continues)" (Hip Hop Slam) cd 11.98 V/A "We Are Not Together" (Repsychled) cd 17.98 VALENCA, ALCEU "Molhado De Suor" (Som Livre) cd 19.98 VILE CHERUBS "The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats" (Afterburn) cd 13.98 VIRUS SYNDICATE "Present: Contagious Vol. 1" (Tyke) cd 17.98 VISITATIONS "s/t" (Time Lag Records) cd 16.98 VXPXC "Porchmass" (Digitalis) cd 11.98 WEEDEATER "God Luck And Good Speed" (Southern Lord) cd 15.98 WHITE STRIPES, THE "Icky Thump" (Warner Bros.) cd 16.98 WIJLEN WIJ "s/t" (Aesthetic Death) cd 15.98 WILDILDLIFE "Peas Feast" (Chicas De Hoy) cd-r 4.98 XELA WITH GREG HAINES & DANNY SAUL "The Late Chapel" (Type) lp 14.98 YEAR OF NO LIGHT "Nord" (Crucial Blast) cd 15.98 YESTERDAYS NEW QUINTET (MADLIB) "Yesterday's Universe" (Stones Throw) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 YOUNGS, RICHARD & ALEX NEILSON "Electric Lotus LP & Lotus Editions CD" (VHF) lp+cd 15.98 ZRASDTVOOTIE "lll" (Holy Mountain) lp 15.98 ZWEINSTEIN "Trip / Flip Out / Meditation" (Captain Trip) 3cd 88.00 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER

We only managed to grab a small handful of these, the latest dvd document of everyone's favorite Japanese psych rock unit doing their cosmically infernal thing. Like it says, live at the Bears club in Osaka, August 3rd, 2007, performed by an AMT lineup including new female recruit Pikachu from Afrirampo. Also, there's a guest appearance by Masonna! He's credited with synthesizer, vocal, and rock'n'roll star... NTSC, region free dvd.

Yes it's another Acid Mother Temple album! Apparently as necessary to life as food or oxygen, for some people...or so it would seem from the band's oft-remarked-upon release schedule, which is in fact matched by the demand for their prolific output. Seriously, though, while we joke about how many records these hairies release, we also always have to perk up and pay attention when there's a new AMT opus. 'Cause most of the time, they're well worth hearing -- this one in particular certainly is, we've gotta say. Consisting of one 50 plus minute long track entitled "OM Riff from The Cosmic Inferno", this actually sounds quite a bit like AQ faves Circle! Andee thought it *was* Circle when he first heard it, actually. The "chant" you hear is all hyper and Magmoid, twinned with a Circle-like, chugging, insistent rhythm that plows through a universe of swooshing bleeping blooping electronic space soundz. It's repetitive and hypnotic and maybe even spiritually meaningful. An electric Buddhist drug thing you wouldn't understand...but it's fun trying. The chanting gives way to purely instrumental, sorta psychedelic soundtracky passages, but then at at about 23 minutes a heavy, groovy bassline kicks in, and Kawabata unleashes the motorpsycho darkness of his guitar, getting just a wee bit Keiji Haino on us. Later still the chant resurfaces, even more cranked and intense and things just get crazier and heavier. It's all very kosmic and freaky, reminding us like we said of Circle, and even darker stuff like Yeti and Tarantula Hawk, and of course '70s forefathers Hawkwind. And oh yeah Kawabata busts out the hurdy gurdy on here as well. Recommended, especially to AMT fans who also like Circle (which is, we'd imagine, a lot of you).

MPEG stream: "OM Riff from The Cosmic Inferno

Here we go once more, (yet) another journey into the cosmic inferno. One worth taking, again and again. We're already pretty darn tanned from it. It seems like just last week (actually, on list #299, so four weeks ago) we had a new live AMT disc, Pink Lady Lemonade on Riot Season. Now here's the first studio document from this latest AMT lineup, featuring new drummer/vocalist/cosmic shaman/etc., Pikachu, also of Afrirampo. Those who have Pink Lady Lemonade will note that, on the back cover of this, the band's still wearing those ridiculous matching Hawaiian shirts/shorts (in Pikachu's case, a dress) with palm trees, flowers, sailboats, and beaches on 'em. Weird. As always. And as always, they deliver the psychedelic hippie rock freakout goods. And this time, with a fair amount of structure. It's divided into several "movements" which make it seem especially composerly. Track one, "1st Movement: Cosmic Inferno's Gate" is perhaps so titled not only 'cause it's the first track, the entrance to the album, but also 'cause a good portion of it features a scraping string-drone (or is it a squealing horn?) of some sort that sounds a bit like a creaky door being slowly, very slowly opened. Then -boom- the 2nd Movement kicks in. A heavy, lumbering riff and lotsa spacey FX. Vocals eventually enter the fray, singing the praises of the "Master Of The Cosmic Inferno". It's starting to sound a lot like a J.A. Caesar album from the '70s, one of those wild psychedelic theatrical soundtrack productions. If you're a Japanese psych nerd you may have heard of 'em. Solar Anus covered one of their songs, as well. Someday hopefully we'll list some reissues. But we digress. Anyway, this track goes a lot of places over its nearly 23 minute length, ranging from frenzied guitar squiggle to gentle female vocal lullaby. Quite the tour de force. Then, a mellow interlude. This third movement is called "Cosmic Blood Feast". Sounds like half a Roger Corman double feature, or their tribute to Herschell Gordon Lewis. Droning horn and plinking bells. Quite nice. It's the calm before the storm of "4th Movement: Ecstasy Into The Cosmic Inferno", a whirling dervish buildup of distorted snake charmer guitar and ecstatic (indeed) vocal chant. Which brings us to track, er, movement 5: "Usisi", much more folky and melodic. And then the album wraps up with "6th Movement: Shalom Cosmic Inferno" and it's back to the acid guitar wailing from Kawabata that really pays the bills. Whew! Altogether, it's about everything you could want from a journey into the cosmic inferno. Even if you haven't been on board the AMT train this whole time for every last release, this one might be a good one to pick up, though your tolerance for some of the more wild vocal excesses here, when Pikachu really gets riled up, might be a factor in that decision.

MPEG stream: Master Of The Cosmic Inferno - Heart Of Earth
MPEG stream: Ecstasy Into The Cosmic Inferno

Another AQ list, another Acid Mothers Temple. We've certainly said that before, and I'm sure we'll say it again! Along with the usual, "and hey, for a band that puts out an album every fortnight or so, they haven't let us down yet!" comment. A view that Just Another Band From The Cosmic Inferno does not dispel, so long as you're into the Electric Heavyland side of their output. Yep, this one's been billed as kind of a Comets On Fire styled blow-out, a distortion-filled freak fest of rock n' roll mayhem. And so it is, in the Electric Heavyland vein for sure. Two long songs (an exhausting/ecstatic 20 minutes followed by a grueling/godlike 44 minutes) full of riffing and leads and spacey effects and the pounding efforts of not one but two drummers! Fairly indulgent but that's what these guys are all about. And as some kind of nod to how many releases they have, this one comes wrapped in Stephen O'Malley graphics by the way, something that they amazingly enough haven't done before, even though the immediate effect of his design, since it's so striking and ubiquitous, is to make you think you've seen the disc already! By the way, the sticker on the front of this proclaims that this is the *debut* album from a brand NEW band. 'Cause it's AMT & The Cosmic Inferno, rather than the previous "& The Melting Paraiso UFO". You noticed that, right? And the line-up is different too, featuring new members Tabata Mitsuru (Zeni Geva, Boredoms, Leningrad Blues Machine), Shimura Koji (Miminokoto, High Rise, Mainliner, White Heaven) and Okano Futoshi (Subvert Blaze, Ghost, Cosmic Invention) alongside AMT stalwarts "dancin' king" Higashi Hiroshi and "speed guru" Kawabata Makoto...which means Atsushi Tsuyama is gone, but you'll find him still playing with Kawabata in the Acid Mothers Temple SWR band. With their many combined years of experience playing crazy psychedelic rock music, all these new AMT recruits certainly had no difficulty at all in generating the Cosmic Inferno of sound heard here. Probably could do it in their sleep, not that you could sleep through this, played properly loud! And of course, the Ektro-released Anthem Of The Space cd on the last AQ list was also from this new AMT & The Cosmic Inferno band, even if this is being billed as their debut. If we had to choose between the two (which true AMT fans would never do), we'd go with the (unfortunately out of stock at the moment tho!) Anthem one 'cause it's just the weighter of the two, gaining in effect from the length of its tracks and the repetition of its riffs where this one seems more like something we've heard before from Kawabata & Co., them just playing 'til the tape runs out 'cause they can. Not that most AMT fans would want to stop 'em sooner!

MPEG stream: Trigger In Trigger Out

We didn't know it would come out on cd yet here it is: Acid Mother's Temple playing Terry Riley's famed composition "In C", wherein the musicians are instructed to play a series of 53 repetitive sections over and over as long as they wish. Almost all the The original Eclipse-label LP version has been repressed as well (with better constructed covers than before) and is also in stock.

Ok then, here's the final volume of the Magical Power From Mars series from everybody's favorite uber-prolific space-psych masters Acid Mothers Temple. And like we say every time, but after so many releases, you would expect the quality to suffer, but it doesn't and this is as good as any other AMT release and if you love them or already have the first two volumes, you will obviously need this. We still have issues with the execution of the series: less than 20 minutes per disc (meaning all three volumes would fit on one disc) at $11 a pop, the same cover and disc artwork on all three volumes, etc...read more ranting about that in the review of volume two. But what does this volume sound like? Well, to be honest, this is our least favorite of the three, it's not bad really, just sounds sort of tossed off, a twenty minute ambient space-scape of swooshing, bleeping, blooping, analog-synthesisers-set-on-dreamy-spaciness, almost new-age, Hawkwind-intro-stretched-as-far-as-it-will-go effervescence. Nice, but just nice. And for you slowpokes we still have a few copies of volume 2 left. Like all three volumes, limited to 1000 copies!

RealAudio clip: Cosmic Funky Dolly

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. As if they didn't already have enough releases of their own, now Makoto Kawabata's Acid Mothers Temple have begun popping up on split releases with other bands -- recently with Kinski, and now with NY's Escapade. This should do wonders for Escapade's profile within the wider indie-rock community as they're a band definitely stuck in a geeky space/prog rock ghetto that most AMT fans probably don't venture into. A place where bands have names like... 'Escapade'! But Escapade are definitely better than their name. They occupy two lengthy tracks here, bookending an even longer, single contribution from everyone's favorite Japanese hippy freaks (well, second favorite maybe now that Ghost is back...) entitled "European Sun". It's a 28 minute drone-out doozy featuring electric sitar, violin, bamboo flute, voice and electronics. Minimalist repetition with ethnic and sci-fi synth frills. Meanwhile, Escapade's two tracks are slow-building spacerock synthfeasts, that fans of AMT, Kinski, Subarachnoid Space, Circle, and the like oughta dig.

MPEG stream: European Sun
MPEG stream: Transformation 2

These musically indulgent heavy-duty hippies from Japan, who have just been thru here on tour with Mammatus and blew the socks off all who seen 'em, have a new album out (hey, what else is new??). Going by the title of Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under The Stars, we can understand why whomever entered it into the online cd database that iTunes uses decided to classify its genre as New Age. But New Age this ain't, unless the new age is all about deafening yourself with tangled blasts of distorted FX-laden guitar and flailing drums, as heard on the opening track. Which, by the way, marks a new low in the already dubious AMT song-titling tradition -- it's called "Pussy Head Man From Outer Space"! Uh, ok. It's a brief 7:42 in length, giving way to the 22 minute track two, "Crystal Rainbow Pyramid", which is a bit calmer and maybe even, yes, New Agey though it's far from wimpy. Just a big ol' spacious tripped-out jam, pulsing pleasantly along, getting more and more freaky toward the end. A mere warm up for the third and final track, a REALLY long one, over 40 minutes of "Electric Psilocybin Flashback". You'll wonder where the time went. The first six or so minutes are an insistently strummed Amon Duul II style attack, drifting for a while into a space-jazz interlude (saxophone!!) before we're back to the aforementioned ADII-ish krautrockin', graced with some lovely female vox that do a spot-on Renate Knaup impersonation at times (that wavery, wordless high pitched thing). Wow. And there's more: stretches of placid folk and Eastern drone... yep, this one's a doozy, worth the price of admission alone, especially if you like Yeti by ADII, which we hope you do. Gotta say: another essential AMT purchase for any fan, and if you know someone into cosmic psych kraut stuff who isn't already into AMT (weird, but possible) then try playing track two or three here for 'em and see what they think!

MPEG stream: Electric Psilocybin Flashback
MPEG stream: Crystal Rainbow Pyramid

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Side A consists of two songs, entitled "Acid Milk Milky Way Also Jupiter 888" and "Rising From The Cool Fool Inferno". Side B is "Astrological Overdrive"...you get the idea. Japan's freakiest modern psych rock combo, with members of Mainliner/Musica Transonic/Toho Sara, Mandy Blue Heaven, and Omoide Hatoba, among others, brought their trippiness to the US of A not long ago and this lovely-looking double LP is the document. Although the record starts out trippy and spaced out, most of the record leans more toward the heavy psych of Mainliner or White Heaven.

There's a lot of stuff you could buy off this week's list - or any aQ list - that we describe as "psych" or "psychedelic". Psych's an overused descriptor for sure, but we could never be blamed for using it too much with regards to anything by these Japanese communal freaker-outers, the outrageously prolific ensemble known as Acid Mothers Temple (and the something something something or other, usually). Psych psych and more psych, if that's what you want that's what AMT have got! Here's the latest fix for AMT addicts (just give it a shot if you're not - what could go wrong?), and it's a dang good one if you like to hear 'em rock it and roll it. The first track lives up to its title "Space Speed Suicide" with some real dense psychedelic (there's that word) heavy guitar splurt n' skree. Track two "Skillful Grinning Skull" follows that up with some flute freakery, calming down into a lengthy, echoing, plodding groove, spaced-out all nice like with moaned and muttered vocals, that fans of Can should dig. AMT funk it up a bit on #3 with some hard edged urgent riffery amidst the FX & electronics swirl. The gargled vocals get intense too. That one's called "Born Free Stone Free", and that being the case, they're quite willing to put some Buddhist drone in a free jazz zone on the next track, "Escape Horoscopes". It's loose and tangled at the same time, going forwards and back in bits and blurts and blasts. Ok, ok, we'll stop with the track-by-track commentary (there's a couple more, including an epic grand finale) or we're bound to use the word psychedelic again. Suffice to say the rest of the record is equally out there, wild and wooly - including one that's an extremely damaged "blues". Once again, AMT deliver the hallucinogenic, higher-than-thou "hard rock" in their inimitable fashion. Anyone who picked up our recent Record Of The Week pick by Makoto Kawabata's Mainliner, might wanna check this out too and see where Kawabata's been flying the AMT mothership lately. Digipack cd or double lp gatefold vinyl, the latter limited to 1000 copies.

One could be excused for thinking that a new cd from Acid Mothers Temple might be surplus to requirements... yet, while that's for each individual to determine, it must also be said that prolific as these Japanese psych purveyors are (and this isn't even the only new AMT we have, there's another that's a collaboration with Italian band Stearica), there's been nary a dud in their discography. This one is probably a must for serious fans, since it's devoted to their longtime live staple, an extended track entitled "Pink Lady Lemonade". They've recorded it before, but this is intended as the definitive version. Presented here in four distinct parts, the total piece over 66 minutes long. It's quite a trip, with repetitive chiming guitar, freeform freakouts, sci-fi sound FX, and lots of droned-out whoosh... another endless hour and then some, trance-time well spent with the Acid Mothers! Nice packaging/design, in a colorful digipack, the cover art oriented in sideways fashion.

MPEG stream: Part I
MPEG stream: Part III

Are they? After all, how much of an experiment can it be after you've made, like, several hundred albums? Is it still an experiment the 1,000th time you do it? Though we can usually guess at the results of any "experiment" by this prolific Japanese hippie psych outfit, it's not like we don't want to hear that sound of theirs again and again and again. However, this time 'round it DOES seem that they're going a little further out than usual, and the title isn't simply an excuse for cover graphics parodying the Jimi Hendrix album... The eleven tracks found here are pretty weird, many taking a kitchen sink sound collage approach that just might incorporate everything from blown out freek guitar scramble (of course), to acoustic flute folk, to echoing sound FX, to chaotic cocktail jazz, to garbled electronics and tape manipulations. Not necessarily nothin' they haven't done before, but not quite like this. It comes closer to some early Boredoms stuff or even Hanatarash cut-ups than it does the extended jam-outs of most AMT releases. So yeah, they are experimental. And successfully so, in our pseudoscientific opinion. At least, we found this quite intriguing/entertaining. Welcome to the Acid Mothers Laboratory!

MPEG stream: Wired Stinky Pussy Luver
MPEG stream: Close Encounters Of The Electric Spirits
MPEG stream: Goodbye Big Asshole Emmanuelle

It's taken 6 years, but finally, one of our favorite Acid Mothers Temple records is available again, with fancy new artwork and lots of extra music! Originally released as the first (and only) installment in tUMULt's aborted picture disc series, 41st Century Splendid Man still ranks as one of AMT's finest moments as far as we're concerned. This stuff comes from WAY before these Japanese avant-hippy heroes began pumping out a brand new release every few weeks. When this psychbomb dropped, these guys were still cloaked in mystery, some fucked up weirdo psychrock commune whose sound was as mysterious and indescribable as whatever strange corner of the universe these guys and gals called home. The sound is epic and tripped out and druggy, blown out and blissfully psychedelic, AMT at their absolute prime, and one of the tracks features special guest star Tatsuya Yoshida of the Ruins! The original was three extended tracks (35 + minutes) of ultra divine transcendental psych-drone. "41st Century Splendid Man" has to be the most beautiful track AMT have ever recorded. Uncharacteristically tranquil and captivatingly beautiful. Droning, shimmering chimes coalesce into some sort of cosmic Ur-drone, punctuated by simple caveman thuds and epic swooshes, resulting in a grand and gorgeous ambience! The other two tracks from the original 12", "Genesis Of Humanity" and "Dalai Gama", are almost like a single track separated into two movements. The first sees AMT back on more familiar ground, with swooping synths and freak out guitar. A stumbling kosmic krautrock, with motorik rhythms and free guitar, amidst a swampy wash of rumbling low end and squealing synths. The track erupts into bubbling atonal out-rock exploration splattered with mad scientist synthesisers as the whole thing slowly mutates into 'cosmic slop' of the nth degree, becoming gradually free-er and free-er. The second 'movement' is all slithery free jazz with bubbling cauldrons of synth sputter, wild keyboards and Can-like rhythms until the whole thing gets all dreamy, eventually blissing out completely. For this cd reissue, from Brazilian label Essence, there are two extra tracks tacked on that perfectly compliment the three originals. The cd opener, "Ruck Zuck", is an unhinged Hawkwind style heart of the sun, black hole freaked out space jam, a motorik krautrock groove, buried in FX and clouds of shimmer and skree, strange squealing vocals, streaks of feedback and dense swaths of whir and bloop and bleep. The disc closes with the bizarrely titled "Hell Eskimo Or Polyhedral Mu", a 14 plus minute abstract ambient epic, that twists and contorts, slithers and creeps, beginning as a full on brain melting drug jam eventually transforming into a blissy jazzy post rocky slither that floats hypnotically through glistening clouds of glimmer and shimmer and sparkle, a super nova dappled interstellar drift that sounds a bit like a more damaged psychedelic Necks. Fuck yeah. Super gorgeous deluxe packaging, a full color Stoughton style paste on gatefold, with the original cover art subtly altered on the cover (sorry, no naked ladies) and some awesome psychedelic liner notes on the inside. And just to avoid any collector confusion, the notes mention the original 41st AMT being a 10", but as mentioned above it was in fact a picture disc 12"! This cd reissue, while not nearly as limited as the 12", is still limited, this time to only 1000 COPIES! WAY WAY WAY recommended!!

MPEG stream: 41st Century Splendid Man
MPEG stream: Hell Eskimo Or Polyhedral Mu

The out of print, year 2000 vinyl-only double LP release from everyone's favorite Japanese communal hippy band finally makes it to compact disc! Two compact discs, actually, which makes room for 44 minutes of bonus track action!! Kawabata Makoto, Cotton Casino,

RealAudio clip: Supernal Infinite Space
RealAudio clip: Stone Stoner
RealAudio clip: Magic Aum Rock

[ aquarius records catalogue — A ]