*Acid Mothers Alert* *Acid Mothers Alert* *Accccidd...Moowaaaaa....whrwhrwhrwhrrrrrr...* Oops, better replace the batteries in that thing. Our Acid Mothers alert siren is getting worn out by the pace of this Japanese psych commune's ridiculously prolific output. But as always, we're not complaining.
Acid Motherly Love, boasting both naked ladies (2) and UFOs (1) in the front cover photo, has a LOT going on, it's a delirious mishmash of wild wah wah psych throb, absurd exotica chant, druggy tomfoolery, and paranoid drones. The influence of bassist and "cosmic joker" Atsushi Tsuyama seems strong on Acid Motherly Love, it's got more goofy eccentricies even than usual, reminding us a bit of old stuff by Tsuyama's other band, Omoide Hatoba. Especially puzzling is the inclusion of what sound like weird spoken word samples in a male American voice (Rod McKuen??) which, after perusing the liner notes, we figure is probably the contribution of guest "king of beer" Stoo Odom (of Graves Brothers Deluxe and Subarachnoid Space). We confirmed this with a quick internet search, which turned up an admission of guilt in the midst of Mr. Odom's Graves Brothers Japan Tour Diary, wherein it is also revealed that he was told this new AMT album has "something to do with the Plastic Ono Band and a sperm cell that fails". Hmm.
To wrap up, we must say, as much as we like the music, ol' AMT has really reached a nadir in the song-title dep't. This one's got typical head scratchers like "Astro Elvis E.S.P." and "Johnny Johnny Jerusalem", but also a 20 minute, 3-part suite entitled "Douchebag" (part b of which is called "Sometime In Your Pussy"). Well, we bet they were laffing it up around the bong when they came up with these... but it sounds like they're actually chanting "Douchebag" during that track, did they really have to do that?
D'you think that back when psychedelic-guru-to-be Kawabata Makoto first started growing a beard, he ever thought he'd release quite so very many albums? Heck we've reviewed more releases by his band Acid Mothers Temple than any other artist EVER. (We should check on that, but it's probably true.) Yet each AMT album still seems like a bit of an event, with cosmic significance.
What's special about this new one? Well, aside from having the dubiously excellent invented word "Astrorgasm" in its title, it features the dulcet tones of singer Cotton Casino, a big fave of many AMT fans, back after a long absence from the band. She sings sweetly over the spaced-out sounds on offer here, which range from the quietly folky, to full-on freakout action.
There's four looong tracks, a side of vinyl apiece (it's a double lp, alternatively available as a really long cd)
Track one is a new version of their "Dark Star Blues", previously heard on 2002's Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs?, the "Dark Star" reference making us think about just how much AMT has become a (cool) Grateful Dead for a certain segment of underground music hipsterdom, the band ironically embracing/encouraging the comparison (and why not, it's not a bad business model). This song starts off as one of the folky ones, with a stately, vaguely Middle Eastern feel, but builds up and erupts into acid guitar wailin' before too long. That's followed by the delicate dronery of track 2, "Pleasure Mantra Of Sorrows", with swooshing (and sometimes intense) electronics sounding like field recordings of birds atwitter or insects abuzz. Lovely.
Lovely, too, and repetitively mesmeric, is track 3, "Kiss In The Tangerine Dream House", which subtly segues into total guitar freakout. Then there's the final, title track, an "astrorgasm" indeed, with krauty propulsion and even more noisy freakout guitar, getting into extreme Mainliner or Musica Transonic territory. Something for everyone, who's a Kawabata (or Cotton Casino fan), in other words.
Super limited (500 copies worldwide, we got about 20) double live album recorded in London in 2004 from the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. packaged in a plain white sleeve with a photocopied insert like the classic old Stones and Zeppelin bootleg lps and pressed on gorgeous opaque white / red / black / brown swirled vinyl. This is supposedly the final release for the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. incarnation of AMT, and what a way to go, four sides of deliriously spacey and fully freaked out psychedelic Ur-rock, from kaleidoscopic bursts of druggy space rock, to long stretches of almost meditative otherworldy drone, haunting chants, bizarre soaring operatic trills, pulsing relentless dirges, and wild free epic OUT THERE musical explorations, all drenched in swirling distorted guitars and clouds of hazy psych rock splatter. Very lo-fi recording, it all sounds like maybe it was recorded with one mic, set right in the middle of the room, but it just makes the whole thing sound that much more immediate and chaotic and furious and alive. Again, VERY LIMITED, when these are gone they are gone for good.
Y'know, if we somehow kept EVERY Acid Mothers Temple (or AMT related) release in stock, we'd have to move to a bigger store! Perhaps we'd be forced to annex the bead shop next door (that would be cool) and then somehow fit several miles of additional shelving in there. One could peruse the endless aisles of this expanded, comprehensive Acid Mothers Temple section on foot, but that would be tiring. Probably it would be a better idea if we installed a moving sidewalk, or invested in a fleet of those motorized, up-right Segway scooters for customers to use. Each equipped with a very large basket, of course. But that's not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, we'll have to be realistic and simply maintain a small selection of our AMT faves, and of course stock their new releases as they (ahem) trickle in. Such as this one!
Have You Seen The Other Side Of The Sky? is Ace Fu's follow-up to AMT's excellent Gong-tribute Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno, but unlike that fairly focused record this is more of a psychedelic smorgasbord of all the usual, unusual AMT ingredients -- spacey shortwave transmissions, one-legged flute freakery, acoustic folk balladry a la Ghost, goofy song titles, droning fake ragas, throat singing, heavy fuzzed-out mayhem, and more... all good stuff we like! Well, except for the goofy song titles ("Asimo's Naked Breakfast: Rice and Shrine"? "I Wanna Be Your Bicycle Saddle"?).
There's six diverse tracks here, including a killer half-hour epic, that all really deliver on the established AMT aesthetic. Fans will be pleased. And even though our building plans for an Acid Mothers Temple dedicated wing of Aquarius Records remain a pipe dream, we'll certainly make space for this particular AMT release in our crowded racks for the foreseeable future, it's a good one!
The heavily lauded, AQ fave, psychedelic hippie Japanese collective led by Makoto Kawabata now graces us with two excellent side-long pieces on this LP-only release. The first is a well-executed version of Terry Riley's famous conceptual composition "In
That said, we have a bone to pick with the packaging of this album. If you're going to fetishize a band (and let's face it Acid Mothers Temple is the fetish band of the moment), then for heavens sake do the packaging right! It's not bad looking, just shoddily constructed. Eclipse pressed the album on impressively weighty vinyl, and it boasts commendably pretty artwork, but unfortunately the gatefold cover is printed on glossy yet flimsy cardstock that doesn't fold right, will not lay flat, and is already coming apart at the seams. Furthermore, there's only one LP but two empty compartments in the sleeve, making for an inevitable small disappointment when said empty sleeve doesn't even have an insert or anything. Sigh. Of course, it would have cost more to do the packaging better, but for the $17 we have to charge for this you think Eclipse could have afforded it! Oh well, maybe they didn't know that it was going to turn out so poorly. And packaging aside, this *is* a great AMT album.
It's really hard to keep up with these guys. We love pretty much everything they do, but they are quite possibly one of the most prolific bands around, and it can get frustrating, trying to take it all in, and sometimes that frustration can manifest itself as not giving a shit, which would be a shame, cuz whenever we find ourselves not giving a shit, and we manage to overcome that reaction, we are always totally blown away by the magical musical mysteries these guys are capable of conjuring up.
In O To Infinity marks two milestones of sorts for the bands, and for fans, one is the return of Cotton Casino to the fold, the other is the group's musical progression from their seminal cover of Terry Riley's "In C", the band figuring that the denotation of a specific key is mostly arbitrary, thus we have these 4 extended sonic explorations, each in their own key, those 'keys' being 'O', 'A', 'Z' and of course 'Infinity'.
And as much as we love all the different facets of AMT, this might be our favorite, their blissed out cosmic space drift, long form dronescapes, otherworldly kosmiche ambience, lush clouds of swirling effects, muted churning rhythms, guitars transformed into mysterious noisemakers, long tones layered and intertwined, the swoop of processed backwards sounds, but heck, this is AMT, so the do end up rocking out, launching into a propulsive krautrock groove, jamming away within that constantly swirling and shifting cloud of swirling psychedelia.
"In A" is all chants and grunts and weird vocalizations, some sort of alien ritual, performed in yet another cloud of shimmering drones and grinding muted hiss, a demonic barnyard emitting mewls and squeaks and groans, all bathed in reverb and delay, building to a dizzying outer space swirl. "In Z" is a futuristic freak out of strange bleeps and bloops, laid over some sort of abstract cosmic jazz drift, subtly rhythmic, but way free, a shimmering fog of glistening electronics and malfunctioning effects, which gets downright crunchy and chaotic near the end.
And finally, "In Infinity", which contrary to what we were expecting, is the most 'rock' of the bunch, a wild sprawling avant jazz, space rock, future funk groove that goes on and on and on, a motorik beat, underpinning wild electronic squiggles, woozy synths and organs, all manner of tangled instrumental freakout, culminating in a total heart of the sun, bleary eyed prismatic sonic blowout.
Another AMT winner, to add to that dedicated shelf in your house that by now must be bowing beneath the weight of the previous hundred or so winners. Regardless, WAY recommended.
One of our favorite Acid Mothers Temple records available again thanks to the kind folks at Swordfish. Originally released on the band's own label and long out of print (we reviewed it originally way back in 2000), this new version is ultimately the same with a few minor alterations, different liner notes, now in a jewel case instead of a cardboard sleeve, but it's the music that matters, and the music is mind blowing.
Ivan Piskov's Wild Gals A Go-Go was these Japanese space travellers' third album and is jam packed with freaked out avant-hippy insanity. "Tumultuous psychedelic trip sound...Potentially massive frontal lobe damage. Real punch-drunk music!" is what it says inside. And that's pretty right on. Ultra epic psychedelic guitars blown into fuzzy druggy psychedelic space rock madness that we can never seem to get enough of.
This pretends to be a soundtrack to a supposed "psych-nonsense" film by alleged "Russian mondo film" director Ivan Piskov, but we're pretty sure that's all a put on. Regardless, check it out, especially if you need your fix of outerspacepsychrock!!
Previously released as an LP on the Eclipse label long ago in 2000, then on cd by Swordfish in 2001 with 2 bonus tracks, this album has been out of print for some time now, which is a shame 'cause we always want to recommend it to folks looking for the AMT essentials. Thankfully now at last Swordfish has repressed it!
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!
Here's another digital document to add to your sagging shelf of Acid Mothers Temple releases! Kawabata Makoto & co.'s brand of Japanese psychedelic hippy freak rock excess is presented here live (i.e. totally in their element) with great sound. Wild and wooly rockin', featuring two drummers for maximum pounding overdrive. The air the drummers churn up teems with spacey sci-fi synth phaser sound fx, acid flashback guitar riffage and some cosmic vocalizations. Monks with bells seem to enter the stage at one point, before AMT kicks into a fuzzed out Blue Cheerish monster jam...this actually occurs a couple times during the 40+ minutes of the disc's final, third track "La Novia ~ Speed Guru". They also do live fave "In E" (track 2) and a kinda mellow eight minute intro (track 1). Wish we'd been there, but this is the next best thing. Originally released as a limited cd-r on the Acid Mothers Temple's own label, now reissued in the States by Eclipse in probably equally limited numbers. We've only got a few...
This long out of print slab of heavy Japanese psych from aQ faves Acid Mothers Temple (or more accurately, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.), originally released on vinyl, via the Detector label, WAY back in 2000, is one of a handful of new reissues from Brazilian label Essence (along with two Circle cds, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), and is presented in a super swank mini-lp style gatefold sleeve, with the original sound of the lp, totally remastered, and revved up, heard for the first time the way it was meant to be heard. 'Cause according to the band, the guy who originally mastered the vinyl said the sound was "too heavy" to be mastered for vinyl, hence the sub par sound. And while the cd version definitely does sound better, it's still plenty murky and muddy and lo-fi, raw and in the red, with the band a wild chaotic squall of psychedelic sound, with lots of buzz and feedback, you can hear people in the audience talking here and there, the band offers up some funny between song banter, all of that non musical stuff woven into some of the band's fiercest rocking ever.
The record starts off all drifty and shimmery, the band unfurling lush layers of whirling sound, wreathed in clouds of sci-fi swoops and bleeps, it doesn't take long for them to launch into it, and they never let up. Channeling High Rise and White Heaven and all the Japanese psych greats that came before, Kawabata Makoto and company tear it up, the guitars a constant barrage of wild Hendrixian blow outs, and tangled sprays of furious shred, the drums pound desperately in the background, the bass is nothing more than a low end thrum, and EVERYTHING is doused in effects, rendering all the sounds washed out and woozy and druggy. Occasionally the band do lock into some more krautrock like grooves, and its then that the bass comes to the fore and definitely drives the group, but most of Live In Occident is spent in full of freaked out psych-noise blow out mode, sounding like a modern version of the avant Japanese jazz noise of folks like Takayanagi, albeit run through a million fuzz pedals and transmitted from the furthest reaches of the galaxy.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
*Acid Mothers Temple Alert!*
Only the second AMT album to be released by UK's Riot Season label (the first being 2004's Minstrel In The Galaxy) but, oh, maybe the ten thousandth AMT album overall, right? But we're beginning to think that if AMT were to stop (or even slow down) releasing records, the Universe might end. It just could be that it's their continual championing/channelling of the '70s psychedelic krautrock freakout sound, with their typical overload of druggy electronics and crazy guitars and seductive space whispers, that's keeping the great Cosmic pulse from petering out. Certainly there's enough energy on Myth Of The Love Electrique to power a cosmos or two. This is one of those all-bases-covered AMT releases, with the band utterly rockin' and kicking out the jams on two of the four lengthy tracks here, "The Man From Giacobinid Meteor Comet" and "Love Electrique", while also mellowing out for the acoustic-kraut-folk-drone mystery of "Five Dimensional Nightmare" and a beyond-blissful 20+ minute version of live staple "Pink Lady Lemonade (May I Drink You Once Again)?"
Yep, thanks to albums like this, you can count on the Universe not crapping out anytime soon. A very worthy AMT effort indeed.
More weirdness from our favorite Japanese avant-hippy musical commune. Starting off with some heavy, throbbing electric psych jamming ("Psycho Buddha"), and then calming down into the folky drone-chant of "Space Age Ballad", this disc promises to be as
This essential document of Acid Mothers Temple's early years is finally released on vinyl. Nice and thick and in a gorgeous gatefold with a bonus track, the side long 'Blue Velvet Blues Coda'. This record starts with AMT at their most rocking, dreamy
If Acid Mothers Temple overload hasn't caught up with you yet (what? never!) then we've got something you'll want: ANOTHER new and, let's face it, quite excellent album from Kawabata Makoto and freaky friends, this one coming to us courtesy of Circle bassist Jussi Lehtisalo's Ektro imprint in Finland!
First off, look closely -- the cover's not a Sgt. Pepper's homage at all, but a Frank Zappa one. Then, start listening. From fx-laden spaced-out rock jams with witchy Ono-esque female vocal babble to entrancingly beautiful acoustic folk psych to *more* spaced-out jams to angular no-wavy guitar pop improv instrumentals to gonzo rock n' roll tributes to just plain weird vocals-and-effects interludes, this runs the gamut of AMT indulgences. Seventy plus minutes of Hawkwind-meets-Boredoms madness, with punning titles like "Man On The Holy Mountain" and "Porks' Bomb In Aztec part.O"! All the synth swirls and zaps on here make this sound a bit like a cheesy radio commerical (minus the voice that would be announcing a monster truck rally), a kitschy reference that these pro wrestling lovin' hippies would certainly embrace!
So, yet another cosmic, fun-filled trip to the Temple. If we had to choose, maybe we'd give the edge to last week's AMT release "Univers Zen Ou De Zero A Zero" (for being somewhat less, how shall we say, confusing), but who has to choose?
Once again Japan's Acid Mothers Temple return (as they do it seems with almost the regularity of the sunrise/sunset), delivering another spaced out opus of psychedelic splurge, wowing us again with -both- the quantity, and quality, of their output.
And yet, Makoto Kawabata & Co. manage to surprise us with this one, at least when opening track "Chinese Flying Saucer" first kicks in. Check it out, AMT sound a heck of lot like early Led Zeppelin here, or more precisely, like Zep meets Hawkwind, as the 12 minute long track - bound to be a live favorite - rocks onwards up into Flying Saucer land.
That out of their system, the rest of the disc keeps the electronic Hawkwindy FX a-swirl, but mellows out away from the heavy rock riffage towards more of a hazy, shimmering, backporch-of-the-commune folky vibe. "Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn" in fact reminds us a lot of those other Japanese hippies, Ghost, especially in the acid jabbering vocal dep't. The tracks "Chakra 24" (short) and "Shine On You Crazy Dynamite" (long) are similarly trippy and blissful.
But then, there's the album-closing cut "Electric Death Mantra" which pretty much describes itself with its title, except that title won't tell you that, by the end of the track, AMT work themselves into a very much Middle Eastern sounding frenzy, like they've been listening to a lot of vintage Turkish psych, a la Mogollar and Erkin Koray.
So, from its pastiche of Zep beginning to its dervish-like ending, and all the trippiness in-between, another fine addition to anyone's AMT collection.
One of Japanese hippy rock impresario Makoto Kawabata's more blissful exercises now makes the all-so-appropriate jump from compact disc to vinyl. As with Eclipse's vinyl version of AMT's "Pataphysical Freak Out MU!!", we're faced with bonus material, the title track in fact. Plus the record is pressed on 180 gram vinyl, and it's in a swank gatefold package. Deluxe in other words.
Here's what we had to say about the original cd version of this album, released on PSF in 2000:
The night before recording this album Father Moo (aka Kawabata Makoto) took his handmaidens and lackeys on a lysergic excursion of metaphysical proportions. We'll spare you the details of the trip (as most acid recollections have little literary worth). Nevertheless, "Troubadours From Another Heavenly World" is the result of said trip, leaving the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO nursing a collective hangover resulting from too little sleep and too many chemicals. With sore muscles that have never been sore before, they vaguely recall making an album of lugubrious psych rock, like a really good Bardo Pond record, that oozes out thick walls of mellow cosmic jams and half conscious female vocals. Certainly not as incendiary and crazy as some previous Acid Mothers Temple recordings, but this provides some worthy psychedelic exploration nonetheless.
France's Fractal label gets into the Acid Mothers Temple game with this eagerly-awaited new album (we're told it's only their sixth studio effort, though we didn't actually count 'em ourselves). "Univers Zen Ou De Zero A Zero" starts off with some over the top heavy psych wankery (entitled "Electric Love Machine") that might be leftover from their Electric Heavyland sessions, but as with most AMT releases, you never know what's coming next! Track two marks a shift into more mellow pastures, as Cotton Casino's dreamy voice, acoustic instruments, and gentle synth washes make for a nice interlude, before some seriously droned-out howl comes in on the very next track ("Blues Pour Bible Noire") to hammer you for 20 or so minutes. Later in the disc there's another epic 20+ minute track of medieval psych ("Soleil de Cristal et Lune d'Argent") with Cotton singing/chanting over some lovely Amon Duulish drone rock, worth the price of admission alone. We've really got to admit, that despite their prolific output, Kawabata & Co. rarely disappoint, and this is yet another quite good Acid Mothers Temple release!
Note for serious AMT otaku: there's an unlisted bonus track that we think is the first studio version of their crazy vocal bit "God Bless Acid Mothers Temple", while the disc's very first track features a guest solo from Hiroshi Narazaki (former guitarist of Japanese '70s psych legends Les Rallizes DÈnudÈs).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Uh, ok, AMT-heads, bewarned, this is expensive. REALLY freaking expensive. We're not sure why, I mean, it's imported from France (though, it's not like it's made out of wine), and there's eight sides of vinyl here, and it looks great and all, but $73? Then again, try buying this on eBay a few years hence. And, Univers Zen Ou De Zero A Zero is, by our reckoning and others, one of Kawabata & Co.'s best albums. Furthermore, this deluxe vinyl edition comes with a whole additional LP's worth of live (in Europe 2002) material, previously unreleased. We've got three in stock. You do the math and make your purchasing decisions accordingly. And in case you need it, here's our review of the cd version:
France's Fractal label gets into the Acid Mothers Temple game with this eagerly-awaited new album (we're told it's only their sixth studio effort, though we didn't actually count 'em ourselves). Univers Zen Ou De Zero A Zero starts off with some over the top heavy psych wankery (entitled "Electric Love Machine") that might be leftover from their Electric Heavyland sessions, but as with most AMT releases, you never know what's coming next! Track two marks a shift into more mellow pastures, as Cotton Casino's dreamy voice, acoustic instruments, and gentle synth washes make for a nice interlude, before some seriously droned-out howl comes in on the very next track ("Blues Pour Bible Noire") to hammer you for 20 or so minutes. Later in the disc there's another epic 20+ minute track of medieval psych ("Soleil de Cristal et Lune d'Argent") with Cotton singing/chanting over some lovely Amon Duulish drone rock, worth the price of admission alone. We've really got to admit, that despite their prolific output, Kawabata & Co. rarely disappoint, and this is yet another quite good Acid Mothers Temple release!
Note for serious AMT otaku: there's an unlisted bonus track that we think is the first studio version of their crazy vocal bit "God Bless Acid Mothers Temple", while the disc's very first track features a guest solo from Hiroshi Narazaki (former guitarist of Japanese '70s psych legends Les Rallizes D�nud�s).
Japanese avant-psychedelic heavy freakout band, a hippy tribe led by Makoto Kawabata. If you like his work in Toho Sara, Musica Transonic, and Mainliner, you shan't be disappointed with this. It starts into a seemingly-endless energy trance-groove ala Boredoms "Super Roots 5," but before it's over your mind will also be blown by all kinds of other kosmische weirdness.
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*
Whew, glad that still works. It's been XXX since the last AMT cd, Journey Into The Cosmic Inferno, after all. We were getting worried. (Though, we did have a dvd from them on the last list...). But never fear, AMT is here, again. Actually, AMT is probably out on tour somewhere in the world, and this new cd is more product for their groaning merch table. Ensconced inside a package boasting swank Seldon Hunt cover artwork, you get three new, long, studio recorded tracks, with (as usual) fairly absurd titles. Try these on for size: "Phantom Utopia Or Suicidal Star Warriors", "Cosmic Soul Death Disco", and "Stargate Of The Hell"!!
When the 22 minute track one starts off, you'll be like, woah, heavy. It's a ploddingly paced, lumbering grey grinding dirge, claustrophobically encumbered with swirling, spaced out FX. Definitely in the AMT tradition, and not far from the SUNNO)))-like heaviness of their Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness album earlier this year. The second track, however, while equally awash in FX, and just as amped in the guitar dep't, is more of a rocker, throbbing (and babbling, there's vox on this one) a bit like Circle, on their way down the rabbit hole. Kawabata's acid rock guitar dances (or does battle) for the duration with the synthy zips and zaps swooping about, it's another long (29 minute), loud trip indeed.
After all this glorious sprawling psychedelic mayhem, what do we get for a coda? A concentrated dose of the same! The third and final track is a mere 5 minutes but crams in even more frantic FX and acidic guitar squiggle, before the final 30 seconds or so reminds us what bliss a simple vibrating hiss can be, as it fades out and leaves the listener waiting for their next transmission. This one, though, is good for many more spins as well, in fact it's practically spinning by itself even when not in the cd player due to all the cosmic chaos contained within it.
*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Of sorts... for, despite the name, this is not exactly the same Acid Mothers Temple by whom you already have a dozen albums. AMT & The Pink Ladies Blues, unlike AMT & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. or AMT & The Cosmic Inferno, doesn't feature Kawabata Makoto! Yet this is one of the best AMT releases we've heard in a while (and it's not like we didn't like Starless & Bible Black or Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno, either). AMT & The Pink Ladies Blues is a trio consisting of guitarist Magic Aum Gigi (whose solo LP MMMM we also have in stock, though it's not been reviewed on our site yet), drummer Mai Mai, and guitarist Tsuchy, presumably all members of the extended Acid Mothers Temple communal family.
AMT always can be counted on to indulge in an orgy of FX-overloaded heavy guitar jamming when desired, and THIS Acid Mothers Temple, even without the presence of Kawabata, definitely live up to that reputation! A goodly part of this is primitive, fucked up, bluesy, choppy, podding clangor, heavy and damaged like they're trying to outdo krautrock obscurities Zippo Zetterlink in that dep't. Opening track, the 19 minute "Sandoza Death Blues" sets the tone: utterly raw geetar/drums/electronics (Magic Aum Gigi and Mai Mai being both credited with thermin) riff-stomp, with weird drop outs and/or edits (??). Bearing a dedication to the late great Link Wray, this album knows how to "Rumble"! But they have their blissful space-out side too...
Aside from two brief interludes of ambience and effects, the tracks on this 72 minute album are all lengthy jams. The longest at over 28 minutes is called "Freaks Your Mind & Your LSD Piss Will Follow". Geez, those psychedelic punsters! Ain't that a VERY Acid Mothers Temple title, though? They liked it so much they chant it a bunch, which while unfortunate fails to detract from the enjoyable Brainticket-style bad trip they conjured with this track.
We kinda wish that they hadn't included "Acid Mothers Temple" in the band name, which could cause this to be overlooked amidst past, present and future massive AMT output. This supreme lysergically inspired rock dementia deserves its own designation! Though it also fits in perfectly with the AMT aesthetic that's for sure.
Before you go, geez ANOTHER Acid Mothers Temple album alreddy?? remember that this AMT isn't that AMT. Acid Mothers Temple & The Pink Ladies Blues is a totally different band, in fact, one of the members of this trio isn't even Japanese, he's the French guy who runs Fractal. But that doesn't stop him (or them) from sounding like they should all be wearing big Makoto Kawabata beards! Their music's definitely THAT hairy. This second album of theirs, The Soul Of A Mountain Wolf, is all about heavy and droning riffage. It's like "Rumble" on LSD. All-instrumental, nothin' but far-out guitar wailin' action, supported by pounding drums and bass. Any AMT fan, of any AMT, is gonna be pleased. One thing though, this isn't that long of a cd. "Sandoza Death Blues" from their debut was almost as long as this whole disc, which is just under 20 minutes total. Hmmm. But it's good stuff, if blown-out, acid-fried bluesy psych geetar stomp is your thing!! Ain't it??
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
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.
Collector-types might want to pick up this one first, as it's a limited-to-600 copies vinyl only release, probably not long for this world. Recorded live at an Austin radio station in collaboration with Texas psych-minimalists Ultrasound, this AMT record is definitely on the wonderfully spacey side. Ultrasound lay the foundation, a dark and droning Stars Of The Lid-like rumble, throbbing and pulsing, while AMT show great restraint, weaving a sweet tapestry of melancholy, sun-dappled, gentle lilting gypsy folk. Things get a little more intense on the b-side as both groups' sounds coalesce into a propulsive slab of murky neo-Krautrock.
Clear 10" vinyl, with no labels, packaged in "invisible" 100 percent inkless sleeves (with dry letterpressed transparent film covers).
Split single from two AQ faves that by now, if you're a reader of this list you are quite familiar with. You get a burst of fuzzed out, spaced out extraterrestrial Japanese mayhem from AMT ("The Tombstone Phantom Drifter") and a blast of droning, hypnotic krautrock-inspired Finnish ur-rock from Circle ("Riemukaari"). Only a few in stock.
*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Heck, Acid Mothers Temple overload! Essence Music of Brazil has brought us not one but TWO Acid Mothers Temple discs this week: the expanded reissue of 41st Century Splendid Man originally released as a picture disc on Andee's tUMULt label, and also this brand new album. Well AMT fans are always ready for more product, aren't they? Better be! 'Cause the cosmic vibes of which Makoto Kawabata and friends are but the earthly vessels for are not waiting for you to pay off those student loans or get that raise... No, they mean to be heard NOW and probably again next week, even if their devotees need to start selling their plasma to keep up with AMT's releases. If you have to choose between paying the rent and picking up another AMT cd like this one, we're confident you'll make the right choice. And if it makes you feel any better, this IS a pretty great AMT album! Great song titles too, and we're not being sarcastic: "Na Na Hey Hey From The Cosmic Inferno", "Nipples In The Dream Woods", and "Golem Rock" are but three of 'em. These Japanese neo-kraut psychedelic voyagers offer up the jams to go with such titles, that's for sure. If AMT's Electric Heavyland is one of your faves, this ought to be right up your acid rock alley.
The disc opens with the wild, wah-wahed guitar excess of "Ecstasy In Hell" and really never lets up, pounding on through the nearly 19-minute "Nipples...", spacey fx in full effect. A darkly droned-out detour is however taken on the next 17 minute track, "Omen Amen", kind of a ceremonial-sounding, folky trance ritual, followed for the next 13 minutes by the riff-repetition of "Dark Side Of The Apocalypse", sounding something like a hypothetical Hawkwind / Les Rallizes Denudes summit. That brings us to "Golem Rock", a garagey number that cranks up the FUZZ big time. And then "Na Na Hey Hey..." provides a surprisingly quiet, spaced-out, and sorta silly coda to the whole thing, with electronically effected voices chanting you know what...
And this gets extra bonus points for the awesome packaging, the miniature LP-styled gatefold sleeve opening up to reveal a rad pop-up book style gimmick inside!
Japan's Acid Mothers Temple posse is laying their cards on the table with this one. With that title, which references both King Crimson and Black Sabbath, and the album cover, which sees AMT leader Kawabata Makoto standing in for the mysterious woman on the front of the first Black Sabbath album, they're paying tribute to two bands they love and also raising our expectations to perhaps unattainable levels, 'cause we love those bands too. I mean, are they REALLY gonna do the spirit of the Sabs and KC justice on this disc? Well being AMT I guess we shouldn't take them all that seriously. And no, they don't cover either band here or even end up sounding much like them. But this IS a pretty darn heavy and freaked out AMT album (moreso than usual, that is!). Kinda along the lines of their Electric Heavyland opus released a few years back on the same label, Starless And Bible Black Sabbath is a monster jam of epic, amped-up proportions that seems more like a tribute to heavy Hawkwind or maybe Monster Magnet than the two bands alluded to by the title. And that's fine by us! Kawabata isn't a riffmeister like Tony Iommi anyway, nor do his albums usually attain the level of compositional complexity for which King Crimson were noted. But both Sabbath and Crimson had their improvisational sides as well (better known in KC's case but definitely a big part of early Sabbath too) and that's perhaps what's inspiring the always jam-ready AMT here! You get two tracks, "Starless And Bible Black Sabbath" being a mammoth, mostly instrumental 34 and a half minute workout full of plodding, heavy riffage and gibbering gobs of spaced out FX. Again, although one bit reminds us of Sabbath's "Children Of The Grave", this could just as easily be a tribute to Hawkwind or Guru Guru or even Soundgarden (isn't that the "Outshined" riff in there?), but whatever, it's the sort of cosmic, crushing chaos which we love from Kawabata and Co., and would be the perfect AMT track to attract fans of bands like Electric Wizard and Ufomammut. Though exhausting enough by itself, they don't stop with that, as a second, six minute track -- the sloppy, speedy, frenzied "Woman From A Hell" -- finishes off the album like the Pink Fairies in a race with the devil. Dunno, even though we had our doubts 'cause of the cheekiness of the title/cover, this might just be our favorite AMT release in a while!
Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.
So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7":
Volume 2, "Psychedelic Warlords", features Acid Mothers Temple, who are an obvious choice to pay homage to a band who was doing the AMT thing 30 years ago, and in true AMT fashion, Kawabata and company go for it, covering "Brainstorm" although it's difficult to tell, as it's buried under sheets of wild freaked out psych guitar and blown out space rock effects EVERYWHERE. It really doesn't sound all that different from any number of other AMT jams, but that's basically because every AMT jam is a tribute to Hawkwind, isn't it?
AMT are matched up with NYC's White Hills, who ditch much of their usual spaceiness for something a bit harder, tackling "Be Yourself" with crunchy chugging guitars, pounding drums, wild tangles of distortion drenched leads over the top, the band not so much covering the original, as transforming it into an endless psychedelic hard rock loop, the band churning and grinding out a steady stream of psychedelia over that endless main riff, before drifting off into a cloud of glittering soft psych shimmer.
The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!
*Acid Mothers Temple alert*
*Acid Mothers Temple alert*
*Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Ok, so when are they gonna build a pipeline, or start a satellite radio station, or take over every page on MySpace, so they can deliver their soundz 24-7, and we can mainline AMT from the source all day every day?? Instead the psychedelic music of the Acid Mothers is doled out (ever so quite often!) in album-length chunks. Here's the latest installment from the hardest working hippies in Japan. Three tracks are offered up here, "Eleking The Clay" (14:00), "Sorcerer's Stone Of The Magi" (3:52), and "Vishnu And The Magic Elixir" (25:34). The first is a vibratory, Middle Eastern tinged trance-rocker, it's relentlessly awesome, definitely a highlight of recent AMT action. The relatively brief second track is more of an acoustic-ethnic-folky affair, quite lovely. And then the big track three is a drug-gobbling jam, full of quacking, quaking chaos, like Guru Guru gone totally mental, Kawabata's guitar soloing wildly towards the gloriously noisy everything-louder-than-everything else ending. All of three tracks here are of course liberally drenched in enough spacey FX for ten Hawkwind records. Familiar territory for AMT fans for sure, and as always a nice place to be!
The cd format is digipacked, while the limited edition lp version is resplendent on pink vinyl!
Here's that long-rumored Acid Mothers Temple THREE cd set, at last! Is it the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. release to end all Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. releases? Not likely -- I mean, I'm sure there'll be another one before the month is out! -- but it IS one of the more desirable entries in these freaks' prolific output so far.
Furthering their status as a Grateful Dead for Japanophiles and krautrock nerds, this set kicks off with disc one's SIXTY MINUTE version of the AMT standard "Pink Lady Lemonade" (which appeared on their debut cd, as well as on the Live In Occident LP, and is now a staple of their live set). This new studio version, recorded in London, is yet another variant of the "Pink Lady Lemonade" template: it starts off with lots of spacey guitar and synth, sci-fi effects, and lovely bliss-out vocals from Cotton Casino. At about the half-way mark, after a jazzy interlude, the song gets a bit noisier, and dronier. But the mild feedback eventually gives way to a restatement of the song's initial theme, as everything comes full-circle to a mellow & pretty close at the end of the hour. Nice, but not a patch on their previous epic, the much heavier 40-minute "La Novia".
Disc two is where the "Family Compilation" part of the title comes in. The eighteen tracks found here are from a variety of artists, some featuring members of AMT, some simply being things AMT leader Kawabata Makoto liked enough to release on AMT's limited edition cd-r label, including two bands from the USA: San Diego's psychedelic indie-rockers Maquiladora, and Philly's female acid-folkie Fursaxa. Others include: the "mood cosmic sound unit" Pardons featuring AMTers Cotton Casino and Higahi Hiroshi, Kawabata's "shamanic acid-folk trio" Floating Flower, the acoustic, improvisational and not entirely serious Zoffy duo of Kawabata and Atsushi Tsuyama, the driving fuzz-punk of the Cosmic Riders (several original AMT members), the French solo guitar/vocal "acid chanson" of Frederic ... plus Father Moo & The Black Sheep, Seikazoku, Ueh, Alien Social Dance Party, Nipponianippon, The Wild Riders, and several more -- too many to describe. It all flows quite nicely -- there's no duds -- and all the selections, with or without members of AMT performing, definitely share the AMT acid-kraut-freak-pysch vibe. It's the best sort of compilation in two ways: 1) it's a "complete" listen, and 2) you'll probably want to hear more from all the artists on it (which may actually be a frustation 'cause it's going to be hard to find much else from some of 'em).
Disc three continues the compilation, but consists entirely of tracks featuring Kawabata Makoto projects or collaborations, including a Space Machine cut (Kawabata with Yamazaki "Masonna" Maso). Also: Kawabata solo, Uchu, Shogo-nari, Tsurubami, Kawabata with Miyamoto Naoaki, and an AMT track. With the big K on every track, this disc is somewhat more guitar-oriented than disc 2, tending towards darker, heavier, dronier, scarier stuff (disc 2 being a bit more "fun" and/or "folky", to generalize). On both discs two and three, quite a few of the tracks are unreleased or at least remixed, so even if you've managed to obsessively collect the various AMT-issued limited-edition cd-rs and so forth, you won't have all of these. And if you are such a collector, you'll be first in line to buy this anyway! And for most people, this will be your first and only chance to hear some of these projects.
AMT heads need this, others may find it a fascinating introduction into the realm of psychedelic excess populated by Kawabata Makoto, the Acid Mothers Temple, and friends.
It's an ***Acid Mothers Temple alert*** and also a ***Ruins alert*** with this one. Japanese underground music devotees, look alive! The clumsily-named Acid Mothers Temple SWR unit is a power trio consisting of drummer Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, etc.), guitarist Makoto Kawabata (AMT, etc.), and bassist Atsushi Tsuyama (AMT, etc.). They've released one album under this moniker previously (and several together under other names -- this is the same lineup as Seikazoku). And as before, this time around they've created a crazed, semi-improvised rock tribute to three of their favorite things: Stones, Women, and Records (SWR)!! The cheesecake cover photo sorta says it all. Who else would pose a woman in a bikini on a rock holding a record?
Anyway, there's 18 confusional tracks here ranging from spastic jazz noodlings to country-pop parodies to plenty of out-n-out freek-rock, all of it played with hella chops and tongues, we think, planted firmly in cheek (which doesn't stop them from accomplishing all sorts of insane vocals). They jump from one musical idea to the next without warning, somehow managing to cram outbursts of heaviness, interludes of genuine beauty, Black Sabbath quotes, and even kazoos all onto this same perverse prog platter! The song titles are incomprehensible in-jokes ("Very Very Very Jazz - deer cries with 'KAGYEEYO' in the breeding season", "Fairy music of foolish sushi bar - country singer NARENA BAYSTAR", "Ahla Hassanbeck Lamborghini rock"...????) and these guys are as silly as they are psychedelic, but AMTSWR don't mess around at messing around, even the most humorless avant-listener (of a psych bent) should walk away impressed at this music. Think Acid Mothers Temple meets old Omoide Hatoba and Boredoms... Yeah. "Forever stones, Forever women, Forever records"!
Hell's Headbangers printed these up with two different covers, one for each of the two songs on it, so on some "Midnight Mass" is the the A side, with correspondingly blasphemous cover art, and on others "To Magic, Sex and Gore" is the A side, also adorned with appropriate artwork, that would never pass the Comics Code that's for sure.
Both songs are gonna be pure manna for fans of Acid Witch, whose brand of psychedelic stoner doom death metal we hope you all already know about and worship with cackling glee. If not, you should check this out and also Stoned, their recent full-length for Hell's Headbangers. Or be turned into a newt.
Translucent (blood) red vinyl with black splatter. Limited edition, natch. The cover you get will be random, btw.
Hails to Hells Headbangers, the label is on a roll lately, bringing us long-awaited new releases by two of the most outre of AQ metal faves: Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm by black metal aberrations Inquisition (Record Of The Week last list) and this, the more simply titled Stoned, from psychedelic doomsters Acid Witch! It's their 2nd full-length, after the now out of print debut Witchtanic Hellucinations we cackled over a couple of years back. Once more, Shagrat and Slasher Dave (minus Finnish friend Lasse Pyykko, who wasn't actually the main guy in the band as it turns out) have stirred up a bubbling cauldron of tripped out, horror-loving metal that draws upon their love of old school death metal, doom, fright flicks, and drugs! They say it best themselves: "Metal, punk, comic books, and horror vhs / Nothing else to live for so you might as well obsess / Discovering books of power on the arcane and occult / Eating psilocybin leaves you feeling quite possessed" (lyrics from their song "Stoned To The Grave"). Now, we're not gonna say if we condone that lifestyle or not, but we sure do like the sick, slightly tongue in cheek music that results!! And if you can appreciate a song title like "Metal Movie Marijuana Massacre Meltdown", then you'll probably like this album and band. THAT song features another verse we've just got to quote: "Seen these movies so many times / Turn off the volume cause I know all the lines / So fucking high, just let the stereo play / But only if it's Lizzy Borden or Fastway." Sheer poetry to our ears. However, Acid Witch themselves sound a lot more underground than those '80s metal bands they mention, the Hellhammer poster and Bulldozer t-shirt in the band photo represent more likely '80s inspirations.
So, if you've heard their debut, you what to expect. After an intro of Goblin-y keyboards and looped samples, the album kicks into metallic gear with track two, "Witchfynder Finder", a song about turning the tables on Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General. It's a catchy juggernaut, sounding not unlike Cathedral or Electric Wizard (or Pykko's band Hooded Menace) riding Hawkwind's "Silver Machine". One of the many killer cuts here with skull caving riffery and fuzzed out guitars. Those Goblin-y keys return later on the eerie "Whispers In The Dark" and elsewhere... while in "Live Forever" the keyboards take on more of a Deep Purplish hue! All in all, a heavy, rockin', horror show of guttural vokills, '70s Sabbathry, and spooky-ooky atmospheres.
Their favorite holiday is obviously Halloween. October is a long way off but if you like Halloween too, Acid Witch have a treat for you right now. Buy this along with that Wooden Stake / Blizaro split also highlighted this week, and your inner psych doom freak monster will be well fed.
Despite all the Acid- suffix and -Witch prefix bands out there (and vice versa for that matter), it appears that this is the very first band ever to use the name Acid Witch! And it really would have sucked if the name had already been taken, 'cause these guys are the PERFECT Acid Witch. Nobody could possibly do better justice to a moniker like that than this, um, coven.
Are they psychedelic? Yes. Are they metal? Yes. Are they creepy? Yes. Are they deathly? Yes. Are they doomy? Yes, yes, yes! Psychedelic drug doom death horror metal that cackles, wears a pointy hat, and flies on a broomstick. And, they have a sense of humor about it (hence song titles like "Witches Tits"), the same sense of humor -and- horror that gets us all into those cult '70s and '80s Italian fright flicks. Speaking of which, this album is amply laced with sinister, proggy Goblin-esque keyboards, draped over fuzzy chugging heaviness worthy of early Cathedral. Heavy, heavy doom riffs indeed abound, along with guttural grunting deeper-than-thou vokills, both of which manage to be fairly catchy as well, this album casting a spell of instant headbanging most definitely. Acid Witch's songs are furthermore infested with droning psych guitar soloing, weird electronics, witchy laughter, and spooky-ooky sound FX (is that a bubbling, boiling cauldron in there?) which makes this sound something like a "haunted Hawkwind" version of death/doom metal! Or let's say, take Acid Mothers Temple and Witchfinder General and mix them together (including the band names), then get 'em to play old school death a la Hellhammer. It's a bewitching, if totally gonzo, sound.
Further coolness: did we mention the main guy in the band is from Finland? And did you see the freaky EC Horror comics meets Cracked Magazine cover art? Which was done by Acid Witch member Shagrat (doubtless an Amon Duul II fan), who also provides a b&w portrait of the band done in the style of one of Witchfinder General's singles covers. Also, Witchtanic Hellucinations? Heck that's our review right there. These guys are brilliant (at least as much so as Electric Wizard and their "Satanic Rites Of Drugula" on Witchcult Today - hey maybe those two bands should go on tour and make black magic together!). Other bands that if you might like, probably means you should listen to this, include: Solar Anus, Coffins, Sigh (circa Imaginary Sonicscape), Moss, and Pan-Thy-Monium.
As soon as we heard 'em, we knew this was a definite AQ highlight. It took us a while to get more, our suppliers never had enough, but finally we contacted the label directly and got some, so here they are! Get 'em before they turn us all into (lysergic) toads.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
As with every review of a release on EM records, we feel obligated to gush just a little. WHAT AN AMAZING LABEL! Most definitely the coolest reissue label going. Completely off the wall releases dug up and given new life. Amazing packaging, killer liner notes, tons of photos. So much love and passion obviously goes into each and every release we'd almost buy every one regardless of the music. Thankfully, pretty much everything we've heard so far is absolutely amazing, and well deserving of a deluxe reissue treatment.
You may remember a while back we reviewed a 1976 disc from a free jazz ensemble called the Pyramids, whose sound was not just jazz, but a strange swirling mix of Funkadelic, Don Cherry and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, all with a groovy, funky, spaced out vibe. Chaotic and completely mesmerizing, some of the sounds as we described them in the Pyramids review: "Wild Eastern sounding tribal rhythms, shuffling jazzy post bop, fluttering flutes and skronking horns, chanted vocals, droning buzzing ragas, seventies psychedelic free folk, propulsive krautfunk jams, totally chaotic free jazz, octopoidal drumming, wild shrieking sax and haunting percussive soundscapes"! And those disparate elements were all wrapped up, in and around more traditional sounding African music. Wow! A total revelation for sure.
And it appears to have been a revelation for everyone else as well. There's a massive box set planned for the near future, and then there's this, a sort of career retrospective of Pyramids mainman Idris Ackamoor, drawing equally from the Pyramids albums Lalibela (1973), King Of Kings (1974) and Birth, Speed, Merging (1976), as well as a track a piece from three of Ackamoor's solo albums. As if that weren't already enough, there are six unreleased tracks, over an hour of music! One track from Ackamoor's pre-Pyramids group The Collective, three unreleased Pyramids tracks, one unreleased track from the Idris Ackamoor Quartet and finally a recording of Ackamoor and his wife at the time (1973) playing with King's Drummers Of Tamale, Ghana!!
Disc one is drawn from the earliest years, 1971 to 1974, and is completely mind blowing. Absolute free jazz nirvana! But with plenty of soul and groove. Long long tracks, heavy on the percussion, very tribal and experimental, but still soulful and jazzy. Fluttering flutes drift over dense beds of percussive shimmer, some tracks explode into full on drum solo percussion jams, others drift serenely, while still others careen wildly between the two. Modern ears will of course hear No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand, Avarus and Kemialliset, it's hard not to, after all this is where that sound came from!! Disc one would be worth the price of admission alone, and definitely has us excited to see these whole records reissued in their entirety. But lucky for us there's a whole other disc!
The first two tracks on disc 2 are from Birth, Speed, Merging (1976) and if you don't have it already, these tracks should easily convince you that you absolutely NEED TO OWN IT! Gorgeous long form, slow burning jazz epics, horns skronk and shimmer, the bass is slippery and serpentine, the drums are wild and all over the place, utterly mesmerizing, extended blasts of controlled chaos. So goddamn good. The unreleased track is a killer too. Nearly twenty minutes. The stuff from Ackamoor's solo records is a lot less far out, but still really great, from straight up Bop, to groovy sort of cinematic jazz, to some softer Cuban style jazz (the final track taken from his album Cubana).
It's hard to believe a band could be this amazing, and revolutionary and so brilliantly far out and not be spoken of in the same breath as groups like the Art Ensemble and Sun Ra's Arkestra, but here's hoping that this, as well as past and future reissues takes care of that! Absolutely essential!!!!!!
Like all EM releases, the packaging is fantastic. A Japanese style extra thick jewel case, a printed obi as well as a MASSIVE booklet full of rare photos, and liner notes penned by Ackamoor himself, in both English and Japanese!
Oh happy day, another issue of Chris Ware's always-amazing publication is here! This time, the final installment of the Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Kid On Earth saga: sad, funny, and exquisitely rendered of course.
But not just *any* acoustic guitar trio: this is Nels Cline (a big AQ-favorite), Rod Poole (likewise), and Jim McAuley. Nels is best known for his jazz meets Sonic Youth style skronk, Rod Poole for his mesmerizing explorations in just-intonation guitar
Those expecting a Fela Kuti / Tony Allen spin off will be disappointed by this recording as, unlike Nigerian high life, there's not a trace of James Brown or "funk" to be found here. It also is completely different than the Latin infused sounds of the Kinshasa style high life the Congo. Utilizing both traditional Ghanese instruments and European flutes, saxophones, trumpets, vibes, kit drums, double bass and guitar, the music of Saka Acquaye and his African Ensemble takes as its kernel big band jazz. The result is something that sounds alternately like a really progressive, hot marching band and Martin Denny with teeth. Apparently quite the renaissance man, Acquaye was an educator, sculptor, and a champion hurdler as well as an accomplished musician. He spent at least ten years in the United States, receiving not only an advanced degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, but a Fullbright Scholarship for the study of opera from UCLA. Originally released in 1969 as "Voices of Africa: High Life and Other Popular Music", this album was recorded after Acquaye's return to Ghana. And though this album might not appeal to those who take Afro-Strut as the final word on the gems offered by African popular music, I highly recommend that they give this one a shot until someone re-issues fabulous recordings on John Storm Robert's Original Music label.
We listed the debut release from the mysteriously monickered Acre recently and people flipped out, including us! It's easy to set all your instruments to stun and just let 'em drone away, but it takes something special to make those drones listenable, compelling and evocative, there's a magic to it, and as hard as it may be to believe, it's definitely not as easy as some of these guys make it sound.
Acre is a one man 'band' from the Pacific Northwest, who uses mixer feedback, a sampler and various effects to create deep vibrant thick drones, the kind that feel otherworldly, that transport the listener to some other place. Over the course of a 20 minute track, Acre's drone will have changed shape and tone, allowing different layers to be revealed, or alternately, hidden, to allow various overtones to create the impression of rhythm, to subtly alter the timbre and tone. A cursory listen is not enough to understand or feel what's going on here.
When we play this in the store, people think it's someone upstairs vacuuming or a low flying plane overhead or the workmen out front doing construction or a particularly loud air conditioning unit, but closer listening reveals all manner of sonic subtleties, rhythms and pulses, notes and even melodies, that only reveal themselves gradually. It's sort of like the sonic version of those strange pixelated paintings, that if you star at enough shapes begin to emerge...
The music on this 3" is thick and dense and dark and rich and lovely and relentless and vibrant and layered and complex and so completely mesmerizing.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, packaged in a cool mini 3" jewel case with trippy psychedelic artwork, each one hand numbered...
We only got a handful from the man himself when he was here on tour, so we're not sure if we'll be able to get more. You know what that means...
One of our favorite purveyors of what we've taken to calling FLOORcore (short for crouched-on-the-floor-core), the constantly evolving genre, which is marked by live shows featuring performers on their knees, surrounded by a kitchen junk drawer's worth of equipment, coaxing all sorts of noises from a battered assemblage of broken effects pedals, old synths, and homemade noisemaking devices.
Acre tends to weave all of his random noisemakers into gorgeous undulating walls of slow shifting drone, and on this two track 7", he does just that, but in dramatically different ways.
The A side is a creeping, thick, gnarled, grinding, looped, hypnotic, crumbling and superdistorted glacial riff, not sure if it's guitar or synth, but either way it sounds like sonic tar, it oozes and shifts and grinds and creeps, a thick black mass, a deep filthy doom-ed drone. It's the kind of sound we could listen to forever. Pretty sure that if we had this on cd, we'd just set it to repeat and listen to nothing else for a month!
The flipside is a dense slab of that sort of vacuum cleaner / hair dryer high end drone, upper register tones drifting in a field of ringing feedback and blurred white noise. The intensity builds and builds as if one at a time, some new appliance was being added to the mix, like a department store gone haywire, the result though is a very dreamy Sunroof!-like mighty high end ur-drone. Super minimal but with close listening strangely ultra maximal, with all sorts of stuff going on within the layered skree.
Packaged in cool white on yellow hand screened sleeves. Pressed on thick white vinyl with yellow labels, and of course VERY VERY LIMITED, ONLY 300 COPIES...
A brand new slab of epic slow moving drone from the mysteriously monickered one man band Acre.�Folks went nuts for the two Acre cd-r's we carried a while back, both now sadly out of print, but we've got this brand new slab of glacial stasis, a cassette no less, to satisfy your craving for monolithic walls of chest rattling, speaker punishing dronemusic.
The best way to sum up the sound of Acre would probably be to try and imagine if Phill Niblock was raised on Wolf Eyes and punk rock, metal and noise, instead of classical and modern minimalism. The music of Acre IS modern minimalism for sure, but filtered though a more sort of postpunk/noise aesthetic. Simple tones, thick and slowly shifting, are layered and arranged, allowed to drift at practically zero rpm, the sounds swelling and shimmering almost imperceptibly, the overtones creating subtle rhythms, occasionally clashing and causing amazing super intense rhythmic pulses.
So�dark and dense and meditative. Acre is definitely making some of our favorite drone music...
And this is one of the most gorgeously packaged cassettes we've ever seen. Clear tape, with black streaks, in a folded over clear plastic j-card, also adorned with black streaks, held shut by a black streaked greenish gold obi on gorgeous thick textured paper.�
Recorded live, and limited to 80 copies...
A common practice amongst the modern noisemakers, the free folkies and the drone set, is to use everything they can lay their hands on, from run of the mill musical instruments, to random bits of furniture, to strange noise making devices. Lots of cd-r's these days feature "instrument" lists longer than a metal band's thanks list! Often including toothbrush or stained pair of pants, or handful of hair or whatever. A lot of the time it works, and that speaks to the artist's skill in transforming a jumbled mess into something listenable, but just as often, it can become just a massive chaotic cacophony, which again, is not always bad. But there is definitely something to be said for the whole 'less is more' angle. Look at Niblock for example, letting instruments and their overtones create the music, allowing minimal shifts in sound and subtle alterations in melody, duration and timbre to transform those sounds into subtly complex soundscapes. This less is more approach is specially suited for dealing with the drone.
Such is the case with Acre, whose Candyflipping was just released on Honey Owens' (aka Valet) Yarn Lazer label. Using just mixer feedback, a sampler and various filters and phase-shifters, Acre whips up some seriously delirious ultra minimal drone. A hypnotic trance like pulsing buzz, that is constantly shifting, the overtones drifting and swirling subtly, soft shimmers that build into thick streaks of downed power line buzz. The strange thing is, it almost sounds like a guitar a lot of the time, certain bits are definitely reminiscent of that sort of Spacemen 3 style raga drone. Especially on the second track, where the sounds become more active, the different drones falling out of phase and beating hypnotically against each other, creating strange rhythms, and barely discernible melodies.
The third and final track takes that same sort of static buzz, but drops the pitch and ups the distortion, turning the dreamy drift of the previous tracks into some seriously ominous low end rumble, the sort of dirgey drone that would most definitely appeal to fans of more metallic downtuned lower register exploration.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Hand screened with glow in the dark covers!
There's just something so magical about the drone. For the music we love, and the sounds we love to hear, the drone seems to always be an element, whether it's black metal or dubstep or country, mix in a bit of drone, and it just does something magical to the mix. But you can't just pull the drone out, to display it bare, on its own, without knowing what you're doing. Like modern art, everyone thinks "Oh I could do that", but they can't in fact, it takes something or someone special to be able to wrangle a drone, to create dronemusic that unadorned can be lovely, harrowing, even riveting, and one of our favorite drone wranglers goes by the name Acre, and for several years now has been offering up some of the most compelling, and disarmingly simple drone music we've heard.
A casual listener might mistake the sounds of Acre for a swarm of insects, or the buzz of a faulty air conditioner, or the muted roar of a vacuum cleaner, and honestly the sound is really not that far removed for that, but to be fair, we've all found ourselves entranced by the sounds of everyday drone, helicopters passing overhead, the roar of an engine, the deep rumble of thunder, the static on the TV between channels, right? So strap on some headphones and let Acre take you into the heart of the drone.
Remember that ride at Disneyland, where you got strapped into a little car and went through the microscope which shrunk you down so you could explore atoms and molecules? Sometimes the music of Acre can be like that. With close listening, what on the surface seems static, comes alive, like a roaring river of sound. Dunk your head in, and you can hear the layers, and the overtones beating against each other, the buried melodies, the subtle nuances, that make drones like this seem almost alive.
Three long tracks, 15 minutes, 12 minutes and 22 minutes, each one a single drone, but each one also a journey through sound, into sound. It's strange that music this seemingly simple can be so enthralling, so hypnotic and entrancing, but it is, and once again Acre manages to create a minimal world of sound that is not as minimal as it seems.
WAY RECOMMENDED!
We heart Acre, Dronelord from the Northwest. And this, his very first foray into vinyl. And it's a doozy, A single track, appropriately titled "Monolith", taking up both sides of the 12", sounding great at both 33 and 45, but of course we prefer 33 as it's slower and lower and thus thicker and heavier.
Those familiar with Acre know just what he's all about. Drone. Or DRONE.
Big, thick, endless stretches of sound, layers and overtones, seemingly simple but dense with texture and timbre.
"Monolith" is more of the same. Even more. It begins as a single tone, simple, minimal, and gradually builds and builds and builds until it is a subtly undulating stretch of singular sound. A deep pulsing synth drone, that seems to move and change shape, melodies and harmonies drift from within its nearly static mesmer, it's all very subtle, but so gloriously thick and fuzzy and textural and yeah HEAVY. Slap on some headphones and crank this and you're in for a sound induced headtrip of the highest order.
Not sure what else to say. For the drone obsessed this is ESSENTIAL, if you dug that Drone Drug record by the Skull Defekts we listed recently, if you love Phill Niblock, if you're already the proud owner of some of the Acre cd-r's, you know what you need to do.
Limited to 200 copies. How do we know? Because the artwork consists of the band name, the track title and the legend "Edition of 200". We got a bunch, but even a bunch isn't usually enough...
Two years in the works, Sacrifice is the most fully realized record yet from this Northwestern dronelord, a gorgeously crafted collection of layered sonic dronescapes, that beyond sounding gorgeous and hazy and hypnotic, are also curious for the fact that the liner notes explicitly state "No synths, No looping, No laptop, No guitar" which most definitely begs the question how the heck this record was made. But maybe it's best to leave that mystery intact, and allow these 5 tracks to just exist, as if they were miraculously spawned from starlight or birthed from some strange glowing orb, which is precisely the vibe these tracks exude, throbbing, repetitive swells, warm washed out melodies, like a Reich or Riley piece played by autonomous robots on some defunct space station, sending their signals into the ether. A series of simple, slowly expanding soundfields that definitely sound looped, the various tones and melodies spinning weightlessly, wrapping around one another, warm and fuzzy, a swirling expanse of glimmering pulses wretched in a growling sheen of rumble and buzz, a celestial game of Pong slowed down and sequenced into a sort of spacekraut drift.
Three long epics, each a smoldering exploration of some rhythmic inner space, separated by shorted bits of shimmery ambience, one a sea of swirling high end like a symphony of rubbed glasses, slowly unfolding bits of feedback blurred into sun dappled smears, the other a crunchy bit of timestretched electronic doom buzz, almost riffy, definitely the heaviest track here, add some drums and you'd have some sort of dirgey doomic crush. The long tracks though are more contemplative and expansive, letting the sounds breath and expand, where the opener is a softly pulsing robotic symphony, a hazy assemblage of muted melody, the second long piece is a Niblock-ian sprawl, an endless stretch of buzz and fuzz and ever shifting overtones, a seemingly static soundfield, exploding with energy on a microscopic level, serious headphone bliss, some glorious extended next level ur-drone dreaminess for sure. And finally, the closer, another bit of riffy spacekraut drift, that sounds like some weird mix of Emeralds, Expo 70 and Oneohtrix Point Never, a super cinematic kosmische drift rendered in glacial fuzz drenched repetitive 'riffage' wound around a primal mesmerizing, and constantly evolving super nova pulse, all viewed from across the universe, the sounds bent like light, the resulting sound, woozy and otherworldly, like a Spacemen 3 track stripped down, stretched out, and let out through the airlock to drift endlessly through the glimmering expanse of the ever expanding universe...
We've long been fans of the druggy stoner grooves of the UK's Acrimony, ever since 1996's�Tumuli Shroomaroom, a record that has been out of print for a while now, otherwise we would have most certainly given it some long overdue love on the AQ list. Just recently, Japanese label Leaf Hound reissued�Tumuli Shroomaroom (which we now have in stock, and will list next time) but also this killer odds and sods collection called appropriately enough Bong On - Live Long! So we figured we oughta tackle the newest release first, plus for long time fans like us, there's tons of amazing out of print stuff on it we'd been dying to hear.
Acrimony exist in a similar sonic universe as their metallic countrymen Electric Wizard (as well as folks like Boris, Church Of Misery, Kyuss, Bongzilla, etc.) and while not quite as filthy and blown out and Sabbath obsessed, they are definitely just as heavy, but probably way more groovy and spaced out, adding some Hawkwind to the mix, and some organ (fuck yeah!) turning crushing druggy jams into crushing freaked out groovy druggy SPACE jams which is never a bad thing.�
Collecting tracks from old eps, compilations, and a split with Church Of Misery (even a badass Status Quo cover!), every song here is a sludgy groovy stoner space jam of the highest order, the riffs are massive and downtuned, the drums a barrage of pounding pummel, the vocals a raspy howl, wah guitar everywhere, hooks galore, lots of swing and groove, throbbing distorted bass, churning riffage that often slowly morphs into a spaced out sprawl a la Monster Magnet or Hawkwind, even the folks who don't get high here (Andee, and...?), can imagine that this is exactly what that must (or at least -should-) sound like, heavy and freaky and groovy and mind blowing.�
Fans of bands like Electric Wizard and Nebula and Ufomammut and Orange Goblin and Spiritual Beggars and the like who have somehow missed out on these guys might just have found a new favorite band...
