Acid Mothers Temple review from beyondmainstream.com

This is one from January 2003, when I was just getting started doing online reviews. Its a tad hyperbolic, I admit. But you have to start somewhere.

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out

From the burning ruins of a post-“Destroy All Monsters” Tokyo, Acid Mothers Temple, led by the messiah-inspired Kawabata Makoto, fly out of the murky depths of the Sea of Japan and into the stratosphere. A collective or artists, musicians, and magicians, Acid Mothers Temple are certainly one of the best, and certainly one of the most prolific bands in the new Japanese noise-freak-out scene. With a revolving door of musicians and artisans, sometimes numbering over 30 people, Acid Mothers Temple absolutely push the boundaries of noise, rock, psychedelia, and collective improvisation.

Last year alone saw fifteen releases, re-releases, live albums, and EPs. And that’s just the group working together. Kawabata Makoto (guitarist and guru) himself is also involved in many side projects (notably a fine record recorded with Richard Young) with as many solo and collaborative releases as Acid Mothers. And therein is the problem for the neophyte – just where to start? Which to pick first?

In C is AMT’s energizing take on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic, and in their hands, it becomes a shamanistic hymn, a towering drone of massed guitars, bass, and percussion, all motors firing at the same time. It’s almost too much. Almost. AMT invite you to submit yourself in the drone, the holiest of sound-worlds, finely crafted, trance-inducing, magical. There’s also the band’s own take on Riley’s concept, “In E,” and a nice Makoto solo guitar track, “In D.”
Electric Heavyland is AMT at their most unforgiving. Aping the cover concept from King Crimson’s infamous live screed, Earthbound, and that record’s brutal progressive rock, AMT let all of their hair down and just fucking jam three tracks right into the outer reaches. Heavyland also features the wonderful vocalist Cotton Casino (credited with vocals, synthesizer, beer, and cigarette), who comes off like Bjork fronting the Fall, back when Mark E. Smith had his shit together. The record was correctly billed as AMT’s heaviest record yet.

Absolutely Freak Out (Zap Your Mind!!) carries through on the threatening promise of the title, with its eight varied tracks spread over two discs. More like melt your mind, what with the sitar/drone of “Supernal Infinite Space” working its way into the martial beats, carpet-bombing guitar, gnome-esque chanting and UFO-synthesizers of “Grapefruit March.” This record is the sound of synapses frying, just brain-sizzling, neuron-popping capital-A Acid rock.

Other recent titles worth taking a listen to are the three-cd AMT and friends compilation Do Whatever You Want, Don’t Do Whatever You Don’t Want, which features (finally!) a sixty minute studio recording of the live AMT favourite, “Pink Baby Lemonade.” There’s also some nice Cotton Casino tracks and Kawabata solo guitar pieces to recommend it. Live in Tokyo is a barn burning set from 2001, with, as its centerpiece, a scorching forty-minute version of the Occitanian-flavored “La Novia.”
Most recently, Acid Mothers Temple have started a series of 20-minute cd singles, one per month, through March of this year, under the title Magical Powers From Mars. And although AMT have announced that they will not be playing live in 2003, they have assured the world that there will be many new releases to come.