Rating: 7/10
Music used to be a communal thing, and still is in some cases. From the work songs that - along with the blues, the protestant spirituals and ragtime - gave birth to jazz, to the traditional rituals of yesteryear and everyday based on deep-rooted cultures, music is addressed in a public manner. Nevertheless, Internet and the proliferation of freeform radio stations have created an individual appeal and most musicians who share a common, ever-growing ground have dropped off the public radar.
Sometimes mistaken for a religious congregation, Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (Underground Freak Out) is Japanese guitarist Mokoto Kawabata’s collective ensemble. He founded the Temple in 1996 to pursue the paths of such heavyweights as avant-garde prominent Karlheinz Stockhausen, psychedelic and progressive gems and the Krautrock heritage personified by the German eccentrics Faust, just to name a few. Before forming the band - allegedly to give room for unknown musicians to record and release their work - Kawabata had already received plaudits for his guitar additions to other projects.
Originally released as a cassette, then leaked to a 1000 copies-limited edition LP, Born to Be Wild in the U.S.A. 2000, now properly remastered as a CD, documents part of the Temple’s American tour that year. It does so unleashing sonic prophecies that are well worth the price value of the record, keeping a precarious balance between the fudged bass played by Atsushi Tsuyama and left hanging pendulously around tracks like “Pink Lady Lemonade” and “Speed Guru”. The hard-edged vector of 13-minute “La Novia” cuts through the twitching feel of the rest of the disc, remaining half-cooked and engrossing a crowd of advancing zombies to their following.
Most progressive acts take pains to dismiss any link to the unknown and take comfort in nurturing a (sometimes fake) sympathy for the devil, but Kawabata’s troupe is completely different. Being Japanese, they don’t renegade the spiritual prism of perception they grew up with. At certain points, notably in records like last year’s Mantra of Love, it feels like psychedelic journeys are painted in a more tainted hue when shone through the pyramid of their spiritual selves. They even finish this record with a track called “God Bless AMT”, feeding constant highbrow allusions to folksy mystical endeavors. Before listening, take note: it is advisable to delve into other Japanese fellow musicians like Ghost and Nagisa Ni Te in order to fully comprehend Acid Mothers Temple’s DNA.
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