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ACID MOTHERS
TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO UFO
CD barcode # 666017331027
LISTEN TO THIS RELEASE VIA BANDCAMP BELOW
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LIMITED EDITION BLACK VINYL LP & MINT GREEN VINYL LP'S BOTH HOUSED IN GLOSS OR REVERSE MATT BOARD FINISHED 350GSM PRINTED OUTER SLEEVES, WITH BLACK POLYLINED INNER BAG & DOWNLOAD CODE. CD HOUSED IN A GLOSS FINISHED GATEFOLD CARD SLEEVE WITH BONUS TRACK YELLOW VINYL REPRESS COMING MID JANUARY 2019 - PRE ORDER NOW VIA THE LABEL WEBSHOP OR BANDCAMP SITE Due to demand, we've decided to repress the LP version after the original black & green vinyl versions and CD sold out quickly. The repress is in production now, and will be a limited 300 only edition pressed on sun yellow vinyl and housed in a 350gsm high gloss sleeve featuring this new alternative green artwork courtesy of artist Jessica at The Giant's Lab.
THE ORIGINAL LP (BLACK & GREEN) AND CD ARTWORK BELOW
ALL THE MAIL ORDER ALLOCATION OF THE ORIGINAL BLACK & GREEN VINYL AND CD ARE NOW TOTALLY SOLD OUT. THANK YOU! BLUE VELVET BLUES (2018) PROMO VIDEO
Tracklisting
1. Dark Star Blues (9:22)
2. Blue Velvet Blues (12:15)
3. Black Summer Song (20:22)
4. Flying Teapot (16:21) * CD Only Bonus Track
*
"In 2016, 21 years after Acid Mothers
Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. were founded in Osaka, Japan,
there was a major shift in the line-up and "Next Generation"
was added to the bands name. We now view the first 20 years of the
bands career as chapter one in our story, and we are now turning the
page to start chapter two. In 2018, it's time to re-record our
classics with this new line-up, we just opened the door to the next
stage!” (Kawabata Makoto 2018)
Twenty four years into their existence,
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. have circled the
globe at least a few dozen times, released over 100 albums in their
various guises and played thousands of shows.
In recent years, they’ve experienced
seismic line up changes which has given them yet another new lease of
life ... or a rebirth if you will. Original members Kawabata Makoto
(guitar, speed guru) and Higashi Hiroshi (synthesizer, noodle god) are
now joined by Jyonson Tsu (vocal, midnight whistler), Satoshima Nani
(drums, another dimension) and Wolf (bass, space & time) and as
anyone that has seen the new line up live will testify, things have
gone even more cosmic ...
‘Reverse Of Rebirth In Universe’ sees
the band return to their old label Riot Season for the first time
since 2012’s 'IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak
Out' (CD still available). Both label and band have gone on some
wonderful journeys during that time apart but both felt the stars were
finally correctly realigned to renew their partnership in all things
weird.
Long time AMT fans will immediately
recognise some of the song titles listed on the album sleeve here. But
the songs themselves have been reworked and transformed far away from
their original versions. New boy Jyonson Tsu's quiet, almost whispered
vocals bring a whole new aura to proceedings, despite the familiar
riffs hidden in the depths below them. It's so laid back in places
it's practically horizontal, with only occasional trademark piercing
guitar squeals threatening to destroy the peace and calm. The whole of
side two is taken up with the twenty minute epic 'Black Summer Song'
.. and if this is an indicator to where the AMT mothership is heading
going forwards we're all in for another fucked up and magical ride.
If you stepped off the AMT ride over the
years, possibly overwhelmed by the amount of releases they were once
firing out ... it could be time to step back on it and check out where
they're currently at. In a world that's more messed up than ever, we
could all use a little break away from the norm, and nobody takes you
as far away from the norm as possible as Acid Mothers Temple & The
Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
The CD version comes with a sixteen minute
bonus song, a cover of Gong's 'Flying Teapot' which has never
previously appeared on CD.
REVIEWS
Having seen Acid Mothers Temple a
billion times since 2000 with a shifting cast of characters and,
recently, gradual list of long-standing members bowing out, I can
testify that something of a rebirth seems to have taken place within
the cosmic freak-out crew still led by original members Kawabata
Makoto and Higashi Hiroshi. Based on a recent Cafe Oto show in London
where the band excavated some of their early gonzo outsider-kosmische-folk
jams, it seems fair to attribute much of this new lease of life to new
member Jyonson Tsu. This enlightened space-being appears to perfectly
embody the exotic instrument, imaginary language, ridiculous esoteric
mythology and general sonic otherworldliness of the band as set down
on what I’d consider to be the collective’s classic run of early
2000s albums. So it makes perfect sense that they’ve decided to
revisit some of that weird charming magic in an album put out by
Birmingham label and perennial supporters Riot Season. As hinted in
the inside-out title Reverse of Rebirth in Universe, the record
comprises two new versions of tracks from more than a decade ago, a
long new piece, and, for the CD version only, a cover of a track by
70s faerie-botherers Gong.
First we get ‘Dark Star Blues’, first
appearing in studio form in 2004 and fast becoming a live favourite
for its intergalactic doom-crushing riff. Here its a more whimsical,
lighter wisp, with emphasis on Jyonson’s vocals from the very start,
though the iconic riff is still there, at first on tentative
taut-rubber-band twang, then on a wider massed collection of
acoustical organs. While far more restrained than the usual live
rock-out, there’s still room for some good drum fills by Satoshima
Nani on the upbeat before that sticky-heavy riff downbeat. Jyonson’s
voice, while sounding like often random syllables (reportedly
they’re fond of singing in entirely invented languages), sticks to
melodic lines, and really transforms the breakdown section into a
proper chorus. Then at the end we have some wild Makoto manic
flaming-guitar-in-the-fireworks-factory, though without a full
blasting noise backup it’s a spectacle admired from a safe distance,
rather than the ecstatic joy of getting trapped in the red offered by
some versions of this.
‘Blue Velvet Blues’ was first heard as
a full record-long classic on the Pataphysical Freak Out Mu!! album.
On this new twelve-minuter, the opening chord is a wonderful grounding
in reverby, consciousness expanding acoustic-electric psych, instantly
transporting you to the sonic Temple of the Acid Mothers itself. The
track overall isn’t quite as cavernous as the clanging junkyard
canyon original, but there’s still a healthy enough amount of
sky-clawing rust-lightning in the guitar for the first five minutes or
so. This is before the cosmic vocal reflections come in, which again
add a far-out gentle weirdness trip, as the spontaneous singing is
chased around by the firefly trails of Hiroshi synth peeps and zeeps.
The flipside, a long impressionistic new
track has several sections where different rhythms compete, knitted
together with a kind of smoking zoned out drone haze hanging round the
back of the soundscape constantly, reminding a little of the bonus
track on the CD version of La Novia, building slowly and
exploring weird corners at its own pace. Especially so at the end,
where we seem to be tipped into a murky sound world of hearing a
reprise of the track through a glass darkly, or maybe through a flying
saucer’s transistor radio. Pleasingly odd! The bonus track is more
than a quarter of an hour of ‘Flying Teapot’. I’m no great fan
of Gong, a bit too silly and twee for me, and the Acid Mothers Gong
sets I saw years ago didn’t inspire me at all (in fact Daevid Allen
chasing Cotton Casino around the stage with weird flappy hands on
sticks was pretty creepy). It seems Acid Mothers have picked a decent
track of theirs though, with a lively funky bassline which allows some
guitar and synth improv to unfold, with Wolf’s rumbling bass towards
the end even hinting at previous bassman Atsushi Tsuyama’s intrepid
wandering lines of old. Not wildly keen on the team vocals but I’ll
blame Gong for that, and anyway there’s soon enough some wild
ray-gun smooshes and crackles to take us out.
So, Reverse of Rebirth In Universe
feels like something of a boundary marker, a sense which is
underscored by the press release talking of 21 years of the band, and
of turning the page to a new chapter. If there was ever a slight hint
that the band had expended their lurid cosmic noise energy over the
decades, then such concerns should be dispelled as this record prompts
us to look into the next years, no, centuries, of Acid Mothers Temple
and the Melting Paraiso UFO!
ECHOES AND DUST
As the title alludes, this is a rebirth; a
new incarnation and phase in fact of the legendary acid-rock
psychedelic transcendental freak out that is now in its 23rd year of
cosmic operations. Founding instigators Kawabata Makoto and Higashi
Hiroshi have in recent years welcomed a new intake of worthy
disciples; adding vocalist and ‘midnight whistler’ Jyonson Tso,
drummer from ‘another dimension’ Satoshimi Nani and the bassist,
known only as, Wolf to its ranks. Their first task it seems is
refreshing and transforming previous sonic stunners and rituals from
the extensive Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
back catalogue; part of an on-going repackage of the iconic troupe’s
music that has recently seen, for the first time, a cassette tape
release of both the In C and La Novia opuses by Kamikaze Tapes.
Coinciding with a recent European tour, the Osaka outfits sprawling
Reverse Of Rebirth In Universe album essentially breaks-in a new
generation of collaborators.
Krautrock replicates, bowing in reverence
at the temple gates of their German inspirations, but also carrying on
the lineage of their native country’s own experimental doyens
(groups like Les Rallizes Dénudés and the Far East Family Band), the
Acid Mothers have carried the torch for acid-rock, the avant-garde and
progressive when forbearers and contemporaries have faded or
disbanded. Relighting the flame and going even more ‘cosmic’ (if
that was even possible) the new recruits breath life once more into a
trio (quartet if you have the bonus track version, which I’m
reviewing) of moonage daydreams, Tibetan new age fantasies and wild
psychedelic improvisations.
Transducing the entire Yeti and Wolf City
Nepal esotericism and hippie magic of Amon Düül II into one
monumentous caravan procession, the album’s opening epic anthem,
‘Dark Star Blues’, showcases the Acid Mothers signature occult
cosmology. All at once hypnotizing, doom-y, melodious, trudging and
noodling this far-out blues trip free falls into a wrestling guitar
manic jazz jam after ten minutes of Byzantium universe soul-searching
to reach a certain nirvana state of enlightenment. By contrast, though
still untethered to earthy realms, ‘Blue Velvet Blues’ (about as
far away from the blues genre that you can get) mixes tremolo Western
echoes with the pining aching and waning guitar work of Ash Ra Temple
and what sounds like Grace Slick yearning over a drowsy drum beat.
Talking of vocals, the motorik driving ‘Black Summer Song’, sounds
like a holy union of Nico and Damo Suzuki; ethereal and hauntingly
wooing over a Future Days period Can meets Klaus Dinger’s Japandorf
project backing.
The bonus, ‘Flying Teapot’, if you
haven’t had the aural pleasure yet, leans more towards Embryo and
Agitation Free; a progressive, acid-jazzy warp factor ten freeform
trip of stargazing and druggy indulgence: A perfect finish in my book.
In a sprawling swirl of grooves and
flailing, wilding display of guitar experimentation and oscillations,
the Acid Mothers, boosted by the ‘next generation’, reinforce
their reputation as one of the most out-there, influential and dynamic
forces in cosmic rock. With a back catalogue that constantly keeps
evolving they manage to push further and beyond the band’s past
triumphs and freak-outs to deliver something energetically and
dynamically refreshing. Here’s to the next phase in the Acid Mothers
legacy; one that seems to show a promising glowing future of
possibility.
MONOLITH COCKTAIL
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