Acid Mothers Temple
Entry updated 24 September 2021. Tagged: Music.
Prolific Japanese space-rock band who released over fifty albums under various names in their first decade, and who specialize in prolonged shambolic improvised jam-session music. Albums include Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (1997), 41st Century Splendid Man (2002), Univers Zen, ou de zéro à zéro (2002) and Hypnotic Liquid Machine from the Golden Utopia (2004); but although there is sf content in all these it is difficult to separate it out from the stew of druggy, transcendental, mystical and New Age nonsense. Slightly less muddled are Does the Cosmic Shepherd Dream of Electric Tapirs? (2005), whose relationship to Philip K Dick's novel is playfully irreverent and indeed oblique, and Have You Seen the Other Side of the Sky? (2006), which ends with a notable 30 minute song "The Tales of Solar Sail – Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky". [AR]
A Japanese collective centred on Kawabata Makoto; the band was founded in 1995 as Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (U.F.O. here standing for Underground Freak Out), but they often used other names, most commonly Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno. They refer to themselves as "a freak-out group for the 21st century"; their music may be described as space rock (see SF Music), typically but by no means exclusively being electric-guitar-led and comprising very long improvised pieces. The likes of Hawkwind, Gong and krautrock bands such as Can and Popol Vuh can be heard as influences. Stylistically the music can be anything from atonal noise rock to calmer raga-influenced tracks; less interestingly, it sometimes wanders into extended guitar solo territory.
The work is largely instrumental, with the sf element visible in the titles. Albums include Magical Power from Mars (2003); Close Encounters of the Mutants (2004); Does the Cosmic Shepherd Dream of Electric Tapirs? (2004), a reference to Philip K Dick; Cometary Orbital Drive To 2199 (2013); and Monsters of the Universe Attacked Iron Man City (2020) (see Comets; Mars; Monsters). Another, The Penultimate Galactic Bordello Also The World You Made (2004) is a four-hour, four-CD set, comprising four songs: a suspicion that the title refers to at least two Dick novels is confirmed by a couple of the tracks, "The Seven Stigmata from Pussycat Nebula" and "The Holly Mountain in the Counter-Clock World". Many individual song titles use genre terminology, such as "The Man from Giacobinid Meteor Comet", "Astrorgasm from the Inner Space", "Supernal Infinite Space", "The Tales Of Solar Sail – Dark Stars In The Dazzling Sky" and "Message from Outer Space"; whilst Asimo's Naked Breakfast: Rice and Shrine is presumably an Isaac Asimov reference.
Whimsy seems the main inspiration for these titles, which also frequently nod to early 1970s rock – eg. "Starless and Bible Black Sabbath" refers to both a King Crimson album and the heavy metal band. Often interesting, equally often self-indulgent, the band's work ethic cannot be denied – over 90 AMT-related studio albums were released 1996-2020 (plus over 50 live recordings), whilst Makoto also released over 100 solo or collaborative albums in the same period (neither totals include digital-only releases) – though one might question their dedication to sorting the wheat from the chaff. [SP]
works (selected)
- Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (Japan: P.S.F. Records, 1997)
- Pataphisical Freak Out MU!! (Japan: P.S.F. Records, 1999)
- La Nòvia (USA: Eclipse Records, 2000)
- Absolutely Freak Out (Zap Your Mind!!) (UK: Static Caravan, Resonant, 2001)
- In C (USA: Eclipse Records, 2001)
- 41st Century Splendid Man (USA: tUMULt, 2002)
- Born to Be Wild in the U.S.A. 2000 (USA: Wabana Ore Limited, 2002)
- Electric Heavyland (Canada: Alien8, 2002)
- Univers Zen, ou de zéro à zéro (France: Fractal Records, 2002)
- Kinski & Acid Mothers Temple (USA: Sub Pop, 2003) collaboration with Kinski
- Magical Power from Mars (USA: Important Records, 2003)
- Close Encounters of the Mutants (Poland: Multikulti Project, 2004)
- Does the Cosmic Shepherd Dream of Electric Tapirs? (UK: Space Age Recordings, 2004)
- Hypnotic Liquid Machine from the Golden Utopia (Japan: self-released, 2004)
- Myth of the Love Electrique (UK: Riot Season, 2004)
- The Penultimate Galactic Bordello Also The World You Made (UK: Dirter, 2004)
- Iao Chant from the Cosmic Inferno (USA: Ace Fu Records, 2005)
- Starless and Bible Black Sabbath (Canada: Alien8, 2006)
- In 0 to ∞ (USA: Important Records, 2010)
- IAO Chant from the Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out (UK: Riot Season, 2012)
- Cometary Orbital Drive To 2199 (USA: Nod and Smile Records, 2013)
- Wake to a New Dawn of Another Astro Era (USA: Important Records, 2016)
- Wandering the Outer Space (Peru, Buh Records, 2017)
- Monsters of the Universe Attacked Iron Man City (Japan: self-released, 2020)
links
previous versions of this entry