Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso - Myth of Love Electrique
Riot Season by Keith Boyd 12.16.06
Acid Mothers Temple. The name says it all doesn’t it? It’s a freaky, stir-fried declaration of freedom. If you never heard a note I still believe that you could find liberation in the name alone. Who is this Acid Mother and why does she have a temple? What kind of worship goes on there exactly and who are the clergy? I feel that the Acid Mother is a psychedelic hybrid of the great female archetypes mixed with science fiction beauty queens. A Gaian elemental wearing a Wonder Woman costume. That’s how the name hits me anyway. The music is a wonder as well. I don’t know how Kawabata Makoto and his shape shifting band of Merry Pranksters do it but they somehow manage to inflict massive aural damage but leave you happy that they did. They channel ancient Japanese dragon spirits and filter that power through a pulsing goo of Hendrix, Beefheart, white noise and thunder. The results are so maximumalist, so over the top, so ultra-baroque that they can be cartoonish.
That outcome is of course an intentional one. I think that scary power coming through as a colorfully spastic cartoon character must be an essential ingredient in Japanese culture and art. Look at Kabuki and Noh with their exaggerated and nightmarish facial colorings. Look at anime and manga. What about Sumo for God’s sake? Whatever that impulse means I can’t help but applaud it. The commitment and focus of intent shine through and carry the listener or viewer along. So of course it’s wonderful to have yet one more great new album from Acid Mothers Temple (& this time) The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. “Myth of the Love Electrique” is a super-charged blast from the get go. While it’s full of that awesome cartoonish power it also manages to touch on many aspects of AMT’s sound. Given their massive volume of output it can be hard at times to distinguish some of their albums from each other. While they are all great in their own ways there have been some outstanding exceptions. “Pataphysical Freak-Out Mu!”, “New Geocentric Worlds” and “Starless and Bible Black Sabbath” are all particularly stunning and so is this new one. A good AMT release is better than 80 % of the crap out there. A great one is simply mind-blowing. Due to the variety of tome and mood on this one, it skews towards the latter category. It runs the range from boiling speed-freak operas (The Man From Giacobinid Meteor Comet) to slippery psychedelic whispered mantras (Pink Lady Lemonade). The production is killer throughout and finally AMT have brought in a woman to fill the shoes vacated by Cotton Casino. Kitagawa Hao fits in like the proverbial hand in glove and provides a sexy hushed presence that nicely offsets the full throttle and explosive music. As good as many of their records are nothing touches Acid Mothers Temple live. The massive and joyful power they push forth in concert is a contagious force. And while no album could possibly contain this band’s spirit, “Myth of the Love Electrique” is still a welcome addition their seemingly inexhaustible catalog.