The onslaught continues. Makoto Kawabata, lead guitarist for the Japanese freakout collective
Acid Mothers Temple, has issued yet another side project -- it seems there is either an
Acid Mothers or solo record coming out every month (maybe more than one). In any case, it hardly matters, because this is one of the strongest things ever released by Kawabata. Accompanied by bassist Tsuyama Atsushi and drummer Ichiraku Yoshimitsu, Kawabata wastes no time in taking the exploration to the stratosphere on the 27-minute opener, "Theme of Hot Rattlesnakes." Right, it's all jamming. And what sublime jamming it is. Kawabata and his counterparts never take the easy way out. There is no constant riffing here to get a groove and move from there, no song structures to be used as easy backdrops for liftoff points. It's all exploration and it's all rock. While
the Acid Mothers can be extreme to the point of unlistenability at times, this music is extreme in another way, in the way
Jimi Hendrix was extreme -- in dynamics, sonic texture, space, and in his use of time slippage. Kawabata and his Mothers of Invasion use the studio as a mirror, and create a live performance within it. Yoshimitsu's unreal drumming carries the weight in this ensemble, as Mitch Mitchell did with
Hendrix, yet keeps both Kawabata and Atsushi moving in concentric circles ever outward, weaving the two instruments in the middle of the jam so tightly that they cease to have individual identities. On the humorously titled solo guitar piece, "Frippian Flipped Over Niffy Their King of Frippery," a multi-note repetitive pattern (only remotely similar to something the guy whose name gets played on here would ever actually play) becomes something else almost immediately; the mirror image of tape delay becomes the bedrock for a host of lush sonics that all but swallow the guitar's sound inside itself, becoming a blur of texture and low-end blissed-out choruses. The final track, "French Sweet Sugar House," brings back the trio and the assault is on the unknown, on the boundaries of rock, jazz, and free improvisation, all played with such mastery and toughness that it's almost unbearable for 15 minutes. This is acid music. This is music as acid. This is acid as music. This is music. ~ Thom Jurek