Acid Mothers TempleLa NoviaReview

The Acid Mothers Temple discography seems to be expanding weekly with limited edition vinyl and CD-Rs cropping up on obscure labels all over the place. When you record live and have a band that's pretty much incapable of playing anything under 20 minutes long, there's a lot to release. No-one's complaining though, as guitarist Makoto Kawabata and friends seem to be on a roll at the moment in their quest to unite the drive of psychedelically fuelled rock with a deeper, more spiritual aesthetic.

The sprawling 40 minute title track is based on an Occitanian folk tune, and the unearthly acoustic opening with its overtone singing sounds like something that might have made its way on to a Werner Herzog soundtrack. Indeed once the guitars come in and the band stoke up their mighty drone, the effect is that of an amped up Popul Vuh, the German band who soundtracked many Herzog films. Ashra Tempel or Amon Duul are other reference points. At times, it's impossible to believe that this wasn't recorded in Berlin in 1972, such is the authenticity of the enterprise. But Kawabata's crew aren't merely K-tel Krautrockers; La Novia shows a deep respect for the traditional folk form and integrates it completely with the long forays into deep space that the leader's fuzz

"Bon Voyage au LSD", though a mere 17 and a half minutes long makes up for in intensity what it lacks in length, building up from a stark montage of synth cries and guitar shrieks to a bludgeoning trainwreck of a riff. Likely to send even your Granny on a trip to the outer regions of the known universe, this record should be handled with care.

Like This? Try These:
Kawabata Makota and the Mothers of Invasion - Hot Rattlesnakes
Neu! - Neu!
King Crimson - Earthbound, Thrak, USA