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Archive for the ‘Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.’ Category

Alice Iseman–Heartstopper: Volume 2 (2019)

Posted in Acid Mothers Gong, Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Alice Iseman, Gong, Graphic Novel, Japanese Music, Kissing, LGBTQ, Romance, Set at School, YA Books on June 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ACID MOTHERS GONG-Live Tokyo (2006).

Gong is a band that started in Paris in 1967 by Daevid Allen.  The band is still active and has seen many many lineup changes over the years.  From 2003-2004 the band included members of Acid Mothers Temple.  They released a weird (well, all Gong albums are pretty weird) album called Acid Motherhood.  And then released this live document in 2006.

The line up was Daevid Allen – guitar gliss, vocals/fx; Gilli Smyth  – space whisperer; Josh Pollack – guitar, megaphone; Kawabata Makoto – guitar, voices; Cotton Casino – synth, voices; Hiroshi Higashi – synth, voices; Yoshida Tatsuya – drums, sampler; Tsuyama Atsushi – bass, whistle, vocals.

Gong used a sped up vocal technique a lot, which you can hear in the opening 40 second song called “Gnome.”  Gnome introduces Acid Mother Gong and  segues into “Ooom Ba wAH!” which is improvised processed sped up vocal nonsense.

“Crazy Invisible She” is a nearly 4 minute spoken piece by Gilli that segues into “The Unkilling Of Octave Docteur DA 4J.”  This is a nine minute jam with trippy chords and a two note riff.  There’s wild soloing and trippy space keys.  “Avahoot Klaxon Diamond Language Ritual” has more nonsensical spoken word with wild drums and guitars.  The guitar turns into a siren as chanting begins and segues into “Rituel: Umbrage Demon Stirfry & Its Upcum,” a three minute fast chanted piece with distorted voices and rocking chords.

“Jesu Ali Om Cruci-Fiction” is a ninety second swirling feedback segue into “Ze Teapot Zat Exploded” (“Flying Teapot” alternate title) a nine minute song that feels like a proper song.  It starts with a riff and then the whole band jumps in.  About halfway through someone starts singing (in English!).

“Eating Colonel Saunders Upside Down” sounds like a 7 minute transmission from outer space with a slow beat then turns into a kind of tribal chanting and ends with a high pitched voice singing a wild melody.  “Vital Info That Should Never Be Spoken” is a spoken word piece in which the sound regularly cuts out making it very hard to understand this vital info.

“Parallel Tales Of Fred Circumspex” is a five minute recited piece about Frederick in English and possibly translated into Japanese as they go?  Or is it something else?  By the end he is chanting how everyone is nude.  I guess the nude people then go to “The Isle Of Underwear.” I’m not sure why its called this as it is “Pink Lady Lemonade.”  Aafter 8 minutes someone gently sings the words of “Pink Lady Lemonade.”

“Ohm Riff Voltage 245″is 8 minutes of faster and faster chanting with lots of drums.  Then it turns into slow jamming until the end.  It segues into “Totalatonal Farewell To The Innocents” which is full of soaring sounds and deep sing song chanting that turns into a bouncy jam. By the end, the gnome voice is back.  And the show ends.

You have to be in a very specific headspace to really get into this.

[READ: June 20, 2021] Heartstopper 2

I enjoyed Heartstopper Volume 1 so much I couldn’t wait for Volume 2.  The story is so sweet and kind, I was happy that volume 2 kept up that level of joy.

I also enjoyed that Iseman opened the book with a little drama, but that it was resolved pretty quickly.

In Volume 1 we meet Charlie, who is gay.  He befriends a boy named Nick who is straight.  Charlie is unlike anyone who Nick has hung out with–he usually hangs out with jocks. Charlie is so much the opposite it’s a breath of fresh a air for Nick.  And suddenly, Nick realizes that he is falling for Charlie.

At the end of Volume 1 they kissed…

But as Volume 2 opens we see Charlie’s diary and he is very upset because Nick ran off and didn’t text or anything.  He thinks he ruined everything.  Then we see Nick trying to type his feelings in a text.  He’s sorry for running off, he really likes Charlie, he was just scared.  But he decides it would be better to say something in person.

The next morning, Charlie wakes to the doorbell.  He is in his PJs and with behead and Nick is standing there.  Nick explains everything and suddenly they are having a wonderful day together.

I love the way Iseman draws them–so sweet and loving. (more…)

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Chicano Batman / Le Butcherettes (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, June 16, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again]

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Chicano Batman, Coronavirus, Le Butcherettes, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Union Transfer on June 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: June 16, 2021] Chicano Batman / Le Butcherettes [rescheduled from May 3, 2020; moved to December 15, 2021]

index

I know of Chicano Batman through some songs on WXPN and through a cool Tiny Desk Concert.  They play a groovy psychedelia that is laced with soul and funk and indie rock.

There’s always a great bass sound that underpins Bardo Martinez’s soft vocals.

They also have a great name.

The more I hear them the more I think they’d be fun to see live.  Last time they came to town, they were opening for someone.  But this tour they are headlining.

Le Butcherettes I also know from a Tiny Desk Concert.  Teri Gender Bender is a great punk front woman. She channels different vocal styles and can rock with the best of them.  She is also unafraid to stare at the audience.  I imagine she’d be an intense experience.

I was unable to see them in May (that was Acid Mothers Temple night), but I’m free on the new date.

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Cullen Bunn, Andy MacDonald–Rogue Planet (2021)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Aliens, Cullen Bunn, Death, Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Outer Space, Violence, Yuck! on May 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.-The Ripper at the Heaven’s Gates of Dark (2011).

I’m not sure why this era of AMT seems so readily available on CD, but this is another collection of songs from the lineup of Tsuyama Atsushi – monster bass, voice, soprano sax, cimpo flute, soprano recorder, acoustic guitar, cosmic joker Higashi Hiroshi – synthesizer, dancin’king Shimura Koji – drums, latino cool Kawabata Makoto – electric guitar, electric bouzouki, sitar, organ, percussion, electronics, speed guru.

It has 5 songs and comes in at just around 75 minutes.

The album titles tend to be amusing twists on classic rock albums (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), but usually the music doesn’t sound all that classic rock.  But on this album, they changed that.

“Chinese Flying Saucer” is 12 minutes long and opens with a kind of siren sound going high then low and then a big old guitar riff launches.   It feels like a classic rock riff, but it is original.  When Tsuyama starts singing, the whole thing comes together like a Led Zeppelin tribute.  The riff is classic Zep the vocals (indecipherable as they are) are tally Robert Plant–echoed and high pitched with lots of moaning. There’s even a “Kashmir”-like riff in the middle.  It’s remarkably fun and really accessible.  The big non-Zeppelin moment comes with Kawabata’s solo which is just insanity.

After about four minutes the song shifts gears and takes off for outer space with rumbling bass and soaring keys.  They jam for about five minutes and then return to the initial riff to end the song.

“Chakra 24” is only four minutes long and is a slower sitar based song with raspy vocals.  It’s quite pretty.

But the brevity is soon gone with the fifteen minute “Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn.”  It’s a slow droney song with sitar and lots of keys.  This time when Tsuyama starts singing it’s in a very Jim Morrison style–ponderous and over the top.  There’s even a spoken word part.  Imagine in Morrison’s voice “some people coming here… some people coming here and…” There’s some wild organ trippiness in this song that stretched in ways The Doors never did.

The cleverly titled “Shine on You Crazy Dynamite” is almost 22 minutes long and sounds like old school pink Floyd.  Not “Crazy Diamond” era, but earlier, more like “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.”  Kawabata’s solos really shine on this one, with squeaky echoes and a metal bars slide up the neck.  The keyboards also sound like Richard Wright.   After 17 minute or so off wild guitar freak out, the guitar fades back a bit to let the pulsing bass take over with the echoing voices continuing to the end.

“Electric Death Mantra” is a twenty minute chill out.  It’s a slower piece with lots of high pitched spacey notes floating around, which Kawabata plays bouzouki and Tsuyama sigs (in his normal style).  With about eight minutes left things get really quiet with a quiet rumbling drums and echoed sounds and notes from the guitar while overdubbed vocals chant and chant.  Then it slowly starts to build up again, with faster and faster bouzouki and Kawabata’s wailing solo.

[READ: May 25, 2021] Rogue Planet

Oni Press was one of my favorite young imprints when I first started reading graphic novels.  Then I lost track of it.  So I was pleased to see this book from them.

I was a little turned off by it because it happened to be one of several books I brought home that just seemed to revel in blood and guts (was there a run on red ink recently?)

The book turned out to be (totally gross) interesting.  And I was pleased with the way it handled a somewhat complicated story in one volume.

The book opens on the rogue planet.  Life on the planet consists of a bunch of ET- looking creatures.  The older one speaks to its son, complimenting him on his intelligence before sacrificing him to the giant crystal that is growing out of the ground.  The giant crystal, which is covered in and surrounded by flesh and eyes and teeth and all kinds of gross stuff.  It’s really horrible-looking. (more…)

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Nick Jones–And Then She Vanished [Joseph Bridgeman #1] (2021)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Nick Jones, Psychometry, The Beatles, Time Travel, Trilogy, Unfinished series on May 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.-Cometary Orbital Drive (2008).

Cometary Orbital Drive was one of three albums that AMT released in 2008.

It features the same lineup as the other releases around this time.

  • Tsuyama Atsushi – bass, voice, cosmic joker
  • Higashi Hiroshi – synth, guitar, voice, dancin’ king
  • Shimura Koji – drums, Latino cool
  • Kawabata Makoto – guitar, voice, speed guru.

This album has four songs on it although they are more or less variations of the same song.  They released a similar album in 2013 called Cometary Orbital Drive to 2199 which featured about 70 more minutes of variations on this theme.

“Light My Fire Ball” is thirteen minutes long and opens with slow ringing bowls (I assume).  It’s very serene. Then Tsuyama, adds vocal sounds and squeaks and noises.  The band starts playing a groove and Tsuyama sings in an over the top kind of crooning way.  The middle more mellow psychedelia and then it gets wild again with strange vocals noises and weird synth sounds as it segues into track two.

“Planet Billions Of Light-Years Away” is almost 27 minutes long and it introduces the six note melody that will play in one form or another for the next 50 minutes.   As the guitar plays, the synths soar to the heaves and the drums plays a slow beat with lots of hi hat.  It gets slowly faster and faster and then at 10 minutes Kawabata takes off with the start of an interstellar solo. The bass starts meandering and pumping and by14 minutes, the tone of the six note riff changes, becoming more of a lead riff as the song is now propelling pretty quickly.  By 17 minutes you are totally absorbed in this hypnotic melody and then Kawabata takes off with more soloing.   By 25 minutes the song is just soaring away faster than anything–the songs pummels away until the 26 and a half minute marks when the guitar fades out and the synths start until they resume once more in track 3.

After a 30 second intro, the seventeen minute “Circular System 7777777” resumes that same six note melody.  This time slow and ponderous and echoing.  After a few minutes the new beat enters and it’s got a kind of disco feel to it.  The song starts pumping faster for a bit then it slows and picks up once more.  After ten minutes things pause before resuming again, this time more intensely than before.  With four minutes left things start to slow down again and then the guitars fade out and a synth line (and echoing percussion) segues into the final track.

“Milky Way Star” is only 13:32 and it opens with a thunderous snare drum fill and then the fastest rockingest version of the six note riff yet.  Kawabata solos madly, the bass and drums rock out and that riff repeats throughout the track.  The song zooms along getting faster and faster while Kawabata goes nuts. Somehow around 9 minutes they pick up the tempo even faster until around 11 minute when whole things collapses on itself with some wild noise and a new outro guitar riff buried under the chaos.  The chaos clears and the outro riff shines through until it too fades away leaving only a synth chord to show you the way out.

[READ: May 1, 2021] And Then She Vanished

This book came across my desk at work and I thought it sounded really interesting.

When Joseph Bridgeman was young (pre-teen, I believe), he went to a Fun Fair with his sister, Amy.  She encouraged him to try his luck at the rifle range (she wanted to win the big prize).  While Joseph was shooting (and doing very ell), Amy disappeared.

There was no trace of her.

And it has haunted him for his life these last twenty years or so.

I happened to see on the back of the book that this was listed as Joseph Bridgeman Book One.  This made me a little nervous, because while I don’t mind a series, I didn’t want to read a book that finished on a cliffhanger.

Fortunately, this book does not end on a cliff hanger.  Rather, Book Two is set up as a kind of next stage, which makes the story even more intriguing.

So anyhow, Joseph is an antiques dealer and he has the gift of psychometry, which means that he can discover facts about an event or person by touching inanimate objects associated with them.  That’s a pretty good skill to have for an antiques dealer.

But lately he has no motivation to do any work.  He has been plagued by recurring nightmares about his sister.  His mother is suffering from dementia.  His father is not around.   The only help he has is his father’s friend who agreed to look after him and his business.

The friend also encourages Joseph to go to a hypnotherapist.

Having just read the Bernard O’Shea book where he scoffs at Mindfulness (and then winds up embracing it), I was amused to have Joseph Bridgeman also scoff at Mindfulness and then embrace it.

I have to say, if you have psychometry you should be open to hypnotherapy.

Alexia Finch is the hypnotherapist and she is pretty great at it.  He feels comfortable wit her instantly and for the first time in ages he feels relaxed and rested.  He even feels like he went somewhere else while in her office.

When he gets home, he tries some of her relaxation techniques and discovers that he doesn’t fall sleep.  He time travels.  That’s right.  He was thinking about the day and while he was focusing, he wound up appearing a few hours earlier and watched himself come home.

Obviously he is freaked out about this.  And, of course, he knows not to let his earlier self see him, because that’s bad news. (more…)

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Primo Levi–“A Tranquil Star” (New Yorker, February 12, 2007)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Ann Goldstein, New Yorker, Outer Space, Primo Levi, Short Story, Work on May 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.-Lord of the Underground: Vishnu and the Magic Elixir (2009).

A lot of AMT music sounds vaguely similar with Kawabata’s wild guitar noodling (and because they always play “Pink Lady Lemonade”) but this album really changes things up because Kawabata plays the bouzouki, saz and sitar which adds a Middle Eastern flavor to the proceedings.

There’s three songs on this album, one really short one, one really long one and one really really really long one.  The lineup is the same as other albums from this period, although the instrumentation has changed a bit:

  • Tsuyama Atsushi: monster bass, voice, acoustic guitar, alto recorder, flute, toy trumpet, kazoo, cosmic joker
  • Higashi Hiroshi: synthesizer, dancin’king
  • Shimura Koji: drums, latino cool
  • Kawabata Makoto: electric guitar, bouzouki, saz, sitar, organ, percussion, speed guru

“Eleking the Clay” is fourteen minutes long.  Kawabata plays a simple, fast, rocking riff on the bouzouki while Tsuyama Atsushi sings along.  At around five minutes Kawabata starts a wild solo while the rest of the band continues chugging along.  Near the end the keys take over and the bass starts going predictably wild.  It’s interesting to hear the familiar mixed with the new here.

“Sorcerer’s Stone of the Magi” is a short guitar piece at just under 4 minutes.  Acoustic guitar chords and a lead sitar play a bouncing melody while the singer sings along.  The track is full of bird song and chatter in the background.  A lovely pastoral piece.

“Vishnu and the Magic Elixir” is the monster song on this album at over 25 minutes long.  It starts off slowly with single notes on the sitar but the echoing notes almost give it a Western feel at the same time.  The trippy synth sounds make the song sound like Middle East meets the Old West in outer space.

Tsuyama starts adding in pig snorts and mocking laughter after and around 6 minutes some growling and singing are followed by the kazoo (!).  By around ten minutes the song starts to pick up the tempo with the bass really taking the lead and meandering around.  Kawabata’s solo starts to get intense around this time as well.  Then Tsuyama throws in some toy trumpet.  Things build and build and by 17 minutes it’s a full on wild freak out that lasts almost until the end of the song.  Although by 25 minutes the song stats to fade with echoing notes giving the song a proper ending.

And, yes, I don’t really know the difference between a bouzouki and a saz, so I could be wrong about what he’s playing.

[READ: May 1, 2021] “A Tranquil Star”

This very short story was translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein.

The story concerns a star and its observer.  The star was a peaceful star and it was very big and very hot.  But words are meaningless on this scale, right?  Australia is very far, an elephant is very big, I can have a hot bath.

The thing was though, that the star was not so tranquil.  It was just hard to observe from earth.   Arab and Chinese astronomers were aware of the star, but Europeans were too busy with earthly pursuits to notice.  The Arab watched it for 30 years and watched how it performed differently at different times.

But when he died, the star took no notice. (more…)

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Orhan Pamuk–“My First Passport: What does it mean to belong to a country?” (New Yorker, April 9, 2007)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Culture Shock, Essays, Foreign Books, Geneva, Switzerland, Jean-Paul Sartre, Language, Maureen Feely, New Yorker, Orhan Pamuk, Parenting, Paris, France, Set at School, Translation, Turkey on May 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.-Pink Lady Lemonade ~ You’re From Inner Space (2011).

This album is something like the fortieth AMT album and somewhere in the middle of the band’s tenure with this lineup:

Tsuyama Atsushi: monster bass, voice, cosmic joker
Higashi Hiroshi: synthesizer, dancin’ king
Shimura Koji: drums, latino cool
Kawabata Makoto: guitar, guitar synthesizer, speed guru

The album consists of one song, the title track, broken into 4 parts all based around a simple, but rather lovely guitar melody

 “Part 1” is 32 minutes long.  It begins with the opening guitar melody which plays along with some trippy sounds.  Tsuyama is reciting the words (in Japanese?  English?  Gibberish?) and occasionally you hear the words “Pink lady Lemonade.”  At around 12 minutes drums and bass are added.  Once the bass starts meandering through some catchy riffs, Kawabata starts soloing.  It’s pretty far down in the mix (the main melody continues throughout).  Then around 22 minutes Tsuyama starts adding the monster bass–wild riffs that go up and down the fretboard.  With about 5 minutes left Kawabata starts playing s louder solo–louder than the rest of the music–and you can really hear him wailing away.   Part 1 fades out completely before jumping into Part 2.

“Part 2” is only 5 minutes, but it is utter chaos, with everyone making a big pile of noise–keyboard banging, sliding bass, thumping drums and wild, seemingly uncontrollable guitars.  It ends five minutes later with some warbling keys

Then comes “Part 3,” which runs just over the minutes.  It’s a faster chord version of the same guitar intro with slow bass notes and a big guitar solo.  It changes shape and adds some discoey bass lines.  About midway through the synths take over and while there is music in the background the song becomes mostly washes of sounds.

“Part 4” ends the disc at just over 18 minutes.  It picks up with the original guitar melody once more.  This time, it’s only a minute until the drums and bass kick in and the soling begins.  At five and a half minutes the guitar solo gets really loud and takes over.  The soloing is wild for over ten minutes and then around 13 minutes the song grows very quiet with only the lead guitar and the heavily echoed main riff playing.

There’s on online version here that has this entire record but adds six minutes at the end of the last part which is mostly the introductory melody and some washes of keys over the top.  i rather like this extra 6 minutes and it feels like a really nice ending.

 

[READ: May 1, 2021] “My First Passport”

This essay was translated from the Turkish by Maureen Feely.

Pamuk talks about people travelling from Turkey when he was young.  First it was his father, who left the country when Orhan was seven.  No one heard a word from him for several weeks when he turned up in Paris.  He was writing notebooks and regularly saw John-Paul Sartre.   He had become one of the penniless and miserable Turkish intellectuals who had been walking the streets of Paris.  Initially Orhan’s grandmother sent Orhan’s father money but eventually she stopped subsidizing her bohemian son in Paris.

When he ran out of money he got a job with I.B.M. and was transferred to Geneva.  Soon after Orhan’s mother joined his father but left Orhan and his brother with the grandparents.  They would follow when school was done.

Orhan sat for his first passport photo (included in the essay).  Thirty years later he realized that they had put the wrong eye color down–“a passport is not a document that tells us who were are but a document that shows what other people think of us.” (more…)

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Acid Mothers Temple / ST 37 (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, March 8, 2021) [rescheduled date CANCELLED]

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Cancelled, Coronavirus, Philadelphia, PA, Quarantine, ST 37, Underground Arts on March 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: March 8, 2021] Acid Mothers Temple / ST 37 [rescheduled from May 3, 2020]

indexI had just checked to see the status of this show and the following day it was announced that their tour was cancelled.  Not surprising of course, but still sad.

A message from the artist

Acid Mothers Temple’s upcoming US tour dates that were set to take place in February – March have unfortunately been cancelled due to COVID19.  Refunds will be available at your point of purchase.  We do look forward to having them back out in North America once the pandemic has settled down and it’s safe to do so.

I have seen Japanese psych rockers Acid Mothers Temple twice and each show was a whirlwind of fun and insanity.

I promised myself I would see them any time they came to town.  So I was very excited to see them again. (more…)

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Haruki Murakami–“Man-Eating Cats” (New Yorker, December 4, 2000)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Cats, Japanese Music, Kawabata Makoto, Kawabata Sachiko, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Philip Gabriel, Surreal, 河端一 on June 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »

20000000SOUNDTRACK: KAWABATA MAKOTO [河端一]-I’m in Your Inner Most (2001).

a3548319280_16Recently, Kawabata Makoto [河端一], mastermind behind Acid Mothers Temple, revealed a new bandcamp site for some newer releases.

This is Kawabata Makoto’s minimal music works by his own ensemble reissued in 2002 with a bonus track.

This album is in fact two parts of the same song (technically). And they’re the first of his solo works to predominantly feature organ.  It also features artwork by Kawabata Sachiko

“I’m In Your Inner Most Part.1″ (19.11)  starts with a repeated organ riff and (the inevitable) high-pitched feedback sounds.  This one also has the voice of Audrey Ginestet repeating one word (drift? drip? something in French?).  Every few measure a new item is added and repeated–mostly organ notes in a pattern or a scale.  The last five minutes or so feels like a two note siren as the high notes soar around the top.”

I’m In Your Inner Most Part.2″  (20.24)  opens with that repeated word.  This piece feels a biot more like an improv with organ and the tambura rotating through.

Kawabata Makoto is credited with electric organ, electric harpsichord, violin, tambura, percussion, electronics and electric guitar on this release.

The bonus track is called “Osculation (remix version)”  (15.32).  I can’t tell exactly what it is remixing as it sounds like parts of both songs are melded together.  There is a lot of church organ sounds and repeating motifs.  But around 11 minutes a grinding noise comes into the song and start to take over until the end is just all noise.

Like most of Kawabata’s solo album, this one feels improvised and off the cuff.  The inclusion of the organ however, makes this one solitary in his vast catalog.

[READ: June 13, 2020] “Man-Eating Cats”

Twenty years apart, Murakami has two surreal stories about animals. Actually, this one is far less surreal than the monkey story, but there is a supernatural component for sure.

The story opens with the narrator reading to Izumi from the newspaper.  The article is about a woman who died and her cats ate her–they had been alone in the apartment for about a week with no food.

Izumi wants to know what happened to the cats, but the paper doesn’t say.  She wonders if he were the town’s mayor or chief of police, would he have the cats put down?  He suggests reforming them into vegetarians, but Izumi didn’t laugh at that. (more…)

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Haruki Murakami–“Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey” (New Yorker, June 8 & 15, 2020)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Anton Bruckner, Drinking, Film & TV, Japanese Music, Kawabata Makoto, Monkeys, New Yorker, Philip Gabriel, Surreal, 河端一 on June 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

june8SOUNDTRACK: KAWABATA MAKOTO [河端一]-Jellyfish Rising (2005).

a1318054058_16Recently, Kawabata Makoto [河端一], mastermind behind Acid Mothers Temple, revealed a new bandcamp site for some newer releases.

This is another one of Kawabata Makoto’s minimal music works by electric guitars.  It also has two lengthy tracks.

“Astral Aurelia Aurita Laavarek” (28:05) is an echoing looping solo guitar piece.  It is chill and pretty. The looping is fairly quick until about 11 minutes when he slows it down to single notes.  The faster notes are still floating around in the background–ever so slowly fading away.  The pace speeds up and slows down through the rest of the song, creating a wall of new agey vibes.

“Meditation Of Pelagia Panopyra Perea” (27:16) is a similar style but deeper notes and a much lower backing drone.  This whole piece feels less relaxing but still soothing in a different way.

This might be my favorite solo record so far.

[READ: June 13, 2020] “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey”

The narrator met the titular monkey about five years ago in Gunma Province at a small Japanese-style inn.  He had arrived at the hot springs town and needed a place to crash for the night.  The place was practically a flophouse, but it was cheap and it was just one night.

But the hot springs bath was wonderful.  He was by himself and he spent a long time there, getting light-headed.

That’s when the monkey walked in and said “Excuse me.”  The monkey asked if the bath was satisfactory and if the narrator would like his back scrubbed (he did).

The monkey “didn’t have any clothes on.  Which, of course, is usually the case for a monkey, so it didn’t strike me as odd.” (more…)

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Emma Cline–“White Noise” (New Yorker, June 8 & 15, 2020)

Posted in Acid Mothers Temple, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Don DeLillo, Drinking, Drugs, Film & TV, Japanese Music, Kawabata Makoto, New Yorker, Parenting, Prison, Sexism, Sexual Assault, 河端一 on June 14, 2020| Leave a Comment »

june8SOUNDTRACK: KAWABATA MAKOTO [河端一]-That Awaking: Good​-​bye Me (2020).

a0192176181_16Recently, Kawabata Makoto [河端一], mastermind behind Acid Mothers Temple, revealed a new bandcamp site for some newer releases.

This album is his most recent release (and I believe the impetus for this new site).

This album has two sons, each over a half an hour.

On “Summoning Souls To Meet” (35:47), a quiet, pretty acoustic guitar melody plays throughout the background while on top comes a series of electric guitar noises an explorations.  It’s a pretty improvisational song that never goes too crazy in the experimentation (although there are a few times when he plays some wild solos).  That acoustic melody keeps it grounded.

“That Awaking : Good-bye Me” (31.29) opens with a piercing sound which slowly morphs into another beautiful acoustic melody.  He then overdubs a pretty electric wah wah guitar solo.  It’s a lovely piece of music, although I wish that piercing ringing note was not there (it wouldn’t be Kawabata if there weren’t some high frequency sound floating around).  Eventually, you lose that high note amid the wonderful soloing he’s doing.  It’s soaring and psychedelic, sometimes fast sometimes echoing.  The last ten minutes or so seem to have some backwards looping going on.

Kawabata Makoto recorded this in May 2020 using electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and driftbox.

[READ: June 13, 2020] “White Noise”

This story is about Harvey Weinstein, except that it technically isn’t.

It’s about a movie mogul named Harvey who is on trial for abusing women.  It basically covers a short time before his verdict.

I wondered why Cline would feel compelled to write this fictionalized account of such a dreadful man.  I don’t often read the accompanying interviews with writers (I guess I should). The important takeaway is that “Curiosity about a consciousness doesn’t translate into endorsement.” (more…)

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