ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

"Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O." is the debut full-length studio album by Japanese psychedelic/space rock act Acid Mothers Temple (a shorted version of their full name which is the same as the title of this album). The album was released in 1997 through P.S.F. Records. Acid Mothers Temple formed in 1995 by guitarist Kawabata Makoto who gathered a group of like minded individuals and recorded a few self-released tapes before being signed for the release of "Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.".

While the material on the album is undoubtedly psychedelic/space rock it´s an almost avantgarde version of the style. "Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O." is an incredibly noisy, random, and presumably improvised recording (it sounds like all instruments are playing their own thing at random on top of each other with little connection between them) and I´m often reminded of the most noisy and avantgarde krautrock releases from the late 60s/early 70s German scene. "Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O." is a harsh and uninviting listen which will sound like utter noise to many listeners.

At least for the first 18-19 minutes of the album after which things calm down a bit to a low monotonous drone. After a couple of minutes the listener is treated to something which sounds like folky psychedelic Gong on a bad acid trip and then the noise begins again...and then back to the monotonous drone. About 25 minutes into the album eerie voices and sound effects create a strange tapestry of gloomy darkness. More noise ensues and then around 35 minutes into the album an almost tranquil section comes in with birds chirping and something which resembles an actual melody theme is being played for the first time. After about 10 minutes the tranquil section crescendos into another noise section which lasts for about 5 minutes before the eerie closing section finishes the 52:59 minutes long album...oh but not before Acid Mothers Temple throws a nasty feedback tone at the listener which last for a couple of minutes.

There are many examples of improvised psychedelic/space rock out there and even some pretty inaccessible examples of that, but "Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O." takes the prize or being one of the most unpleasant and inaccessible releases I´ve experienced in the genre. The album features no redeeming qualities...noisy lo-fi sound production values, random musicianship where you can´t hear or know if the musicians can actually play an instrument (safe for a few sections), and songs which go nowhere. Most of the album is awful and painful noise and had a few blast beats been added to the music those sections could just as well have been noisy and lo-fi recorded grindcore. People are welcome to listen to what they want, but to my ears this is not a listenable release. A 0.5 star (10%) rating is warranted.

The first thing that appears clearly is the reason why the lineup is made of about 15 musicians. You need a lot of people to make all that noise. I have tried to listen to this album very carefully, and after the first 10 minutes the only relevant things are voices (maybe?) and electric guitar that could have been recorder directly from the Pompeii's version of a saucerful of secrets. The problem is that those sounds are lost in the noise. The rhythmic base is probably 7/4, I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter very much, as all the instruments play noise. At about 11 minutes, the bass tries some variations, but they can be catched only with a lot of attantion, apart when the drums are listenable. That's when a structure seems to appear (minute 12:30 more or less). At minute 15 I start wondering why there are so many "subtitles" to the only track present. It's true the the first minute is quiet and totally different, but at this point it justifies only 2 sub-track names, not 11. The bass base stops at minute 18 40 seconds later tho noise stops and a (keyboard?) chord fills the scene. Something like Tangerine Dream's Zeit. A distorted voice starts sayin something, and this is not bad. A bit of krautrock? Surprise! A string instrument (acoustic guitar) and some voices appear and leave suddenly to give room to drums and a different type of noise. This is not casual. Noise and pauses appear to be studied. At minute 24 it becomes purely "electronic", in the original mening of the word. Like a 50s SciFi soundtrack, with the addition of distorted voices. Unfortunately it turns back to noise in few seconds. At minute 26 I decide to give up. I resist until minute 28, but it's too much. I'll go for a bit of "snow goose" now.

If you REALLY like psichedelia, you can give it a try. Two stars only for real fans of the genre.