Are Acid Mothers Temple any good?

Acid Mothers are wonderful. "New Geocentric" and "In C" are both fantastic. My fave is "Novia," though.

But High Rise are the shit. That's my fave Japanese psych band. Get "2," just amazing stuff.

we've done threads on several jap bands. try to look for albums by japanese bands on the PSF label (high rise, fushitsusha, white heaven, etc.). I started a thread opn fushitsusha somewhere because I think they are one of the greatest bands evah. PSF reelased a few compilations (3 or 4) of plenty of jap bands. That will give you agood idea for sure.

they are from the 'psychedelic' part of things.

Then there are bands/acts who do 'noise'. Heard some masonna and merzbow but it's the least interesting to me and I haven't got the money so that got left behind.

good luck!

mike daddino said it best, so i don't have to:

The Boredoms are super-secret spy scientists with cool sunglasses who’ve discovered that krautrock is an infinitely renewable resource. The Boredoms believe that there are three chords with the majesty of crypts and galaxies. The Boredoms are holy holy holy sun-worshipping motherfuckers blessing the cosmos in their spaceship powered only by enthusiasmos. The Boredoms hear the universe singing. The Boredoms raise their arms to the sky to feel the soul of every electronic cricket chirp and every lumbering gas giant gently kiss their fingertips and smile.

The Boredoms will rebuild the world.

The Boredoms say there is a light that never goes out.

yeah whatever. eye himself said it better:

"the boredoms are like a moon on a lake. only there is no moon and no lake. only boredoms. so do not talk as if there is an actual thing called boredoms-nature."

AMT are good fun, though. New album on Earworm's a beaut, as I muttered elsewhere.

Somehow I find the idea of a 60-minute-long song of psychedelic noodling frightening in the extreme. Although that double LP with the nudie ladeez on the front had its entertaining moments.

yeah i tend to approach AMT from the PURE ROCK FUN angle (esp after seeing em do a live soundtrack to legend of the overfiend ahhhh bliss) but i worry that i'm missing out a little on some of the smaller maybe more personal releases. obv i don't mean like those CD- Rs from when kawabata was like 11 but has anyone given "la novia" a proper listen? it's languishing on the PILE at home but i cannot summon the resources to take it seriously for some reason.

oops yancey you like la novia most but it's not like the other ones yes?

Somehow I find the idea of a 60-minute-long song of psychedelic noodling frightening in the extreme.

Give into the jam. You will find love.

has anyone given "la novia" a proper listen?

yeah, i've been listening to it for a year now? where have you been? :-p seriously, though, it's probably my favorite AMT release, truly managing to resonate with the kind of weird beauty of krautrock and similar things (amon duul II, catherine ribeiros and alpes, ash ra tempel)... weird throatsinging, beautiful massed harmonies, total rock-outs. it's great. i've lost interest in their new releases recently (too many releases, irritating reissues "with 10 bonus tracks!!" of albums that just came out 6 months earlier, general overexposure) but "la novia," the three PSF releases and "absolutely freak-out!" are tops.

AMT: I like the newer stuff (In C, Novia, Geocentric) more than the early total freak out stuff. They have a new 3-CD set out, that I understand is apparently more in line with freak out stuff.

Boredoms: As a fan, I say greatest band of the last 20 years. Otherwise, I say just a darn great band.

Bore Side projects:

Hanatarash: Eye's band before Boredoms, but defunct as of '94 or so. Very noisy, a bit like early Boredoms, but more on the violent, grotesque side. Most Bore-nuts think they're the absolute shit. I've only heard '4' (massive document of dadaist sound collage) and '5' (massive document of electro blip and scream).

Grind Orchestra: featuring ex-Bore member Yoshikawa. Intense, tribal drum stuff. Pretty good, though Yoshikawa kind of gets annoying after awhile.

UFO or Die: Eye, Yoshimi and another guitar player. A little like Pop Tatari-era Boredoms, though perhaps more overtly 'rock' (ie, punk). Pretty good, if a tad on the monolithic side.

Omoide Hatoba: Yamamoto's band. A lot like Chocolate Synth-era Boredoms. Sometimes can be poppy too, in a psychedelic way. Albums are spotty, but when they work, they're as good as the mother band.

MC Hellshit & DJ Carhouse: Eye and Otomo Yoshihide. This strange project gets love around ILM for some reason. Kind of funny, but non- essential says me.

OOIOO: Yoshimi's band. Takes the later style of Boredoms and cleans it up a little. I've never really gotten on their train, but there are actually people out there that heard about these guys before Boredoms.

Rovo: guitar player is Yamamoto from Boredoms. Energetic post-rock, with much improv. Kind of like the Weather Report without horns. Or melodies. And some electronics.

I'm not sure its a Boredoms connection, but Psycho Baba put out an interesting record a couple of years ago. Very Indian influenced, lots of sitar & tabla, but combined w/ rock instruments.

boredoms wise, there's some amazing rare stuff floating around in the world of filesharing - boretronix 2 is a favorite, as well as the various EPs they releases around "vision creation" and "super ae". also worth checking out is the puzzle punks "budub" album; really fucked up electronics and voice, no coherent stylistic theme but somehow it sounds like an album.

For AMT In C and La Novia are probably the most interesting. I found the first album was best used as a soundtrack for running, it wasn't safe to listen to it at home. Lots of other albums are a bit mixed stylewise from spaceout grooves to manic riffing. Sometimes in the same (often very long) track. LA Novia is a definite album of the year - any year as its been reissued in different forms a few times.

I'm no boredoms expert but nobody could fail to love Vision Creation Newsun.

i have to say i think AMT are a severely overrated pile of shit only old hippies must like. "oh those inscrutable japanese" they fawn. fuckin listenb to hawkwind's space ritual - that's probably the best of this AWFUL sort of music.

AMT are G*R*A*T*E. most of their music is full-on wibbly spacerock like Momma used to make. But their La Novia album is based on Occitanian folk music from the South of France, only they sing it like they are throat singers.

If they play live near you, go and see them. You will not regret it. And bring loads of money so you can buy some of the albums they will be selling.

I'm not sure its a Boredoms connection, but Psycho Baba

Yeah, Yoshimi and ATR are in that band. I haven't heard them though. There's another project called AOA featuring bassist Hira, that I think is a techno/trance band -- but again, haven't heard them. I'm downloading some stuff tonight.

I'll burn that Psycho Baba record for you next time -- it's got a few great moments.

there was a good article about this stuff on pitchfork awhile back, maybe a computer whiz can link it for ya. it was linked on an old acid mothers ILM thread from last year.

if that's the same article i'm remembering fritz it was terrible! (pitchfork in is rub shocker, i know i know.) the amt article in the wire made me excited to hear them and then i was, well, i wouldn't say thoroughly disappointed when i did, but jeez. zzzzzzz. next time see if you can channel some cosmiche transmissions from beyond which actually do something for me.

I've heard a lot of the early AMT stuff. Real early recordings. The man responsible for getting me into this style of music was a neighbor of mine while I was growing up -- Butch. He has since founded Squealor Records, which puts out the AMT and High Rise releases in the States. He has scores of demos and early recordings from both bands that are just amazing. And a great guy to boot!

I don't really remember the quality of the writing in that Pitchfork thing, Jess, but it seemed pretty thorough & well-researched. (NB: I still haven't heard of any of this stuff, so I do not know what I'm talking about.)

The Pitchfork article was mostly for a list of bands from the Japanese psyche scene (which isn't even really a big scene). I thought Luke did a good job of detailing the major players. I wrote a similar one for avant-prog, and with a similar goal of just trying to get all the biggest names in one place, and a little background.

I will say this: I like AMT, but I don't love them.

To weigh in on AMT - The In C record is really pretty great, and I was a bit underwhelemed by what I've heard of the earlier stuff. Maybe they're cranking out so much music you have find which ones line up w/ your own tastes.

best Boredoms side project is

MOST

Got a CDR from Japan and it is like Black Flag via Boredoms. HEAVY rock. I think it came out last year. Yamamoto on guitar.

best Boredoms side project is MOST

Yeah, Phew is in that band too. Yamamoto and Phew are also in a band called Novo Tono, with Otomo Yoshihide, that is great as well. They only put out one record, in 1996, but are supposed to be working on a new one. Very cool avant-pop stuff.

Any AMT and Boredoms fans not allergic to a bit of the heavy metal might dig Boris. They work from a solid basis of Sabbath/Melvins/Earth(i.e. doomy, dirgey psychedelia), but certainly are not afraid to take it in any direction they might fancy--ethnic percussion jams, lengthy ambient feedback mantras, monolithic takes on Mogwai-ish post-rock. They've even collaborated with Keiji Haino and Merzbow. If you can find/afford their albums(always the tricky part of embracing the wide spectrum of Japanese rock), "Amplifier Worship" and "Flood" will rock the parts of you that need rocking quite effectively.

Any AMT and Boredoms fans not allergic to a bit of the heavy metal might dig Boris.

anyone with any sense should dig boris. day-umn! but i'm not sure the average AMT/boredoms lover would be into the monolithic minimalism of them. can't wait to hear "heavy rocks"...

back to the boredoms thing, i just DLed the psychobaba "kedar lodge" album; it sounds almost exactly like everything else boredoms related has in the past two years. i love that sound (organic/electronic/hippie/beats/drones) but it might need to...go somewhere else...soon. if you listened to "vision creation" "rebore 0" any rovo album and psychobaba in a row, you'd get tired of it REAL fast. or, rather, I would.

Yes. Brilliant. Electric Heavyland, New Geocentric World, and Pataphysical Freakout Mu are probably my favorites, but all are great - with the possible exception of the "Cosmic Funky Dolly" 3", which is a bit hard to find anyway.

I was listening to "Absolutely Freak Out! Zap Your Mind!" in the car on the way to & from work today. That one is great too, but a bit too synthblip-heavy for my taste. Great, but not at the top of the list.

I got "New Geocentric Worlds" and found the noisy guitar stuff on it to be utterly irredeemable - the trouble is the guy is simply not a good enough guitarist to pull off all that endless ernie-ernie guitarwank soloing shit. I quite liked the quieter moments on it. I also got an album by the main guy in AMT, called "I'm Your Innermost" or something (I actually got sold it as a bargain bin SINGLE for one pound!) and it kind of summed one of the problems I have with a lot of Japanese musicians - that they spend most of their time trying very hard to sound exactly like whatever album they've been listening to this week.

I still haven't heard any acid mothers temple.

the new one, Universe Zero or whatever, may be my favorite of theirs. The quieter moments are some of their best (track 2) and track 3 is a monster. Awesome