This album is the result of a jam session between Japanese veterans Acid Mothers Temple and experimental Italian combo Stearica. Those of you who haven\u2019t already rolled your eyes, navigated away from this page and retreated back into the comforting arms of an Arcade Fire review will find something to love here. As with any record which has been created spontaneously via improvisation, Stearica Invade Acid Mothers Temple contains some ropey moments and a significant amount of unfocused noodling, but there are also points at which everything comes together and the two bands sound like one many-armed, multi talented, all conquering psychedelic noise machine.<\/p>\n
The two bands recorded this music together because they wanted a memento of a joint European tour. One would think, then, that they got on jolly well, but Stearica Invade Acid Mothers Temple makes it sound as if they were continually at each other\u2019s throat, squabbling over the music played in the tour bus and hiding each other\u2019s hummus dips (or whatever it is that psychedelic rock bands consume to kill time between gigs). The songs collected here are atmospheric, and it\u2019s a tense, turbulent atmosphere, full of barely-suppressed anger. Album opener \u2018Vulture Chiama Fujiyama\u2019 serves as the calm before this storm. It sounds like the bands tuning up: there are occasional bursts of feedback, someone taps distractedly on their drums, nothing much of interest happens. But then, boom: \u2018Queen Kong\u2019 explodes into action, flexing its muscular bass and casually swiping subtlety out of sight. It\u2019s an unexpectedly base pleasure, seven minutes of very physical music driven by an unreasonably relentless rhythm section. Bird-like synth sounds swoop and wheel around a squall of dark, deep noise like seagulls circling a battleship.<\/p>\n
The similarly imposing \u2018Warp Lag\u2019 keeps things moving. It\u2019s a whirring, clacking kraut menace, the sound of Dami Suzuki operating heavy machinery. Buried somewhere beneath the crash and pound of the drums is a plaintive, pretty keyboard riff. \u2018Noodles and Peperoncino\u2019 initially continues along similar lines, riding a shuffling drumbeat in the direction of infinity, before the band unexpectedly lose interest and the song dissolves into a soup of pleasantly spacey, acid-frazzled sounds. \u2018I Nani\u2019 threatens to go absolutely nowhere, but then a wave of stormy noise washes over the track, re-engaging the listener just in time for the surprisingly delicate \u2018Inani\u2019 and the winding, snaking, twisting progressive psychedelia of epic closer \u20197 Alieni Al Di Sopra Di Ogni Sospetto\u2019. By this time, the album\u2019s rumble, its clatter, its outbreaks of feedback, and its tense synths have done enough to exhaust and mentally drain the listener, so the bands halt. Stearica Invade Acid Mother Temple can be a tiring and difficult listen, but its best moments greatly reward anyone willing to make the necessary effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This album is the result of a jam session between Japanese veterans Acid Mothers Temple and experimental Italian combo Stearica. Those of you who haven\u2019t already rolled your eyes, navigated away from this page and retreated back into the comforting arms of an Arcade Fire review will find something to love here. As with any…<\/p>\n