Acid Mothers Temple - Biography
The Acid Mothers Temple Soul Collective is a loose but hardworking organization gathered around guitarist, singer and “Speed Guru” Kawabata Makoto, who has been playing in various Japanese psych bands since 1978. Based on the principle "Do Whatever You Want, Don't Do Whatever You Don't Want!!" the collective pursues a number of related but autonomous psychedelic projects. Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., formed somewhere in the area of Nagoya, Japan in 1995, was the first and remains the most active of these; others have included Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno, Acid Mothers Temple SWR (formerly Acid Mothers Temple mode HHH), Acid Mothers Temple & the Incredible Strange Band and Acid Mothers Temple & Melting Cosmic Blues Band. Acid Mothers Temple bands seem to tour and record constantly and have released an astounding number of records. For instance, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. alone released four new albums between September and November 2004, one of which was a four-CD box set, and the band released at least six other album-length records that year.
Acid Mothers Temple shared a house in 1995, but some of the Soul Collective’s neighbors thought the group was sheltering members of Aum Shinrikyo—the religious group responsible for that year’s sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway—with the result that Acid Mothers Temple moved out in 1996. These days, according to the bio at the band’s website, “The members of Acid Mothers Temple have several houses all over Japan, and each of us is free to come and go between these houses.” The self-released cassette Acid Mother’s Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (1996; the band’s name included an apostrophe until 1997) was the first AMT release, followed by two more such releases next year and the debut’s release on CD (1997 PSF).
The band founded its own Acid Mothers Temple label in 1998. “Cosmic Joker” Tsuyama Atsushi joined Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. on guitar that year, switching to bass in ’99, when the band released Pataphysical Freak Out MU!! (1999 PSF). Live in Occident (2000 Detector) is a double live album covering AMT & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.’s spring ’99 shows in the US, UK and France. Among AMT & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.’s many 2001 releases were the double album Absolutely Freak Out [Zap Your Mind!] (2001 Static Caravan/Resonant) and Acid Mothers’ version of Terry Riley’s In C (2001 Eclipse). The band jammed with Julian Cope that May while on tour in the UK. Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino joined the long-running British psych band Gong in 2003, and later that year members of both groups formed Acid Mothers Gong. Makoto, Atsushi and Yoshida Tatsuya of Ruins formed Acid Mothers Temple mode HHH (now Acid Mothers Temple SWR), whose 2003 European tour included a performance of a live score to Ira Cohen’s The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (1968).
Oni and Pikachu of the ultraheavy female duo Afrirampo sang on Close Encounters of the Mutants (2004 Multikulti Project), and collaborated on We Are Acid Mothers Afrirampo (2005 Acid Mothers Temple). Pikachu continues to play in Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno, formed in 2005, with Makoto, former Mainliner and High Rise drummer Koji Shimura, and former Boredoms and Zeni Geva bassist and guitarist Tabata Mitsuru. Singer and synthesist Cotton Casino left AMT & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. in April 2004, and drummer Koizumi Hajime left in December. Koji Shimura took his place in 2006. That same year, Mokoto and bassist Tsuyama Atsushi started playing with Mani Neumeier, drummer and singer of the German band Guru Guru; this new trio took the name Acid Mothers Guru Guru. Acid Mothers Gong, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, Acid Mothers Temple SWR and Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. all toured in 2006.
Acid Mothers Temple and noise legends Hijokaidan played in Nagoya as Acid Mothers Kaidan, documented on the DVD-R Kill The King Of Noise (2008 Alchemy Music Store). The collective’s various groups continue to tour and record.
