New CD edition of this recent solo album from Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple, previously available on vinyl from A Silent Place. Inspired by the 1972 Popol Vuh album Hosanna Mantra, Kawabata has assembled a beautiful series of devotional Kosmiche tone-float pieces that work to further the higher-mind feel of his original Inui series of recordings. Here he uses electric guitar, bouzouki and sitar.

Limited edition of 500 copies French LP from the Acid Mothers Temple quartet line-up of Makoto Kawabata, Hiroshi Higashi, Koji Shimura and Atsushi Tsuyama. The vinyl features two side-long tracks based around the concept of the mystical vibrational significance of the repeating note sequence A-E-D-A-G-D. The first side takes this pattern and repeats it over almost Silver Apples-styled rushes of drum machine and phasing F/X, while the flip explodes it completely with some heavy guitar-saturated ritual. A great, trance-focussed side from AMT in the tradition of other mysto-chord explorations ala Ash Ra Tempel’s Schwingungen. VT has the more limited version of the LP that come with a bonus poster and postcard.

All-improvised studio summit between two generations of six-string psychedelic assault, Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple and Shinsuke Michishita of LSD March. As explosive as you might have hoped, this monster moves from eerie loops of smeared minimalist drone through to the sound of two guitars tearing tremolo-inflected wails of fuzz from the very guts of their fucking instruments. Imagine the most brain-flashing psychedelic assault troupe ever hallucinated outta west coast USA, transplant em to Japan and then erase the rhythm section. Too much.

Inspired follow-up to AMT’s railroading take on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic, In C: In O To ∞ is quintessential AMT, cranking massive drones, repeating riffs, looped vocals and sky-scraping guitar into brain-erasing paeans to infinity. But the real gravy here is the return of Cotton Casino on vocals, her pure clean tone spilling all over the guitars like an outer space Yoko Ono. Heavy vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, edition of 1000 copies. Is it just me or have the last buncha AMT releases signalled a major return to form?

Yeah yeah, blah blah, it’s hard to keep up w/AMT, they release too much shit etc etc.. but every so often Makoto Kawabata’s Japanese psychedelic orchestra release something that hands you your ass on a plate and makes you remember just how dazzling they can be at their peak. And this is a perfect case in point. Released to inaugurate Blackest Rainbow’s new Blackest Bootlegs series, Shakespeare From The Cosmic Inferno catches the group at a wild celestial high in Sheffield, England in 2008. The line-up is Pika from Afrirampo on vocals, Tabata Mitsuru (Zeni Geva/Loud Machine 5000 et al) on bass and voice, Higashi Hiroshi on synth, guitar and vocals, Koji Shimura (White Heaven/Jutok Kaneko) on drums and Kawabata on guitar and vocals. The merciful absence of ‘space joker’ Atsushi Tsuyama means there’s less wack and more warp, with the group tearing through “Master Of The Cosmic Inferno/Heart Of Earth/Ecstasy Into The Cosmic Inferno” before melting into an almost two-sides long take on their classic repeat-guitar/dreamboat anthem “Pink Lady Lemonade”, detouring halfway through into a sidereal “Space Disco” wig out. A dream line-up navigating some of Kawabata’s most potent settings of rock hypnotics all rendered with the kinda crude/explosive fidelity that could almost have been master-minded by Nanjo Asahito. It’s enough to make you remember why you fell in love with AMT in the first place. Edition of only 250 copies on 140g vinyl with full-colour printed sleeves. Highly recommended!

Excellent live set from a bunch of heavy-hitting guitar slingers. Courtis is, of course, best known for his work with Reynols while Tabata has served time with everyone from Zeni Geva through Acid Mothers. Kawaguchi is quite simple one of the greatest guitarists to come out of the Tokyo underground, blazing a trail through LSD March, Miminokoto and his amazing New Rock Syndicate. Here the trio line-up work through various tag-team set-ups, with three-way mind-splitting guitar jams that sound like Black Sabbath covering Black Angel’s Death Song with nothing but three Tony Iommis giving way to doomy, depth-charges of piano and improvised steel strings, a particularly dilated Tabata/Kawaguchi duo and a final three-way brokedown groove that is extremely addictive. 

Stunning 2001 release from Makoto Kawabata’s psychedelic cult, here with a brain-bobbing take on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic as scored for synth, bass, throat-gargling vocals and motor-psycho guitar. On Eclipse and long out of print.