Japanese psych powerhouse Acid Mothers Temple returns to San Francisco
Dealing out mind-altering sounds for going on three decades, Japanese experimental rock outfit Acid Mothers Temple brings its otherworldly live show to San Francisco and Santa Cruz starting Wednesday night.
Guitarist Makoto Kawabata's career dates back to his early days on the fringes of the Osaka music scene during the late '70s when he first tried to bring together the heavy rock of Deep Purple with the electronic sounds of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. In the mid-1990s, he would form Acid Mothers Temple as a musical collective exploring cosmic sounds drawing from progressive rock, the propulsive krautrock of Can and Neu and avant-garde classical giants like Stockhausen, Terry Riley and Iannis Xenakis.
Initially, the group recorded their collective improvisation before Kawabata edited and overdubbed those tapes for a final result similar to the working process of Can or electric-era Miles Davis. The band self-released several cassettes and gradually built a cult following with their powerful live shows, touring the globe extensively. Along with underground outfits like Ghost, High Rise, Boredoms and Kawabata's noisy power trio side project Mainliner, Acid Mothers Temple became part of a vanguard of the Japanese neo-psychedelic rock movement.
With longtime synthesizer player Higashi Hiroshi (a member since 1998) at his side, Kawabata and company have made a name for themselves with a prolific output of live and studio recordings over the decades. Acid Mothers Temple has also managed a number of notable collaborations with their heroes, recording and performing onstage with members of UK prog greats Gong and iconic krautrock drummer and Guru Guru founder Mani Neumeier.
The current line-up of AMT -- Kawabata and Hiroshi along with Satoshima Nani on drums, Jyonson Tsu on guitar and new bassist Sawano Shozo -- unleash their unique style of epic cosmic music at the Chapel Sunday evening. They are joined by touring partners, Brooklyn-based shoegaze psych band Dead Leaf Echo at both of these shows at the Kilowatt in San Francisco and Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz. The Thursday show presented by (((folkYEAH!))) will including opening local heavy psych veterans Mammatus, who celebrated the release of their epic double album Expanding Majesty this past summer on Silver Current Records.
Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting U.F.O with Dead Leaf Echo
Wednesday, November 8, 8 p.m. $20-$25
The Kilowatt
Thursday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m. $20-$25
Moe's Alley
