vishnuAcid Mother's Temple have one of the most carefully constructed images in all of rock. Photographs of the band give off the vibe of a spooky commune as the musicians, in a variety of strange garb, gaze with dazed expressions towards the camera. Album titles reference freak favourites such as Black Sabbath, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd. This is unashamedly music to take drugs to, or at least to imagine you're on drugs when you listen to it. AMT have put out an awful lot of albums and can occasionally suffer from a lack of quality control, nevertheless they have put together an impressive, obsessional body of work. There are just three tracks on The Lord of the Underground: the first is 'Elecking the Clay' a 14-minute heady brew of dreamy and repetitive guitar riffs, spacey keyboards and random vocal interjections. The music drifts from section to section with everything bound together by an overall mood of retro craziness. In the middle is 'Sorcerer's Stone of the Magi' which is a short folky palette cleanser with more spacey keyboards, bird noises and sitar-like accompaniment before the monster 25-minute 'Vishnu and the Magic Elixir'. This last track features more strung-out atmosphere as more-or-less random string plucks and synth noises gradually build until drums and some great bass playing begin to give the track some momentum about five minutes in. Eventually, what sounds like someone singing through a kazoo emerges over the slow, steady beat. The guitar begins to make some bluesy textures while the kazoo provides a sarcastic commentary. About half way through, things start to speed up, driven by a pumping bass line with more keyboards and other noises are added to the mix. Things continue getting faster over the second half of the track as harsher, more abrasive sounds are gradually layered in until the various elements begin to meander out in the last couple of minutes. Acid Mother's Temple seem focussed creating an atmosphere rather than providing structural, rhythmic, harmonic or even melodic points of interest. Not necessarily a bad thing, if you like this kind of atmosphere. If you already know Acid Mother's Temple, this is a solid effort but nothing mind-blowing. If you haven't encountered them yet and enjoy retro-styled psychedelia, this could be as good a place to start as any. -- nick ilott.
:: Acid Mothers Temple/Lord Of The Underground: Vishnu - Alien8/Cargo.
