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reviews:
AQUARIUS
If a bearded,
tie-dyed guy fiddling with the knobs and wires of
some vintage synth is your idea of a good time,
you're in luck. Here's another three (quite long,
of course) tracks of space-out fantasia from the
prolific Kawabata Makoto, leader of everyone's
favorite band of hippie throwbacks, Acid Mothers
Temple. Kawabata's music is just about Japan's
number one export these days, isn't it?? Well c'mon,
he's got rent to pay (or effects boxes to buy, or
something). And as always, we're not complaining...
ol' Kawabata can indulge his love for krauty
cosmic electronics, as he does here, all the live
long day and we'll forever be willing to lend an
ear.
 At
21, 19, and 34 minutes, roughly, these tracks
have plenty of space to develop, and feature
quietly creepy stretches of looping seagull
static as well as utter sci-fi, videogame zappery,
pretty much along the same lines as Space Machine,
Masonna's similarly inspired analog synth side
project. Good music to veg out to while starring
at any remotely abstract pattern, with the last
and longest (title) track being the most
meditative, basically a central drone-tone and
heartbeat-like pulse.
www.freq.org.uk
Consider the title, then who the
artist responsible for Your Voice From
The Moon is, and it's no great leap of
logic to deduce that the freakout king of Acid
Mothers Temple is in analogue synthesizer
trip mode here. What a trip it is too, stretcing
across three lengthy tracks, of course, with a
barrage of knobs twiddled and oscillators bent
until the fabric of time and space itself seems
to be in danger of stressing under the weight of
pure lysergic music. Every single sound
imaginable seems to come swirling out from the
innards of Makoto's assembled filters and tone
generators, locked together in synergistic dives
with a gleeful sensation of outer space being
manifested aurally.
Analogue synthesizers deployed in this
mode have become so associated with the journey
into space that a contemporary model of the
Voyager series of interstellar probes could quite
easily be fitted with a self-playing, solar-powered
MP3 device to broadcast this music as a
representation of humanity's collective idea of
the soundtrack of the stars. Originality is not
the point here though, but instead the soaring
beauty of arpeggiations and oscillator glides
spreads out with room to flow at a generous pace.
Another pitfall sucessfully avoided is of ambient
waffle - these synths are set only to exalt, not
blunt, the senses. Your Voice From The Moon
possesses plenty of hidden brain traps lurking in
the always upwardly-directed trills and warbles:
the element of dementia which makes Acid Mothers
Temple such a phenomenon which has somehow
managed to work - for the most part - over the
range of their exuberently massive catalogue is
ever present here.
Earnest psychonaiyts slipping into this
album for a chemically-powered visit to the
glactic frontiers of consciousness should prepare
for a deliciously bumpy ride, though truth be
told there is enough to enjoy here simply in the
delights of a warmly-swept LFO and the well-sprung
VCOs to make the acid semi-redundant. Your
Voice From The Moon offers all the wonders of
travelling to the Moon and beyond, without the
inconvenience of having to move too far from a
comfortable chair and a set of robust speakers.
Linus Tossio
www.gaz-eta.vivo.pl
Lider Acid Mothers odklada
gitare, aby samotnie pomedytowac nad
brzmieniowymi mozliwosciami analogowego
syntezatora. Zdeklarowani fani kosmicznych
tripów Mothers moga byc nieco zaskoczeni tym
albumem, choc dla tych wszystkich, którym znane
sa solowe projekty Kawabaty skupione w cyklu Inui
oraz dronowo-eletroakustyczne poczynania Toho
Sary muzyka, wypelniajaca Twój glos z Ksiezyca z
pewnoscia nie bedzie niespodzianka. Album ten
brzmi, z pelna premedytacja, nieprawdopodobnie
wrecz archaicznie, przywodzac na mysl zapomniane
nieslusznie soundtracki do starych filmów sf (Forbidden
Planet Louisa Barrona) oraz wczesne nagrania
Pauline Oliveros i Ramona Sendera (niektóre
czesci Worldfood). Przede wszystkim jednak miesci
sie doskonale w tej tradycji eksperymentów
dzwiekowych, która z powodzeniem realizowana
jest i rozwijana od kilkudziesieciu lat przez
Eliane Radigue. Dlugie trwanie i swobodny
przeplyw fal dzwiekowych znamionuja wszystkie
trzy skupione na plycie kompozycje, nadajac im
posmak zaginionych pierwocin kosmicznego ambientu
rodem z konca lat 50. Kawabata objawia sie tu po
raz kolejny jako niezwykle swiadomy i
konsekwentny archeolog muzycznego undergroundu,
eksplorujacy dawno porzucone regiony
eksperymentalnego grania i umieszczajacy te
starodawne poszukiwania w dosc egzotycznym
kontekscie swiata zaawansowanych technologii
cyfrowych, w których pobrzmiewaja one
nieoczekiwana szczeroscia i swiezoscia, niczym
glos awangardowej niewinnosci dobiegajacy wprost
z Ksiezyca. Jesli dodamy do tego absolutnie
genialna okladke z epoki psychodelicznego
rozpasania oraz fakt, ze jest to kolejna plyta
Makoto wydana w naszej przasnej rzeczywistosci,
to staje sie oczywiste, iz mamy tutaj zjawisko
nie do przeoczenia.
Dariusz Brzostek
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