Fringe Review: Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO

Founded by guitarist Kawabata Makoto in Osaka in 1995, the prolific collective has over 100 releases and enjoys an unremitting international touring schedule. Their brand of extreme trip music is composed through improvisation and collaboration, with ever an eye to the cosmic.

Overcoming some early sound issues, the band delivers a jaw-dropping set that journeys between doom metal, freak folk, psych, stoner and hard rock, and all-out noise. It is hard to overstate the sheer, majestic onslaught of this performance, each member bringing staggering intensity and skill to their respective parts – when Kawabata lets loose on his guitar solos he totally commands the landscape, while the relentless energy of drummer Satoshima Nani makes a huge impression.

The theatrics too are a delight, not only in Kawabata’s guitar meltdowns, but in the stern, wizard-like presence of synth and theremin player Higashi Hiroshi, the playful gesticulations of bassist Wolf (who also lists ‘space and time’ as an instrument), and in the more reserved elegance of vocalist Jyonson Tsu, who emerges dreamily in the set’s quieter moments.

Described on their website as “a group of social dropouts of every description – musicians, dancers, artists, farmers, channellers, ex-yakuza, mermaid researchers and professional vagrants,” it’s hard to tell where the group’s mythology begins and ends, but in a gig this good all of the above seems to make sense.

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO performed at The Attic on Sunday, March 10

Header image:
Tony Kearney