Kinski/Acid Mothers Temple - split album
(Subpop)
Jennifer Gentle and Makoto Kawabata - The Wrong Cage
(Sillyboy)
Kinski and Acid Mothers Temple combine forces for a four-song full length. The bands have toured together both in the US and Japan, and the album features a ten minute highlight of an improvisation the two bands did together at a practice space while Kinski was in Japan in December 2001, "It's Nice to Hear Your Voice." Very subdued and ambient, the song is gently tugged along by an ebbing bass pulse, against which different guitar fragments hint at developing, and then fade away into the electronic abyss. While certainly spacey and atmospheric, the song comes off much more natural than Acid Mothers' third Magical Power From Mars. Not able to leave well enough alone (or rather in a burst of inspiration), Kawabata took the recordings of "It's Nice to Hear Your Voice" and—along with the rest of Acid Mothers Temple—overdubbed new parts on top of it. While the track is still spacey and ambient, it's hard to tell it's from the same source, as Kawabata's tambura and Cotton's vocals are now in the forefront, creating a more eerie, haunting track. Bookending these collaborative tracks are new tracks by the individual bands. Kinski's "Fell Asleep On Your Lawn" takes a simple, descending, Kim Deal-esque bassline, and then builds a mountain of sound on top of it. Slinky guitarlines weave themselves around the rhythm before switching to a powerful, feedback-inflamed chug. The song is par for the course for Kinski, blending Kraut-like guitar rhythm with a space rock love for feedback and a cinematic sound, however it's also as good as anything on their last album, Airs Above Your Station. If you didn't consult your liner notes, you might swear Acid Mothers Temple's "Virginal Plane 5:23" is also collaborative, as the lead guitar line could easily have been taken right from Chris Martin's work on Be Gentle With the Warm Turtle. This very clean, almost lyrical guitar line is the thread that ties together a (contrary to what the song title implies) 26 minute freakout, however the rest of it is just a big confused mass of sound, like a nature special on hurricanes put to music.
While Kawabata was in Europe in May 2002, he toured Italy with the psych pop band Jennifer Gentle. The Padua performance is presented here, with two collaborative tracks and a solo track by Kawabata on sarongi. The collaborative tracks are reworkings of Jennifer Gentle songs with Kawabata added as second lead guitar, playing "echo guitar" to other guitarist Marco's "wah guitar." "Couple in Bed by a Green Flashing Light," on the band's recent album Funny Creatures Lane, retains much of its form in the live version—at least at first—beginning with the same repetitive, trance-y, Middle Eastern guitarline and droning out for several minutes. However, instead of building, the song bursts at the seams, creating a mushroom cloud of feedback and clatter, out of which the guitarists take a few tangental riffs. The song is great in its original form, and this new sonic overload version is a fitting live interpretation.
"Bring Them," originally on the band's debut album I Am You Are, gives the guitarists more of a chance to work together and work off each other. After exploring
the themes of the song for a few minutes, the song becomes improvisational and gets very, very heavy. At first the guitarists seem to be in a cockfight, throwing shards at each other, but once they figure out what makes sense, everything starts to flow beautifully. Marco takes the lead, using the wah to create a thick, low-pitched wail with Kawabata in the background adding ghostly howls and piercing squeals. Then the wah drops out, giving Kawabata space to craft a magical riff, which, in turn, Marco's guitar repeats and works off of.
Between these collaborative tracks, Kawabata's sarongi solo provides a brief respite, the aural equivalent of a palate cleanser. In Kawabata's hands, the sarongi is very expressive, beginning the track in a very mournful tone but developing into something more furious and angry.
With the wealth of material available from Kawabata and Acid Mothers Temple, there's not enough time to fully consume everything. However, Kinski and Jennifer Gentle are great bands in their own right, and with there more modest (less outrageous) discographies, fans of those bands will find these albums nothing less than essential.
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