Acid Mothers Sunday Vol 18: Yamamoto Seiichi & Acid Mothers Temple - Giant Psychedelia

Sorry for the lack, of posts, but you know, the dog days of summer and such... Anyways for this volume of Acid Mothers Sunday we have two tracks from Yamamoto Seiichi & Acid Mothers Temple's awesome double CD, Giant Psychedelia. Usually I try to keep these downloads limited to stuff that is out of print or ultra rare, but it seems that Giant Psychedelia may have slipped through the cracks for a lot of people, so here is a little extra push on this one. I only put two tracks (out of five) in the download, as this one is still available here, here and here at the least, so if you dig it, go buy it!

The scoop on this one is as follows: Live recording from AMT Festival vol. 6 on December 8, 2007. This is dbl CD set with 6 panel card board jacket limited to 1000 copies. Recorded on digital 16 track multi recording system.

Okay, so that is only the tip of the iceberg with this one. Basically to my ears this is some of the most "jam band" sounding AMT stuff ever. Yamamoto Seiichi from Rovo, Omoide Hatoba and the Boredoms is the featured guest here and he and Kawabata trade sun and acid drenched solos all over the fucking place. I always thought Yamamoto's playing in Rovo echoed Trey Anastasio to some degree, and Kawabata does do a truly awes Jerry Garcia, so the Giant Psychedelia/Fillmore West/Japanese Lemon Wheel is ON.

The first track, "High Ball High ~ Third Eye of the Universe" starts things off with a swirling, deceptively easy jam/riff finding Kawabata and Yamamoto's guitars spiraling around each other like mutant, LSD soaked DNA after a light, tentative opening. There is no rush as the jam unfolds. The recording quality is insanely good, this is one of the best sounding AMT releases ever. Even the drums are mixed decently! The wide open background of space noises, easy bass and drums leaves plenty of room for the guitarists to try out some awesome Saucerful of Secrets David Gilmour lyrical licks that start to bunch up and fractal in on themselves. Both Kawabata and Yamamoto (and it is kinda hard to tell where one stops and the other begins on this release) work the ends of the spectrum on Giant Psychedelia, some dainty fretboard dancing with lots of sustain all the way to rock god grinding and pulsing notes firing off like synapses at a 1967 Quicksilver gig. The playing gets better and better, more intense and more intricate as the song goes on and on.

The second tune here, "Third Stone In ~ Pink Lady Lemonade Acid Part 2" starts out like the Grateful Dead coming out of "Space" and into "Dark Star." Not exactly note perfect, but perfect in spirit, this is definitely one of AMT's most Dead moments ever (for now!), the very open background lets the guitarists stretch out and take long echoy riffs for the first few minutes. Slowly a funky, disco wah wah jam takes over and both Kawabata and Yamamoto truly crazy diamond this one into the ground before a very vibrato return to the "Pink Lady Lemonade" riff. The main "Pink Lady Lemonade" riff hangs in the air for a bit before all the players come in and take it into the stratosphere. Totally fantastic and one of the best versions of the signature AMT tune. A longer "Pink Lady Lemonade Acid Part 1" precedes this jam on the actual double CD.

Again, if you like what you hear, definitely pick this one up. It sounds and looks incredible and is one for the jam band AMT heads for sure. It also features Tabata from the Cosmic Inferno version of AMT and former Group Sounds vocalist, Kuriyama Jun.

Yamamoto Seiichi & Acid Mothers Temple - Two Songs from Giant Psychedelia