Sunday, November 22, 2009

Acid Mothers Sunday: Vol. 19: Live In Occident

Wow, I haven't done one of these in ages. Anyways, for this one, I have uploaded a rip of the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO's first live vinyl, Live In Occident.

The seemingly gone Detector put this 2 LP colored vinyl gatefold in 2000. Decent live recordings of Acid Mothers Temple's various live shows in 1999, though unfortunately the Philly show at the Khyber that was my first AMT live show is not represented. If anyone has a recording of that one, please get in touch!

Anyways, this is the classic line up with Kawabata, Cotton, Higashi, Tsuyama and Koizumi Hajime tearing through America and the UK. It features the weird ass free jazz spazz jams like "Rising From the Cool Fool Inferno" that this line up squeezed in between the earlyish versions of "Pink Lady Lemonade" and "Speed Guru." And of course the over the top improv jam of "Acid Milk Milky Way Also Jupiter 888."

The highlight on this one for me is the sublime and beautiful "Astrological Overdrive." Cotton's vocals may be the most missed aspect of modern AMT and this performance gives a solid reason why. Her vocals mix perfectly with Tsuyama's, especially when he gets demonic and she remains angelic. It is a one of the great lost Acid Mothers songs, appearing no where else to the best of my knowledge, but it is 18 minutes of swirling but simple psych, foreshadowing jams like "La Novia" and "Soleil de Cristal et Lune d'argent" and even "Cometary Orbital Drive." Another mandatory jam on this one is another kinda lost song, "Blue Velvet Blues." This one didn't survive the AMT set list much after the first two tours it seems, but such a great song, again, another showcase for Cotton's vocals. While the ultimate version of the song is on the 2LP reissue of Pataphisical Freak Out Mu!!, this version is heavy and deep features a weird clapping jam with the audience not to far into the song, hazy and totally strange, almost like the "Chanting" on this Dead show. The super pretty main riff is colored by very light guitar playing and then crushing synth noise blasts. Totally incredible.

Detector didn't seem to last too long, though they did release a 7" and a 10" by Cotton's pre AMT band, Mady Gula Blue Heaven. This one has been out of print for a pretty long time and if it ever gets reissued I will pull it down, of course, but it is a key part to the AMT puzzle for sure.


This one is loaded at 256. Enjoy.

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO - Live In Occident (Detector Records, 2000)

1. Acid Milk Milkyway Also Jupiter 888
2. banter
3. Rising From The Cool Fool Inferno
4. Astrological Overdrive
5. Pink Lady Lemonade
6. Blue Velvet Blues
7. Speed Guru
8. Lucille

UPDATE: The fine folks at Essence Music have reissued this in a remixed version on CD, limited to 500 copies in a gatefold sleeve. The sound is great, highly recommended!

No comments: