Acid Mothers Temple at Mercury Lounge

Kawabata Makoto

Influenced by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, krautrock, and progressive rock, guitarist Kawabata Makoto initially formed Acid Mothers Temple (originally using an apostrophe, Acid Mother's Temple) in Japan in 1995. His intention was to create "extreme trip music" by editing and dubbing previous recordings. The project became a psychedelic rock band and then an experimental collective of musicians with Kawabata as the only consistent member. The collective also spawned seemingly countless offshoots and spinoffs, including Floating Flower, Nishinihon, Tsurbami, the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., and many other bands and projects. As a result, the musical output is generous; Acid Mothers Temple and its associates twice released four albums in a three-month span. In 2002, Kawabata also launched his own solo offshoot, Kawabata Makoto & the Mothers of Invasion, to create jazzier music. The collective releases its newest studio recording, Hallelujah Mystic Garden Part Two, as Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. on April 26, 2019.

Acid Mothers Temple typically tours Canada and the United States every spring, and this year included a late night set at Mercury Lounge as part of the venue's 25th anniversary series. Anchored by Kawabata Makoto's searing guitar leads, much of the set was a series of movements, from meditative grooves to progressive rock to doom metal to a flurry of pulsating, atonal deconstructionism. The performance periodically drifted into improvisational noise and rhythms, interrupted when vocalist/guitarist Jyonson Tsu reigned the forces with a soft, calming vocal structure. The result was spellbinding. Live, Acid Mothers Temple is one of the world's most intense psych rock bands.