The ridiculous prolificacy of the Acid Mothers collective is not so much a matter of their genius as their laziness. Like David Murray or the Grateful Dead, they just keep chugging along and more often than not there's a microphone on. Which makes it hard to keep up, for better and worse.
Another product of their laziness is their penchant for releasing extra-long, seemingly unedited space jams. It's hard to blame them, it's what they as a band have built their career on, even if the individual members are often capable of more carefully honed records on their own.
The title of the newest issuance from the Temple is another play on titles from bygone records, and what could be an explosive psychedelic Rorschach of a cover is oddly dulled by being cast in black and white.
In other words, there are plenty of reasons that anyone but the most devout worshipper might give Dark Side of the Bad Moon / What Planet Are We On? a pass, which would be a shame because (the qualifier here intended to underscore the point) it's their best record in over a year.
The band this time out is stripped down to its strongest parts, with Temple figurehead Kawabata Makoto joined by Atsushi Tsuyama on bass, Higashi Hiroshi on synth and drummer Shimura Koji. The 14-minute opener, "Space Labyrinth or Eclipse on Friday," is a great feature for Makoto's guitar, a harder rocking workout than he often gives himself. It's followed by a nice run of three tracks each between four and eight minutes, a fun space boogie, an acoustic nonsense ballad and then another rocker. The album closes with the semi-titular "Dark Side of the Black Moon" which is maybe a bit meandering or maybe it's the overture, but after getting from the AMT something that feels considered, that could almost qualify as a pop record, the free-ranging 17 minutes are still enjoyable.
AMT, sure, do what they do. But sometimes — as now — they're worth checking back with.
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Kurt Gottschalk 2009-09-22
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