Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno
IAO Chant from the Cosmic Inferno
Ace Fu
Black hole sun, won't you (ahem...) come?
During my first listen, IAO Chant From the Cosmic Inferno moved me to stand up buck-naked, stare at my speakers and look around, unsure of whether I could really be hearing what I thought I was. Acid Mothers founder and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Kawabata Makoto had worked himself and electronics ipsissimus Higashi Hiroshi into a mighty froth shot with lambent flashes of discrete, viral shredding that traveled like spermatozoa, and the sound seemed to come out of every mirror in my apartment. But that’s later.
The album’s manifest m.o. is quasi-straight-ahead space rock update, largely at a frisky “Highway Star” pace. Gong liner-note avatar status notwithstanding, sonics skew more toward Mawkwind minus drool meets Ash Ra Tempel with cojones, quickened by the spirit of Om-era John Coltrane. And I’m not just saying that because the title of the disc’s single track is “OM Riff,” or because Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno has two drummers—a first for the venerable AMT brand—or because Makoto solos through the better part of the album without once repeating himself. Structurally, “OM Riff” is late ’Trane all the way, with Spielberg-grade ceremonial launch, interstellar joyride, celestial otherworld tour, return and closing invocation. Plus, the band anchors the track with a chant that goes “Iao/ Za Ee Zao/ Ma Ee Mao/ Ta Ee Tao/ Now,” a Coltrane salute if ever there was one. Disciples even dare to trump master with visits to multiple planets. Yum!
—Rod Smith
