Doobie Wonderland

Acid Mothers Temple have done some wonderful stuff over the years, and this has immediately gone into my favourites list of their works. As usual, this is extended, psychedelic jams with a few links to the title. If you love AMT, you'll love this. If you don't yet love them, this is a great place to start. It's not as "out there" as some of their other albums, and none of the tracks are particularly long (well, by AMT standards anyway).Not an essential purchase, but I'd very much recommend it to long term AMT fans as well as newcomers.

In order to review this C.D, we need to first deal with the 'disco' theme. The title (a reference to Earth Wind & Fire's 'Boogie Wonderland') & the cover art (the band in groovy Funkadelic style costumes) scream out 'D.I.S.C.O' at you. So is this an AMT 'disco' album ? That's an interesting question. While certainly nobody would expect AMT to make a disco album, and whilst none of this sounds remotely like disco (apart from the first few minutes of the first track, which are wonderfully funky), perhaps this is actually more 'disco' in spirit than it actually sounds (& keep in mind that both disco & psychedelia, although sounding very different from each other, more or less have the same intention - to induce in the listener a state of trance & ecstasy through the method of music).Apart from the first track (which is more or less a standard AMT psychedelic rock track, with some funky sections), the other four tracks are all notable for hitting consistent grooves - drums & instruments all lock into repetitive patterns, & apart from one track (that gets a bit hyper in the climatic few minutes) tempos remain constant & consistent. Also notable is that, apart from the first track, there's almost none of Makoto's wild lead guitar pyrotechnics. Instead, it's as if the intention is to keep our focus on the repetitive instrumental grooves.Also, tracks 2, 3, 4 & 5 all feature guitar lines that are very reminiscent of Can, who themselves were masters of minimal repetitive grooves (& even produced a disco style single themselves - 'I want More' in 1976). So while certainly none of this C.D actually SOUNDS like disco music, perhaps it's very much in the spirit of disco (maybe it's impressionistic disco music ?). Where it does significantly differ from standard disco though is the density of the tracks. There's a lot of layers, and, other than the first track, there's really no 'breakdown' sections. Also, like many AMT albums, drums are really low in the mix.The first track 'Do You Remember Doobie Wonderland' (21.56) features brilliantly funky guitar chords, a groovy bassline, and high pitched vocal chants. It reminds me a lot of very late period Hendrix (when he got funky) - such as 'Band Of Gypsies'. After a few minutes, the funkier elements have faded out, & it mutates seamlessly into a standard AMT medium paced psychedelic rock track (with all it's composite elements, such as Makoto's amazing lead guitar, the synth splashes, & the 'freakout' sections). There's some breakdown sections featuring treated vocal chants (at these points, I suspect that they're referencing the intro to Funkadelic's 'Free Your Mind & Your Ass Will Follow' - the only track from the funk /disco idiom that remotely sounds like this). Though this is very much a 'standard' AMT psychedelic rock number. it's an excellent example of that, and the band sound really inspired (& sound like they've really enjoyed making this track).Though not 'representative' of the rest of the album, this is a great opening track.The second track - 'Planet Golden Love' (12.44) sounds at first like putting on a Can L.P at 78rpm - a ridiculously fast synth sequence & fast drums, & a dense fog of layers of other instruments. The vocals on this are great, with a melody very much like The Beatles - 'Tomorrow Never Knows' .According to the sleeve notes, it's Tabata Mitsuru singing on this. Normally I'm not a fan of his vocals, but he sounds fantastic on this track. This is an amazingly psychedelic & trippy track (one of the most psychedelic & trippy tracks AMT have ever produced - and that's an achievement indeed !). Astonishing ! .The third track - 'Dance With Space Gypsy Queen' (13.04) features layers of lovely jangly guitar (very reminiscent of Can) atop another dense mix of sounds. There's still a very obvious & consistent rhythm though. There's some echoing male vocals low in the mix, which are not too obtrusive.This is a gorgeous track, very strange, but with a real sense of melody.The fourth track - '.M.J Love 666' ( 18.39) features a great funk/ rock riff (& some great lead guitar work, which is subtly low in the mix ).There's a great interplay of male & female vocals, which seem to be based around the phrase 'Satan 666' (though like all the vocals on this C.D, they're low in the mix). As with all the tracks on this album this is a really dense production (with very little 'space'). As a result, every time you listen to it, you hear something new, which you haven't heard before.Whilst this kind of production could be criticised sometimes, I think it really works on this album - creating gorgeous psychedelic walls of sound (without ever losing melody, harmony or rhythm).The final track - 'Shining 0 & Jupiter' (11.37) is again, like most of the tracks on this album, mid-paced (with a clear rhythm). There's some lovely sparkly echoed guitar, and a good interplay of male & female vocals. There's nothing here that you can't get on any of the other tracks (by now you've 'got the picture' of what the tracks on this album are doing), but it's just as good as any of the other tracks.I honestly can't find a single fault in this album. Despite being a huge AMT fan, I try to be ruthlessly critical. There isn't one note out of place on this album. The production, though perhaps 'dense' & 'muddy' (by some standards) appears to be the 'desired effect', & the band sound really inspired & know exactly what they're doing. Even Tabata's vocals (which can be off-putting on some recordings) sound really great here.I try to be really sparing with five star reviews, but I honestly think this is the one of the essential AMT releases.

Only for the real fan!