ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE COSMIC INFERNO - JUST ANOTHER BAND FROM THE COSMIC INFERNO (Important 2005)

Taking account of the diversity of styles that AMT can play in (& that many of their albums contain a number of different styles, varying from track to track), this c.d is remarkably straightforward to categorise, being essentially two very long 'hard rock' pieces.

Of course, AMT's version of hard rock still sounds significantly different from the rock bands that have obviously influenced them. Even when the individual elements of a track all sound familiar (such as the first track here, which is a built on a 'classic' sounding blues-rock riff ). many things about their playing, their approach, & their recording techniques end up giving their 'rock' tracks a unique edge.

First of all, there's the production & mixing, which is odd in that drums & bass are often very low in the mix, whereas guitars are extra loud. (if there's a good rhythm guitar track, you pick up the rhythm more from that than you do from the drums & bass). Sometimes I wonder if this peculiar mixing is just bad recording practice &/or the limitations of lo-fi home recording technology (perhaps they don't have enough microphones to mike up a drum kit properly ?), but after hearing so many albums by them, I'm more convinced that this is actually the sound that they want to get.

Then there's all the synth splashes & whooshes. When they play 'spacerock' (in a Hawkwind style) synthesiser noises are to be expected, & are par for the course. However, hearing these spacerock style synth sounds on other kinds of numbers (such as Black Sabbath style 'rocking out') is very unusual, & again contributes them their unique sound.

Finally, what makes AMT very different from other 'rock' bands is their approach to structure. In the case of this c.d, it's not just the sheer length of these tracks (none of the rock bands that have influenced them ever made tracks this long). It's also the relentlessness of everybody's playing that creates a different kind of structure.
The two tracks here don't 'build' or go through any changes. Instruments neither drop out nor drop back, & nobody 'takes a solo'.(in fact, as regards Makoto, he's effectively playing a 'solo' through the entire length of each track).
Tracks just start with everybody playing, & they carry on in that groove till the end, with really no variation in texture (the only thing that really differentiates any point in a track from any other point is just what the lead guitar happens to  be doing at that point). As such, the two tracks really are just unrelenting blocks of sound (though there are simple melodies, repeated riffs & distinct rhythm, so this is still clearly 'rock' music & not just 'noise').

This relentless approach is obviously the one they want to take, & is very much their signature style here. It's not an approach that I have any problems with per se. This is often how they play at gigs, & there are many great AMT albums where they're  playing like this.
The only issue for any track with that approach is is the question of whether or not it's a good track. Results are all that matter.

The first track - 'Trigger In Trigger Out' (20.17) starts with about 30 seconds of ambient sounds, then a fantastic blues rock riff kicks in, & straight away the whole band are up & running on a fast number, locking into a groove & not letting go of it. Makoto's lead guitar is there right from the start, & is fantastic throughout the whole track. The drumming is great on this track, never losing the rhythm, but peppered with a lot of interesting fills. The bass is doing some really good melodic runs, and it's just a shame that both the bass & the drums aren't a bit more clear & louder in the mix (though I've certainly heard many other AMT recordings on which drums & bass are a lot more submerged & muddy than this).

Despite the relative quietness of the bass & drums, this track still hits you viscerally as much as any great rock track (especially due to that great rhythm guitar riff). It sounds exciting & makes you want to bang your head.

The track never goes off the rails or into 'noise freakout' territory, & only slightly speeds up in the last few minutes, to head for the big climax. I'm amazed at the intensity of everybody's playing over such a long track  (especially the drummer who is fantastic from start to finish).

The only thing I don't like on this track are the very occasional burst of vocals (through a lot of echo & reverb). Thankfully though, there's not much of them. Maybe they add a bit of variety to the track, but due to  everybody's relentless playing, there just doesn't see to be any 'space' for them to fit in.
However, apart from that, this is a great track, with really impressive & inspired playing from everybody.

The second track - 'They're Coming From The Cosmic Inferno' (43.50) I found disappointing. It's more or less doing what the first track did, but just doesn't sound as good (& goes on far too long). Breaking it down to it's individual elements, it consists of all the same things (again with a short ambient start) but lacking the great blues rock rhythm guitar.

I don't know if the tracks were recorded in the order they are on this c.d. If so, I wonder if perhaps they just exhausted themselves after the first track, Apart from Makoto's lead guitar, none of the rest of the band's playing sounds nearly as inspired as the first track. There's something lacking from this performance. It sounds like they needed a 40 minute track, & knocked one out, but didn't have anything good to build it from.

Everything just becomes monotonous & repetitive. While the drumming on the first track was great, with some interesting & intricate fills, here it's just a relentless 'thud ... thud ... thud' (albeit perfectly in time). However, that dull as dishwater drumming just starts to become headache inducing after ten minutes (1). The drums are louder on this track than they were on the first track, and I really wish it was the other way round.

Generally on albums, the pacing of tracks follows a general principle. If the first track is great, that's still just an 'opener', and the next track should be even better. Perhaps a different dynamic might have to apply to an album that's just two very long tracks.

However, this album's problem is after a great opening track, the second (& significantly longer) track is just a let down, especially as it comes across as just a very third rate version of the preceding track. Perhaps if there had been a differently style of track at this point, it would have made for a better album.

Of course, all this is just my opinion. I'm sure that there are people who love this album, and I'm sure there will be glowing reviews of it elsewhere on the internet. I am a huge AMT fan, and I hate to give them a bad review, but I have to be honest. Despite loving the majority of what I've heard by them, occasionally I will hear an album by them that disappoints me, and this is one of them.


Notes

(1) I had to laugh when I saw some reviewer referring to the monotonous thud on this track as a 'krautrock rhythm'. Given the vast diversity of bands & musics that  are now grouped together under the retroactive umbrella term 'krautrock', the notion that there is some singular & definitive 'krautrock rhythm' is absurd. (of course, if that reviewer had been even more  hip, he could called that awful thumping 'motorik').
Far too often, I see  the term 'krautrock'  used as cliche (& usually a false comparison) by people reviewing AMT albums. AMT could probably just blow their noses, & you could guarantee that some dreadful hipster somewhere would call it 'krautrock' sounding.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE - WILD GALS A GO-GO (Riot Season / Swordfish 2006)

AMT c.ds almost never turn up in U.K music shops (at least not in the cities I go to), no matter how 'independent' or hipster-orientated the shop in question is. I can only presume that the tiny labels that put out AMT releases just don't have adequate distribution. Almost all the AMT c.ds I've got have either been bought at their gigs, or more recently I've been buying a lot of them through Amazon. I don't buy them randomly. As much as I'm a huge fan, I'm aware that some of their releases I'm not going to like as much as others, so I try to read as many reviews as I can, & if possible listen to their albums on Youtube in order to determine which ones I want to buy.

However, on a recent trip to Birmingham to check out the music shops there, I came across this c.d in Swordfish Records - a great little shop that also runs a label (this release appears to be a collaboration between the Swordfish label & the Riot Season label). It's a very early AMT album, first released in 1999 on AMT's own label, & this re-release is from 2006.

I bought this on sight. After all, it's so rare to find an AMT album in a shop, and who can resist that cover art ? It's one of their best ever album designs.

The concept behind this album is that it's a 'soundtrack' for an imaginary film. A good concept, but I found this album to be a disappointment.
Taking it at face value, as alleged 'soundtrack' music, this is more like abstract incidental music (that might accompany a strange dream sequence or druggy segment) as opposed to the kind of soundtrack music where tracks can stand up in their own right, even when divorced from the visuals (for instance the soundtrack to 'The Wicker Man' or the great soundtracks Goblin made for Dario Argento's films).
There are some films you watch where you want to go straight out & buy the soundtrack album, and others where the music just isn't strong enough to make an impression on you (as a purely audio experience), and if this film actually existed the 'soundtrack' would definitely fall into the second category.

Like many AMT albums, it sounds like they could have knocked this whole thing out (including the mixing & production) in an afternoon. While I have no objections per se to this 'one-take improvised' approach (& have even been in a band that recorded that way) it's not always going to result in good music, and I think that's the problem here. This just doesn't sound like it was an inspired recording session (with good ideas for tracks) & I think it just should have been shelved & not released, especially considering that AMT don't spend much time or money on recording (almost everything they release is a home recording). They could have easily put this session in the can (at no loss) & recorded a better album the next day.
That is of course only my opinion, and as with every AMT c.d, there are some people who really like this. Almost every AMT c.d on Amazon gets four or five star reviews (& is often described as 'essential'). As a fan, I try to be ruthlessly critical & objective. Any band who put out as much as AMT just can't be consistently making c.ds that are worthy of four or five stars. Their 'success' rate is surprisingly high though. Out of the forty or so albums I've heard by them, there are a lot of great ones. However, there are quite a lot that are really three star ('average' albums) & so far I've only heard one ('in Search Of Lost Divine Arc') that falls below that three star threshold & enters the realm of being a 'bad' album.

This isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album. However, there are a couple of bad tracks, & overall it's all just mediocre & doesn't ever amount to anything.

The first track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 1' (6.55) has a horrible one note drone (sounding like a cheap casio keyboard) backed by some acoustic guitar clanging through echo, and that's all this track consists of. It had me running to turn the volume down, as that horrible drone made me think the upstairs neighbours were going to run down & knock on my door, assuming that perhaps my fire alarm had gone off. This is the laziest track I've ever heard by AMT.

The second track - 'Space Bambino' starts promisingly - some lovely acoustic guitar (reminiscent of early Pink Floyd) & nice abstract echoing female vocals. After a few minutes though, I found myself getting bored by it. It doesn't change, develop or 'become' anything. Again, it's that failure of the 'one-take improvised approach. There's the potential of a good track here had it been worked on & developed more.
After about three minutes, it cuts jarringly into a noisier piece (which sounds like an entirely different track just pasted on) - a funky drum pattern, tightly played distorted rhythm guitar, and a crunchy synth sound (that made me think of a locust eating it's dinner). All the layers sound like loops, and overall this sounds like a 'techno' track. To my ears, this was headache inducing.

The third track - 'Sweet Juicy Lucy' (7.06) has a minimal drum rhythm & chiming guitar, both of which are reminiscent of Can, & some spoken female vocals which sound like they might be in French. Later in the track, there's a layer of treated abstract high-pitched female vocals.
This is potentially a good track, but as with some AMT tracks, there's one layer in it that's just clutter, & you just wish had been taken out in the final mix. In this case, it's a horrid keyboard sound (like the 'organ' setting on the cheapest casio keyboard) droning away repeating three or four notes without any panache or style. It sounds like someone who's never played keyboard before, but has found a few notes that are in tune with the guitar, and is just randomly alternating between them. Ouch ! That keyboard ruins this track.

The fourth track - 'Mammary Intercourse' (6.28) was described by one Amazon reviewer as being 'like a Hawkwind album being played backwards', & that's the perfect description (if you wanted to be more precise, I would say - one of the rockier tracks from 'Space Ritual' being played backwards). This is like a lot of AMT's 'noise freakout' tracks, except that it's lacking Makoto's wonderful wild lead guitar, & instead is mostly crunchy synth noises.

The fifth track - 'Hare Hare Hallelujah' (18.23) just meanders about for the first half, with everything going through a lot of effects. There's some tabla & abstract female vocals (accompanied by faint guitar & synth squidge) which sound good, but don't really 'go' anywhere. Once again I feel that, with a bit more work, this track could have been developed into something better.
About half way through, a drum rhythm comes in, & then the track goes into spacerock territory. However, it's a lot more muted & milder than AMT's usual spacerock tracks, and it sounds like listening to spacerock underwater. There's some good jazzy keyboard, but this track is lacking Makoto's fantastic lead guitar (which always elevates their rockier & noisier tracks).

The sixth track - 'Goodbye Ice Cream' (14.27) meanders about for the first few minutes, with acoustic guitar, synth & abstract female vocals. This section sounds a bit like the intro to Hawkwind's 'Space Is Deep'.
It then goes into a minimal rhythmic track, topped with a rather good slide guitar motif (& the usual AMT synth squidges). For the first time on the album. there's some (very quiet) male vocals. Though this is quite pleasant listening (& is my favourite track on this album), like many of the other tracks, it doesn't change, grow, or develop, and after a while it outstays it's welcome.

The final track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 2' (6.09) is more or less the first track again (chugging echoed acoustic guitar & a one note drone) & sounds like the band just needed a 'filler' track to make this up to the required length.

In the light of everything I've just typed (in the track by track descriptions) I'm very tempted to revise my previous assessment that this "isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album". I've certainly made it sound 'bad'. It's just that it isn't consistently bad from start to finish. There are some segments of this album that are okay, but even these segments are nothing special, and there's numerous AMT albums on which you can find much better versions of these kind of tracks.

If the music had lived up to the fantastic cover, this would have been one of the best AMT albums ever. However, it's just a shame that such wonderful cover art was wasted on such a mediocre & uninspired sounding album.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE - MAGICAL POWER FROM MARS (Important 2008)

I've been buying a lot of AMT c.ds from Amazon over the last month, as well as going through much of their back catalogue on Youtube. In fact, as regards listening to music, I've been on an exclusive diet of AMT (& a few Makoto Kawabata solo releases) for the last 4 or 5 weeks. Their musical universe is so wide, & covers so many diverse styles, that during this time I never felt any desire to listen to anything else. Having said that, the last few c.ds I bought by them were starting to sound very much the same - all more or less in the style of psychedelic rock. As much as they're great at playing in that style, & as much as I love it, I wanted a change. I wanted to get something by them that branched into some of their other styles (ethnic / ambient / experimental etc), so when this c.d arrived in the post, it was a real breath of fresh air, and this has gone on to become one of my favourite albums by them.
This c.d really excels in these other styles, & is a reminder of the unique sound that AMT can produce when they get away from the psychedelic rock template (in my opinion, even when they're playing psychedelic rock, they still have a unique sound, though many detractors disagree, & resort to lazy comparisons such as 'Hawkwind' or 'Pink Floyd'). As human beings, when we listen to music, we seem to have an urgent need to quickly find comparisons (no matter how remote) & have 'reference points'. It's a bit like spotting 'faces' when we look at clouds (or looking at a rorschach ink block test) - we far too quickly project our own reference points into what we're experiencing.
It might also be the curse of postmodern hipsterism - everybody is so 'informed' about music, that they need to show off their alleged 'knowledge'. No matter how original & unique a piece of music is, there will always be some bloody hipster who can conjure up some bogus 'comparison', usually constructed using some dreadful cliche (e.g - 'The bastard son of band A and band Y' or 'Imagine band X jamming with band Y on the moon, whilst Sun Ra plays the bagpipes').
Of course, such comparisons are usually just based on surface fripperies (immediate over-simplified & lazy associations) & show that people aren't really listening to overall structure. If it's got overdriven guitar pyrotechnics it must be 'Hendrix', if it's got slide guitar through echo it must be 'early Pink Floyd', & if it's got some synth whooshes, it must be 'Hawkwind'. There are only a limited amount of instruments, a limited amount of notes, and a limited (though conversely - almost infinite) palette of sounds that a musician can use, and therefore any 'informed' listener can find alleged 'comparisons. However, to me, AMT  still sound unique, in that, whilst drawing on sounds from the past (& they will openly acknowledge their influences) the way they structure these sounds into a track is like nobody else, making such lazy comparisons inaccurate.
To my ears (even after 35 years of seeking out the most strange & obscure music), AMT sound like nobody else, primarily because of the way they structure their tracks. 
This C.D could be classified in the 'experimental' category.  However, none of this is freeform noodling. Instead, each track is well thought out, is based on good ideas, is played with absolute conviction, and has a clear & very original structure.

The first track - 'Ziggy Sitar Dust Raga' (19.46) starts with an 8 note ascending / descending sitar motif, running through a beautiful shimmering echo. It's backed by a keyboard drone, that sounds like a harmonium. This repeats for nine minutes, but never gets monotonous. Occasional splashes of synth & another faint layer of sitar come in subtly at points. Eventually the sitar fades out. leaving only the keyboard drone.
At this point, Cotton Casino adds some wonderful, very high pitched spacey abstract warbling. I love her vocals. Even at her wildest, she has a lovely clear & pure tone to her voice, & never sounds screechy, harsh or grating (i.e - she's not Yoko Ono). She sounds like some disembodied spirit flying about. The sitar fades back in, this time put through so much echo / reverb, it just becomes a gorgeous glittering wall of sound. This track is fantastic, a brilliant exercise in creating a unique musical structure. and is one of my all time favourite AMT tracks.

The second track - 'Diamond Doggy Peggy' (15.05) is a mid-paced psychedelic rocker. Cotton Casino adds some more warbling, which although low in the mix, sits on top of the track nicely. Her very high pitch means she doesn't get drowned out in the mix. It sounds like the guitar & vocals are going through an effect which makes them all squidgy - a bit like listening to a rock band whilst underwater. Even though they're 'rocking out', these effects make them sound like no rock band you've ever heard before.
At times, this track sounds like they're about to go into 'Crystal Pyramid Rainbow' (from the 'Crystal Pyramid Rainbow Under The Stars' C.D), and I wonder if that particular track was developed from this one.

The third track -'Aladdin Kane (14.50) is underpinned by an echoing sequence of bass keyboard notes, processed so that they're playing backwards on this recording. There are some flourishes of slide guitar, & a layer of lead guitar. I'm not as fond of this track as I am of the other three tracks, but it's still enjoyable.

The final track - 'Cosmic Funky Dolly' (20.07) is almost indescribable, & as I've already said (& like everything else on this album) AMT  really sound like nobody else. There's a shimmering, echoing synth motif, on top of which Cotton Casino adds some fantastic spacey high pitched abstract vocals, once again sounding like some mysterious spirit flying around. Synth splashes & whooshes come in. This track sounds like you've been transported to the surface of some strange planet. I've never heard anything remotely like this from any other band.

I almost didn't buy this c.d, as the picture of the cover art (that I saw on Amazon) put me off a little - 1950s style sci-fi comic art isn't my thing. However, the c.d art looks great when you see it full size, and it's a fantastic 3-D hologram. It perfectly suits the music on this c.d.

This is one of the best albums I've heard by AMT, and is stunningly original (despite any bogus 'comparisons' any bloody hipsters might make). If you're an AMT fan, or a lover of experimental & unique sounds, I wholeheartedly recommend this.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE - IN SEARCH OF LOST DIVINE ARC (Important 2013)

I am a huge fan of AMT. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they're probably my 'favourite band' (or at least certainly my favourite contemporary band). I currently have about 20 of their C.Ds, and am regularly buying more. On top of this, I have listened to dozens more of their albums on Youtube. searching for the next one I want to buy.
While there are certainly some I like more than others. until this C.D, I haven't hear one I would describe as 'bad'. I bought this C.D without managing to hear it all first, and was extremely disappointed by it (& numerous subsequent listenings haven't changed my opinion). This is the very first AMT C.D I would put in the 'bad' category, and for me to describe an AMT C.D as 'bad' is something I never expected I would have to do.
The problem with this C.D can be summed up in one word - 'clutter' (a word I'm going to have to try to restrain myself from repeatedly using throughout this review).
First of all, the playing is extremely cluttered. On each track, everybody is playing their instruments (or singing) relentlessly at the same intensity from start to finish. No instruments ever 'drop out', or take a back seat, and nobody gets a chance at a solo. Tracks don't develop, change or grow. Each track just sounds like a relentless & monotonous wall of noise, with almost no variation in texture.

Presuming that these were one-take improvised recordings, a lot of this clutter problem could have sorted out in the mixing & production (making instruments fade in & fade out, or even 'dropping out' entirely) - an approach which sees to be common on AMT recordings. However, the mix here just seems lazy. The levels for each instrument  remain constant throughout each track - as if, once they were set, the 'producer' nipped out for a sandwich while the mixdown was being recorded to the master.  I can't help feeling that there might even be a good album in here, had a different approach been taken to the final mixing.
Normally I like the way AMT mix their tracks - drums, bass (& often vocals) being low in the mix. That's what gives them their unique sound. However, on this album, that approach just doesn't seem to work. Drums & bass are so low in the mix (almost inaudible) that it seems impossible to discern any rhythm in each track, and the lack of variety of texture just makes every track dull,

The first track - 'Space Speed Suicide' (5.00) is a promising start, but is really let down by the mix & production/ There's a great Led Zeppelin style rhythm guitar lick, topped with some good lead guitar  by Makoto. However, it just doesn't sound right. In order for this track to really rock, that rhythm guitar lick needs to be a lot louder,but instead it's just too quiet, & buried under too much clutter.

The second track - 'Soulful Grinning Skull' (16.48) features some really nice flute playing (reminiscent of Brainticket or Nik Turner's Sphynx). However, this just gets lost in the clutter & bad mixing. There's also a layer of 'goofy' vocals, which add nothing (except more clutter). Throughout this track, there's a hideous electric guitar clanging away sounding very 'dry' & untreated.  I presume it's trying to sound like Can, but it just ends up sounding like someone playing a really cheap electric guitar through a cheap & nasty tinny amp.The word 'chang' sums up this sound, and 16 minutes of this relentless 'chang' gave me a headache.
Had this track been mixed so that it was a showcase for the flute, it might have been a pleasant track. However, like every track on this C.D, it's ruined by clutter, clutter, and more bloody clutter.

The third track - ' Born Free Stone Free' (4.57) has a good Led Zeppelin style riff, and some strong rocking vocals, which are far too quiet in the mix. Once again, the dreadful muddy mixing & production spoil what had the potential to be a decent track.

The fourth track - 'Escape Horoscope (2,55) is a rubbish piece of filler (that sounds like the band plugging in their instruments & testing their levels) & the less said about it the better.

The fifth track - 'Babe I'm Gonna Reave You' (7.24) has a guitar sound that's as if the guitars on 'Trout Mask Replica' are trying to 'rock out'. Maybe that sounds like a good idea 'on paper', but in reality it;s just a dreadful din. As a lover of Makoto's guitar playing (even at it's wildest & noisiest) this is the very first time I've heard him playing something I don't like.  There's something about the tone of the guitar on this that is just horrible & grating.

The final track - 'In Search Of Lost Divine Arc' (19.32) starts off relatively relaxing for the first few  minutes (probably only noticeable though because of all the horrid noise that's proceeded it) before getting into some strong rock riffing. All I can say in this track's favour is that at least it contains some changes in texture that are lacking from the proceeding tracks, making it slightly more interesting & less monotonous. However, I still wouldn't count this as a 'good' track'. It's just less annoying than the tracks that have gone before.

The sticker on the sleeve says this is one of AMT's 'most written' albums (presumably meaning as opposed to being improvised). It doesn't sound like that to me. It sounds instead like the only degree of 'writing' that's gone into this is Makoto turning up to the session with a riff for each track, & him instructing the band to just relentlessly scrape, clatter & 'chang' away on their individual instruments, while he bangs out that riff for the duration of the track.

Finally, a special mention has to be made of the dreadful cover  art. Who the hell designed this ? What the hell is that image ? (It looks like a blurry grey photo of the contents of a bag of skunk in front of a tiny photo of a mountain). It looks even worse full size & it's still no clearer what it is.Given that AMT are renowned for gorgeous, colourful psychedelic cover art, what idiot thought that this horrible GREY (emphasis needed) cover picture would make a good AMT C.D cover ? Not only is this the worst AMT cover I've ever seen. It's the worst cover art I've seen by anybody ever. I doubt if even googling 'Least Inspiring Image' could come up with something as depressing & cheerless as this. The track listing  & info on the back cover is printed in tiny dark grey lettering on black, which meant I had to get out my double magnification reading glasses & strain to make out anything (& I'm still not sure I've got the track titles right)..The spine is the ugliest C.D spine ever - more of that horrible greyness, with a black bar running down it, which appears to have some writing on it (though I can't be bothered getting out my microscope to read it). I stacked this next to my other AMT C.Ds, and it didn't even look like a C.D spine. It just looked like some piece of shelf bracketing. Ugh !

As I said, I'm a huge AMT fan, but I just don't 'get' this album. It;s the worst thing I've heard by them, and it's a sad day when I have to give an AMT album a negative review

Reviews are ultimately subjective. I noticed that on Amazon, this C.D got universally great reviews (apart from the one dissenting voice from yours truly). I do sometimes wonder about the AMT fans  who review their C.Ds on Amazon, where every AMT C.D is given five star ratings, & described as 'essential' . Given that AMT have released an astonishing amount of C'Ds, it just can't be possible that every album they make is worthy of five stars  (though their 'success' rate is very high, which is why, out of the forty or so albums I've heard by them, this is the first one I've heard that falls beneath the three star- 'average' rating).
Either people are falling for some 'King's New Clothes' syndrome ('they're hip, they're obscure, they're Japanese - therefore every album they make must be  the greatest thing ever') or else - given that AMT's fan base sees to fall between fans of old school psychedelic rock & fans of 'noise' music -  maybe there's a proportion of their fans who think that 56 minutes of monotonous clanging clutter constitutes a 'great album'.

My advice is - There are dozens of fantastic AMT C.Ds out ther. Don't waste your money on this rubbish.