Album Review: Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – Chosen Star Child's Confession

Theoretically, 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Japanese space rock collective Acid Mothers Temple. However, given their frankly bewildering array of releases, collaborations and splinter groups, their career feels more like an eternal sonic freakout than anything that can be counted or quantified. No wonder this album’s credits include people playing “another dimension” and “space & time”. And, er, “fishing rod”.

On this occasion, the constantly mutating AMT favour a colourful but mellow variety of their freeform psychedelia, with the dreamy repetition of Cometary Orbital Drive (Christal Trigger 2199) particularly trance-inducing.

Flute and sax from guest Geoff Leigh of cult art rockers Henry Cow provide a link to AMT’s ‘70s precursors, while Infected J Also Live Beast Catastrophe and CD bonus track Santa Maria Enfance balance the loveliness with chaos and trippy noise. This is a perfect point to jump into their ever-flowing stream of sound.

Verdict: 4/5