In C

They Say...

Review by Rolf Semprebon, All Music Guide

Makoto Kawabata's neo-hippie psychedelic cult, stripped down to only six members, offers up another fine album, two long tracks of extreme psychedelic brain-damaged sounds. The first cut is a rousing Krautrock version of the Terry Riley classic of minimalism, which lends itself perfectly to the Acid Mothers' freakout-overdose sound. Basically, the band locks into a repetitive mantra riff of keyboards, bass, and percussion, with tweaked-out electronic swirls. The Acid Mothers' version of "In C" has the same energy and vigor as the take of the same piece by L'Infonie (which can be heard on the Terry Riley CD Reed Streams), although with more electronics and no horns it comes off much heavier and more dense. "In E" is an Acid Mothers improvisation along similar lines, an "In C" with a guitar orientation. It starts off with a few minutes of keyboard squall before Kawabata's guitar and then the rest of the instruments kick in another headlong rush of thunderous mantra rhythms and a cosmic slew of keyboard sounds, and even eerie non-verbal vocal trills from Cotton Casino. The track is darker and more intense than "In C," as the instruments weave in and out of the minimalist structure while the tension builds and builds. One doesn't normally think of minimalism in the same breath as the psychedelic overkill for which the Acid Mothers are renown, but here it works fantastically, as they take the mantle from the '70s Krautrockers like Can and Neu! and create a new type of maximal minimalism.