Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple triumphantly return with their version of Osamu Kitajima’s 1974 prog paean to the Shinto goddess of water, language and music.
Like their 2001 homage to Terry Riley’s In C (Eclipse), Benzaiten is not a cover album, but rather a collection of new AMT tracks that draw inspiration from the original work. As soon as Kawabata Makoto’s guitar states the brazen theme that marks Kitajima’s composition, the music veers into the band’s classic hyperdrive, making a left at the nearest black hole. Drone also plays a large part, with stagnant high-pitched frequencies becoming the stream from which astral temples explode into supernovae of sound. It’s the order that comes from chaos and everything that makes Acid Mothers Temple so great.
As AMT grow, they extend further into the cosmos that makes us but a nanograin in the relative scope of things. Blast Benzaiten for a truly spectacular, holy trip.
