Acid Mothers Temple
April 24th, 2019
Black Cat
Washington, DC
Source:
Tascam DR-40X (X/Y config, no low-cut for first 30 minutes, A/B config and 40hz rolloff thereafter) > Reaper (a tiny pinch of RealComp) > CD WAV (tracking) > foobar2000 (tags + ReplayGain)
Location: Right-of-board - resting on vibrating shelf for first 30 minutes, then taper decided to stop being a lazy turd and hold the unit like a proper penguin.
SOUND QUALITY: A-/B+ (really digging the sound of the Tascam - the first thirty minutes are a little boomy, mostly owing to mic position - everything opens up quite nicely once I bit the bullet and picked the unit up. It's a bit muddy - such is the nature of house acoustics - but nothing a bit of EQ wouldn't cure - no unintended distortion that my ears can hear. Saw a lot of fuss online about the alleged handling sensitivity of the Tascam, but I'm calling bullshit on this one. Just to be cheeky, I decided not to edit out the transition where I'm physically grasping the mics and moving them from X/Y (><) to A/B (<>) position.
THE BAND:
Kawabata Makoto : guitar, synthesizer, speed guru
Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, noodle king
Jyonson Tsu : vocal, guitar, bouzouki, electronics, midnight whistler
Satoshima Nani : drums, another dimension
S/T : bass, space & time
SPECIAL GUEST:
Cotton Casino : Synth, exotic ducking and dancing
NO LONGER WITH THE BAND BUT WE WON'T FORGET THEM:
Shimura Koji : drums, latino cool
Tsuyama Atsushi : monster bass, voice, cosmic joker
Tabata Mitasuru : guitar, guitar-synthesizer, maratab
TRACK LIST:
01. Intro [0:54]
02. Unknown Song #1 [12:21]
03. Unknown Song #2 [9:46]
04. The Flying Teapot [9:19]
05. tuning [0:41]
06. Unknown Song #3 [6:39]
07. Pink Lady Improvade [4:39]
08. Pink Lady Lemonade [9:35]
09. La Novia [7:21]
10. Pink Lady Lemonade [10:22]
11. Cometary Orbital Drive > Speed Guru [13:42]
Notes:
Tracks 02-03 may be two movements of one song.
Track 05 includes the UNBERABLE mic handling noises which podcasters and motion-photographers get all fussy about in online reviews. The only way to avoid this inexcusable racket is to... not grab the capsules and shift them from X/Y to A/B in the middle of recording.
Tracks 7-10 segue. Total time of Pink Lady Suite: 38:35
Track 10 includes band introduction (outroduction?) by Kawabata - a really nice touch!
MINI BIO:
"Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (and subsequent offshoots) is a Japanese psychedelic band founded in 1995 by members of the Acid Mothers Temple soul-collective. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with 4 core members and frequent vocal guests.
The band have a reputation for phenomenal live shows, and releasing frequent albums on a number of international record labels, as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective."
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which every 14 year old has edited.
BAND PAGE:
http://www.acidmothers.com
SHOW NOTES:
Splurged and, after much mulling it over, picked up a Tascam DR-40X - one unit that can do a full SBD-AUD matrix all by itself? How novel! Of course, I arrived a bit too late to get a soundboard feed, but this is a very nice audience recording which I feel makes the agony of suffering through terrible Youtube reviews by horrible little vloggers who barely know what they're talking about quite worthwhile.
The current lineup has really come together - while last year was a bit of a transition with a giant Tabata-shaped gap in the space of what was once a giant Tsuyama-shaped gap in the goofin' and gaggin' department, by now Jyonson is starting to step up to the plate and bring an exuberant Puck-like charm to those moments in the spotlight.
The beautiful harmonies between Jyonson and special guest Cotton Casino in La Novia are an easy candidate for the night's highlight, as well as the entirety of the reworked Pink Lady Suite - Satoshima's upbeat disco-drumming approach to the song has finally gelled, no longer mere cheeky-blasphemy, but now with a flow and energy justification of its own.
REQUESTS & REMINDERS:
Do not sell this recording. Do not buy this recording. Do not sell this recording, then buy it from yourself. If you want to review a product, review it in text, a medium far better suited to extracting small nuggets of value from a stream of tangents than video.
CREDITS:
Dynamite Children - Dark Catting
Torrented by the taper: ZaPenguin
email - zappa.penguin(AT)gmail.com
web - http://db.etree.org/zappapenguin (so out of date I should consider not linking it in info files anymore... or, you know, updating it. Someday...)
Band page: http://www.acidmothers.com
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