2 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: Reynols

Improv music, in whichever genre, comes in all forms. Makoto Kawabata’s work, while skewing towards art-rock / psychedelic-rock, comes in all forms. Even when working with a more specific moniker, as the Acid Mothers Temple collective – many, many forms of improv and composed tunes. Here combined with Argentian experimenters Renols as, appropriately Acid Mothers Reynols, the pattern holds: there’re different things happening across these 4 long tracks. But even within each of those tracks the group changes things up, making – for a listener with maybe less patience for the wandering sides of improv – a not very engaging listen.

For those seeking a bit of AMT freakout, that’s here, if consolidated to the album’s most “accessible” track – closer Lemurian Tsunami Inside a Hat. Kawabata and Reynols jam excitingly off each other, building and swirling in a very direct manner, but also indirectly highlighting what I’m otherwise complaining about: I wish this was fed by the other songs in some way, but they all feel disconnected internally, and from one another.

Opener Kicking Air Bricks lands on some grooving, piano-tinkled old school psych, but past its midway point the collective changes tactics to a big question mark of aimless non-jamming, and the song never finds its groove again. Multiverse Turtle Reflex aims towards ambience / drone, but it’s listless – multiple playthroughs, I kept tuning out on this one, forgetting it was playing. Smelling Oneiric Asado then feels the most notably “improv”ed, acting as an extended, and slightly more animated form of the latter half of Kicking Air Bricks, but that again means I can’t find much to latch onto here.

It’s very possible there’s also a production / mix / master problem: though I’d base this less on the mix, as various elements come through clearly, the recording isn’t very strong sounding in general; with some more punch and volume (and not exactly volume just from turning it up – moreso the actual levels of the recording), I can imagine “finding” things in the music that I felt incapable of. To be fair, I recognize this loose style of improv is generally not my bag, but I’m also often able to get a handle on it by going through an album multiple times, and that wasn’t the case here.