Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. & The Observatory - Trails To The Cosmic Vibrations (2018)

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Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. & The Observatory - Trails To The Cosmic Vibrations (2018)

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Trails to the Cosmic Vibrations is a split LP that brings together two bands from Asia with outwardly contrasting dispositions, while sharing sympathetic resonances.

On Side A, hailing from Osaka, Japan, we have the ever exuberant postmodern psychrock legends, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.! With "Flatwoods Monster A Go Go ~ Cometary Orbital Drive 00∞00", the band presents an immersive and electrifying B-movie experience of extraterrestrial abduction and interstellar travel, a song that is quickly emerging as a standout on their 2018 tour setlists. This is the ultimate Hawkwind tribute, an exhilarating 20-minute ride in a silver machine, zipping across dimensions marked by shifts in tempo. Blasting off from the get-go, the band heads for an early climax before bringing the pace down into a funky skiffle at the eight-minute mark. Five minutes later, things just accelerate, and accelerate, and accelerate into hyperdrive – we're talking upwards and spacewards until we're some 360 beats per minute, or 6 beats per second… towards infinity! The 23-year-old band sounds fresher than it has in years, a large part due to its sensational new rhythm section of throbbing bassist, Wolf, and acrobatic drummer, Satoshima Nani. Third new member, vocalist and "midnight whistler", Jyonson Tsu, brings on board a whacked and outlandish appeal, singing in reckless tongues. We are proud to put this "instant classic" on wax, an epic number even by the stratospheric standards of thee Acid Mothers Temple!

On Side O, hailing from the impossible city-island-nation-state of Singapore, we have The Observatory, giants of Southeast Asian art rock. "Vibrational" begins with an upbeat euphoria that gradually turns into a melancholia that sinks deeper and deeper into utter despondence. The song is a natural follow-up from their last full-length, the ambitious and penetrating masterwork, August is the cruellest (2016). This expansive, nine-minute threnody was recorded at The Observatory's last major concert in 2017, where members past and present came together, alongside an ensemble of 30 young guitarists, layering tiny tremoloes to create emotional earthquakes. Led by the morose tenor of Leslie Low, "Vibrational" is thematically bleak and anti-social, finding escape only in the "legal high" of the bottle – to hell with society and sobriety, it seems.

The limited vinyl edition of 300 comes with a custom-made foil which transforms the special cover art by acclaimed artist Takashiro Kurashima into a kaleidoscopic trail of electric vibrations.

With Trails to the Cosmic Vibrations, we bring you from the highest highs to the lowest lows, from East Asia to the cosmos!