No matter WHAT anyone says (including the fucking BAND), the "art collective" Acid Mothers Temple is, at BEST, an "experimental" or maybe a PROG band. It ain't "psychedelic." Uh... I wonder if the band's even heard "psych," beyond what passes for classic '60s rock? And yet, NOW--as AMT has proven--in order to sell a band as "psychedelic," all that's required is the suggestion of "acid" (depending on who you ask, "acid" COULD imply Bloomfield or Barrett), free-form jams, a hippie "collective" presumption (like the Manson family?), and voilà... blind fucking ridiculous pretense.

Remember, a version of AMT's "psychedelia" was first Shimmy-Disked years ago when the Japanese noise scene erupted; then it was simply known as "noise," a designation which fit... ever hear the Boredoms?

Right... so, my problem is with AMT's attempt to re-contextualize something akin to "noise" as "psych," in WORDS only. Unfortunately, the business of NEITHER is fully expressed. On any random tune, AMT can get heavy, gothic, PROG-ish (kinda like "math rock"), or EVEN New Age-ish (wimpy PROG)--NONE of which is psychedelic. And, aside from an undying love of "jammin'," the band lacks focus.

NOW, it could be argued that lack of focus is the "freedom" psych presumes, but that's not the issue. AMT's music goes faulty when the band assimilates different "styles" for individual songs (democratic issues of running a collective?). Compare AMT's most recent LP, New Geocentric World, to the Pretty Things' 1968 S.F. Sorrow. AMT doesn't hold up. Even though both LPs are filled with a sharp diversity of song, S.F. Sorrow maintains an absolute COHESIVE sense throughout, while Geocentric falls face down. AMT don't know how to compose an LP.

Maybe the band oughta be called "schizo" rock or something... course it don't sound cool like "psychedelic," you know. Whatever, to be psychedelic, CONVENTIONS of psych must stand, no matter that the word elicits conventions to be broken... and, evidently, AMT ain't got no idea of where to begin.