Customer Reviews

Terry Riley: In C

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Nicely assembled Acid Mothers Temple digipack release of their lengthy catalog. Three tracks for you to mentally absorb here. "In C" (20:31) is an apparently remake of the Terry Riley minimalism classic, "In E" (16:30) is a decent Acid Mothers improvisation piece to HOPEFULLY cause more than the usual amount of expected brain damage and "In D" (19:47) is what I assume to be a lengthy jam, thus penned by ATM guitarist Kawabata Makoto. Very good, Recommended, if you're a true Acid Mothers fan. Enjoy.

This Japanese group was originally dedicated to reviving the bizarre anti-music of Captian Braveheart and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. In that, they were successful, with albums like "New Geocentric World of Acid Mothers Temple." Of course, such improvisational noise has a very slim following as not many care to subject themselves to such sounds. With "In C", AMT covers Terry Riley's mimimalist classic "In C" and expands on it. The result goes more into the crazed ambient shoegazer style of bands like Air and Stereolab. Not exactly crowd pleaser fare either, but it shows AMT is more than a one-trick pony. Comparisons to early Tangerine Dream are understandable and AMT is probably influenced by TD's "Phaedra" here. Yet, there is nothing here as compelling as TD or Riley - it is no longer groundbreaking to hear this kind of music and it is just an imitation of true masters. In fact, a better version of Riley's "In C" can be had from Bang On a Box (ASIN: B00005NUPM). AMT remains a band in search of itself, still trying to capture an amorphous preceived glory of the 60's. AMT's "In C" is worth a bargin bin pick up but probably not at full price.

AMT's version of Terry Riley's minimalist classic "In C" sounds like the ancient Krell musicians of "Forbidden Planet," or early Tangerine Dream. It departs somewhat from the score (printed on the back cover), mostly in the effective use of drums, and the individual figures are difficult to pick out, but they kick the old piece into interstellar overdrive for an exciting 20-minute trip. AMT's own "In E" starts in Rileyesque fashion, then guitars and drums join in for a 1-chord jam that sounds like Stereolab with their hair down. The final "In D" is little more than a drone, with several instruments hovering around one note. I don't know how this compares with other AMT albums, but Terry Riley fans will want to add this to their collections.