acid mothers temple & the  melting paraiso u.f.o.: the ripper at the heaven's gates of dark

Limited transparent blue with black swirl double-LP vinyl. Housed in a newly redesigned, full color gatefold sleeve. Nine years after its initial release in 2011, The Ripper At The Heaven's Gates Of Dark is back. The original black vinyl and CD editions sold out pretty quick, and have been a constant source of repress requests ever since. So, at Makoto's personal request here it is. It's definitely the best Acid Mothers Temple studio album from that short lived four-piece line up. With the exception of the album's opener "Chinese Flying Saucer" and it's unashamedly obvious musical references to Led Zeppelin II (hello 1969!) the rest of the album locks into a much more laid-back groove than on recent AMT releases. This dynamic shift is best displayed on the 22-minute jam, "Shine On You Crazy Dynamite" and also the album's closer "Electric Death Mantra". The band opt for less frantic explosions of electric guitar overload and fuzz, replacing those elements with a more epic, blissed-out and at times brooding Japanese psychedelia, with more emphasis on acoustic guitars, sitar, organ, synthesizer, and at times, really trippy vocals (most prevalent on "Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn"), recalling the twisted psychedelics of early Pink Floyd. Yet still, their sound remains so expansive that it is easy to become totally immersed in this album. Epic in proportions, cloaked in a cosmic haze and shimmering in a synth utopia. The Ripper At Heaven's Gates Of Dark maintains AMT's status as masters of out-of-this-world music and reveals their darker side of the moon. Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. at the time of this recording: Tsuyama Atsushi - monster bass, voice, soprano sax, cimpo flute, soprano recorder, acoustic guitar, cosmic joker; Higashi Hiroshi - synthesizer, dancin' king; Shimura Koji - drums, Latino cool; Kawabata Makoto -electric guitar, electric bouzouki, sitar, organ, percussion, electronics, speed guru. Recorded at Acid Mothers Temple, Japan. Produced and engineered by Kawabata Makoto.