TURN UP, TUNE IN AND BUG OUT TO ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE

IF deranged psychedelic rock is your thing then you’ll probably be familiar already with Acid Mothers Temple. If not then we’d recommend a huge dose of the Japanese freak rockers who visit Belfast next week. They’ll sort you right out.

They’re the sort of band who use every trick in the acid-rock handbook to push out the boundaries of guitar-based music to the limit. Wah wah, tremolo and phase? Tick. How about a bit of flange too? Tick. Intricate drum patterns? Tick. Moog synthesiser? Tick.

Then they add even more effects, crank it up to 11 and wig out.

It’s a strange brew, summoning the hedonism and experimentalism of their 60s West Coast forebears Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and the 13th Floor Elevators while channeling the musical dogma of krautrock’s Can and Amon Duul II.

You get the idea, it’s pretty far out and pretty great, if a little niche – perfect for those nights, perhaps, when you’ve absent-mindedly banged a load of mescaline and amphetamines and just can’t settle… You know the ones.

Formed in 1995 by by guitarist Kawabata Makato, the original intention was to record loops and overdubs to create “extreme trip” music. He got there in the end but it began to involve more musician pals until an actual band was formed. They’ve toured extensively in the States, Europe, Britain and Ireland – though they’ve never made it to Belfast yet. Our advice is to check them out this time for even if they come back again and again back it’ll definitely be a one-off.

Acid Mothers Temple play the Black Box, Belfast, on Thursday, October 26. Doors 8pm-11pm, tickets £11+ booking fee from blackboxbelfast. com or £12.50 on the door.