I had good reasons to expect a lot from this album. First of all, I am a fanatic for Acid Mothers Temple and anything that includes band leader/lead guitarist Kawabata Makoto. Second, Damo Suzuki was easily the best lead singer Can ever had, and I’ve been wondering what he’s been up to since returning to music in the mid 80s (a return that I did not know about until recently). Furthermore, an improvised collaboration between the two of them just seems like a naturally brilliant idea. On paper, they would appear to be natural partners far beyond the superficial similarities like the shared Japanese heritage and poor mastery of English. Also, Acid Mothers Temple has been drawing inspiration from krautrock bands like Can for the last decade. Both musicians are naturally inclined towards collaboration. As far as I can tell Damo Suzuki tours the globe and basically plays with whoever he can find, and a lot of Kawabata’s best work has been the product of bringing new talent into the Acid Mothers Temple family.

Unfortunately, the results tend to disappoint. I’m not sure if this concert was the first time any of these people played together, but it sure sounds like it. None of the band members display any chemistry. Everyone does his own thing without paying much attention to anyone else. As a result, no risks are taken and everyone seems to play things fairly safe. The ultimate product is what could best be described as a Sunday morning stoner album. Missing is the unpredictability and sense of adventure that characterizes both Can’s and Acid Mothers Temple’s best work. Instead the album relies on drones, steady monotonous beats and repetitive basslines. It’s a pleasant listening experience, but one that fades into the background instead of captivating.

If you think the above paragraph leaves out Damo Suzuki, that’s because he’s largely irrelevant on this album. For every song, he basically just sings/talks a lot of gibberish that never gels into a melody or rhythm that gives the music any semblance of direction. This is a shame because on Can songs like “Paperhouse” and “Bring Me Coffee or Tea” he displayed an ability to lift a song to dizzying heights with his bizarre singing style. Little of that is present here. The closest thing to this in the Can catalogue is “Up the Bakerloo” from Radio Waves. But even that song eventually developed some steam; it just took twenty minutes to do so. The only time Damo Suzuki seems ready to make things interesting is at the beginning of “Universe 4: Delete History” when he starts singing a melody for the first and last time. Unfortunately, when the rest of the band joins in, no one follows his lead. Instead, the song devolves back into the same mid-tempo groove that had proven fatal for the previous three tracks.

This leaves it up to Kawabata to make things interesting. Unfortunately, like Suzuki, he doesn’t make his presence known until “Universe 4: Delete History,” when he finally cranks his guitar up towards the end. But even then, it’s just a little noise to relieve the tension the song had been building. For the first three tracks his guitar playing is completely restrained, delivering more in drones than riffs or solos. On “Universe 5: Music for the Long Now,” he finally gets a lengthy solo, but with only a bland lifeless groove to accompany him, it never takes off and leaves me wishing he had Acid Mothers Temple backing him instead of this group.

This brings me to the third collaborator and the probable weak link: The Dublin Sound Carriers who make up the rest of the band. Kawabata and Suzuki may disappoint, but they basically do what I would expect them to do. I can’t blame them for failing to shine with a backing band that does nothing to showcase their talents. The death blow to just about every song on here is the boring mid-tempo beat and monotonous bass-line laid down in every song. “Universe 6” is the only song where the pace is picked up at all, and even then it sounds as they are hurrying up to be finished rather than building any real steam. And the problems go way beyond the tempo. There’s just no life in this group. Without a dynamic bassist like Tsuyama Atsushi or Tabata Mitsuru (the two bassists of Acid Mothers Temple), Kawabata has little to work with. This criticism seems unfair. I’ve never heard this group before. Maybe they’re a great band on their own. But I think there’s a reason they’re the only ones I had never heard of before buying this album.

Nevertheless, the listening experience is not totally a waste. The music may not live up to my hopes, but there’s nothing necessarily bad on here. What leaves me disappointed with this album is its price and the difficulty in obtaining it. Only 500 copies were pressed, and they have to be ordered directly from the label in Ireland. The final price comes to over 20 Euros, which I’m sure comes out to something ridiculous with the current state of the dollar. I’m not faulting the label. They have to make back their money on this, and they definitely gave it some nice packaging. I just wish more thought could have gone into the music.

Track List:
1. Universe 1: Newborn Steel Unicorns
2. Universe 2: Pneumatic Distorted
3. Universe 3: Hullabaloowah
4. Universe 4: Delete History
5. Universe 5: Music For The Long Now
6. Universe 6: Lost Between The Spaces