Acid Mothers Temple & Melting Paraiso UFO: Ripper At The Heaven's Gate

Cosmic thrills for space-rock-heads.

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With the current moral panic over legal highs, it’s not too far out of the realms of possibility that MPs and other guardians of the nation’s morals will soon be calling for the works of Japanese psychedelic space rock collective Acid Mothers Temple to be banned.

Quite frankly, if you really want to take that journey to the centre of the mind without chemicals, then the music of Kawabata Makoto and associates is one way to go.

This latest opus from the prolific masters of the universe is one of the best in ages, a Day-Glo fusion of ’72-‘75 Hawkwindesque cosmic metal with a liberal dash of mental Amon Düül II LSD bletherings.

The weightless space jam opener Chinese Flying Saucer and the phosphene inducing Shine on You Crazy Dynamite are AMT at their mind-blowing best.

Tommy Udo

Allan McLachlan spent the late 70s studying politics at Strathclyde University and cut his teeth as a journalist in the west of Scotland on arts and culture magazines. He moved to London in the late 80s and started his life-long love affair with the metropolitan district as Music Editor on City Limits magazine. Following a brief period as News Editor on Sounds, he went freelance and then scored the high-profile gig of News Editor at NME. Quickly making his mark, he adopted the nom de plume Tommy Udo. He moved onto the NME's website, then Xfm online before his eventual longer-term tenure on Metal Hammer and associated magazines. He wrote biographies of Nine Inch Nails and Charles Manson. A devotee of Asian cinema, Tommy was an expert on 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano and co-wrote an English language biography on the Japanese actor and director. He died in 2019.