When Tatsuya Yoshida, Makoto Kawabata and Richard Pinhas were making their 2017 self-titled trio album for Bam Balam, Makoto made some spare loop tracks which were going to be melded together with guitar and drums to form a new piece of work. The resulting album was never made until now, where in lockdown Tatsuya and Makoto recorded the absent guitar, drum and synthesizer parts to complete an album for Takuroku. The outcome - a ravishing suite of cyber prog-rock - feels nothing near to fractals or pieces of loose meat. Tatsuya and Makoto push their technical prowess to the fore for 8 technicolour tracks, revelling in the sort of kinetic energy of Ruins and Acid Mothers Temple at their most full-frontal and ecstatic. Sounding like a machine being re-wired to operate at a different velocity - sparking, malfunctioning and panting clouds of smoke - it gives little room to breath in its overwhelming vacuum of sound. Elements hot-wire into overdrive and never cease to slow outside of their given track-length time frame. Bring a few bottles of water and a fresh towel - this a total trip, from two heroes of the Japanese underground.
Since 1978 Makoto Kawabata has been the leader of Acid Mothers Temple, a group which seems to be in a constant state of movement, whilst also finding time for playing solo and with many bands and projects, often in collaborations such as Acid Mothers Gong (with Daevid ALLEN and Gilli SMYTH), Acid Mothers Guru Guru (with Mani NEUMEIER), as well as performances and recordings with luminaries of the deep global underground like Simeon of Silver Apples, Damo SUZUKI (ex.CAN), J.F. Pauvros, Keiji Haino, etc.
"Extrême-Onction sees Makoto Kawabata follow Keiji Haino's footsteps into a duel with French outsider guitarist Jean-François Pauvros. Overall it's an ethereal encounter, at points so gentle that you have to pump your stereo to raise anything more than surface sighs. Its atmosphere is as intensely meditative as Haino's Nijiumu group." - David Keenan, The WIRE