Acid Mothers Temple "soul collective"
Frequently Asked Questions Q&A033

A033: This list was made in April 2003. Probably I'll change the list in next month...

Troubadours Trouveres / Studio Der Fruhen Musik & Thomas Binkley

Of all the music I have heard, this is the record I lvoe the most. I seriously cannot believe that there is any music which is more restrained or more beautiful. The overwhelming subliminity that can be heard here is truly the music of heaven.

Madrigali A Cinque Voci:Carlo Gesualdo / Quintetto Vocale Italiano

I have never anything that creates such a whirling, confused amalgam of religious faith and secular passion as this record. Can music really show us hell (or perhaps heaven?) as clearly as this? For me, these are demonic scriptures that fully capture the magic of the human voice.

Oresteia / Iannis Xenakis

Music from a unique parallel world where opposites - beauty and confusion, classic and avant-garde - are permitted to beautifully co-exist.

Gospel d'Oc / Rosina de Peira

Rosina's voice is truly one of the wonders of the world - universally maternal, powerful, gentle, replete with mercy. If music from heaven exists, then it can be done other than her voice. Like a soothing, energizing balm for both body and mind, Rosina's song echoes in one's soul - this is true song.

Bagpipe / Georgi Chilingirov & Stefan Zahmanov

I am always searching for extreme forms of song, and these site-specific recordings of bagpipes and song are one great example. Song belongs to the people, and everyone loves and needs songs. This record really makes me feel the necessity for song in our daily lives.

Barrett / Syd Barrett

Some of the most affecting music in the world. This is the ecstatic music that a genius who had sold his soul finally found his way to. So it's both beautiful and pathetic at the same time. This record is one of the miracles of rock. I doubt that anyone will ever play this music again.

Trout Mask Replica / Captain Beefheart & his magic band

For me, this was the most shocking rock album that I ever heard. When I first heard this when I was sixteen, I realised that what I was doing was rock as well. This record confirmed for me my path in life.

Contents / The Charlatans

Out of all the rock albums that I love, this is my all-time favourite number one. If I owned just this one record, I think that I could do without all my other rock records. Again, this is a miraculous record, like a treasure chest crammed full of all the delicious tastes of rock.

Arrival / ABBA

I've been an ABBA fan for 25 years. I'm not a record collector by nature, but when it comes to ABBA I have pressings of their LPs and EPs from all over the world. This is my favourite ABBA album. As pop records, this is a real peak of mastery and perfection. When I listen to this my mind goes blank and all I can feel is a sense of happiness. Sometimes we all need a record like this.

Ike Reiko No Miryoku / Ike Reiko

The only album by the 70s Japanese porno actress Ike Reiko - and all the lyrics are about sex. The whole album is smothered with an echo effect, like she's singing in some dingy bar. Her husky voice echoes up from the night, and it totally sexy. Totally different from Gainsbourg's music, this record is suffused with an extremely fleshy, real sort of eroticism - you can almost smell the scent of her body. For me, all this represents a uniquely Japanese, moist kind of eroticism that has now vanished.
And to top things of, her lifestyle was totally rock (she lied about her age when she was 17 to make her porno debut, made a total mess of her attempt to become a serious actress when she was at the height of her fame, returned to
making pornos, retired with an addiction to stimulant drugs, and finally married some big successful businessman).