As the name suggests, OmniVibes is a one-man project from the multi-disciplined artist Paul Jackson. A guitarist, sitarist, singer and songwriter, Paul is a man of many talents and he displays them all for our delectation tonight. Not only has he supported artists such as Arthur Brown (he of the Crazy World) but don’t be surprised to stumble upon him busking on your local high street. His set is the kind which slowly grows, opening like a lotus flower, and after a few numbers on the acoustic guitar, things really get going when he picks up the sitar.
With a dexterity that could rival the great Ravi Shankar, Paul puts a contemporary twist on classical Indian rāgas by fusing them with Delta blues and some seriously good slide style. It’s a fusion of styles I’d never considered before, but once I saw Paul pulling them together into a cohesive whole, it suddenly made perfect sense. While all sorts of fireworks fly from his fingertips, Paul also beats a drum with his foot and he soon gets the crowd locked into a singular groove. East meets West in fine style and OmniVibes gets the good vibes flowing.
Formed in 1995, Acid Mothers Temple soon came to prominence as Japan’s premier psychedelic rock band, and it didn’t take long for the rest of the world to get hooked on their otherworldly charms. Like actual extraterrestrials, the band seemingly materialise from thin air, and without fanfare plug in and play, and take us on an amazing journey. With Hiroshi Higashi at the helm and twisting the dials of his synthesizer to their ultimate extreme, he’s a white-haired wizard piloting their craft to an unknown destination and sways from left to right with the turbulence he creates. Behind him are a band who are equally animated, with guitarist (and founding member) Makoto Kawabata sculpting sound into previously unheard shapes.
Throughout the years, Acid Mothers Temple have been a loose collective with members coming and going, often on an ad hoc basis and this tour is no exception; I thought tonight’s bassist looked familiar, and that’s because he is; it’s Taigen Kawabe, vocalist and four-stringer from Bo Ningen, this evening he locks in tightly with a hard-hitting drummer and the pair combine to create a motorik beat that hurtles them forwards with unstoppable force. With a second guitarist complimenting Kawabata, Acid Mothers Temple create a spectacle that’s as arresting as their sound; the five, vibrant personalities along with the technicolour psychedelia create an experience that assaults all your senses simultaneously.
While tonight’s set has a framework and structure, there’s an improvisational nature to the proceedings which makes for an original gig. While some concerts are choreographed to even the smallest movements, there’s a sense of danger to an Acid Mothers Temple show and a feeling that it could veer in any direction. And it does go off on unexpected tangents; take their cover of Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive, for example. They take the main riff and beat it into their own form (which is how all cover versions should be handled) and the result is a hypnotic affair that casts a spell over the entire venue.
The band do a similar thing with Gong covers and the groove they radiate cause all but the infirm and frail to shake their stuff. The band’s flight ends in a crash landing with instruments played to their extremities and Taigen Kawabe invading the crowd. The band vaporise as quickly as the arrived and make their way to another town, but they’ve left fond memories with all who attended tonight.
Photography by: JJ Grant/Wonderlens (at Corsica Studios on 15.05.2025)
