Meh
the attraction to this is supposedly that it's an updated rendition of a very old, traditional buddhist chant. what do buddhists think about people in canada listening to sacred music without even realizing that it's sacred music? because i didn't realize it was sacred for some time - not when i saw it live nor while i was listening to it, not until i read something that explained the significance of it. to be blunt, the religious significance of the record means absolutely nothing to me and i have absolutely no interest in exploring it further. had it been marketed as religious music, i would have actually almost certainly chosen not to attend the show (which actually would have been a shame because i was introduced to the awesomely rocking mammatus at the gig).
i could consequently accuse the band of cultural appropriation in just about the worst way possible, but that's not a line of condemnation i walk down often and not one i really want to press in too much detail right now. i'd rather just be a punk and call them pretentious.
pretentious, indeed, is the best way to describe this. there are a few sections of more intricate detail, but it's mostly really just a simple, prodding riff repeating over and over, accompanied by sounds that seem to come from nowhere rational at all. within that accompaniment, there's a lot of atonal chanting that a westerner may conceive of as gregorian; this is interspersed with some kind of shamanistic chanting that really stresses japan's ancient siberian heritage. westerners may immediately interpret it as "native american sounding", but by doing that they're confusing a very old shared heritage.
what's really pretentious about it, though, is it's nature as "channeled music". i mean, what do you say to people that think they're channeling spirits into a theremin? is it worth saying anything at all, or is that one of those situations where it's better not to bother wasting your time? so, excluding those sparse patterns that repeat as motifs, the disc is completely aimless by conscious design. i could point out that the record lacks structure and cogency, or point out that it lacks a human element in the improvisation, but who am i to argue with the gods?
where the divinely channeled improv is particularly awful is the guitar playing, which can't have made religious authorities throughout asia particularly happy, i should add. i'm not likely to agree with them in exact terms, but i will agree with anybody that claims that it's in particularly bad taste to load up sacred music with entirely self-indulgent and overly masturbatory guitar work. i might not understand all of this, but i do understand that, and it is weak.
in the end, i can't help but feel that the best audience for this (outside of the stereotypical pothead stuck with the necessity of looking beyond western culture to connect with any kind of spirituality) is anthropologists. there's something fascinating about this on the level of it modernizing something that seems destined for cultural death. but, that's a very analytical application that goes well beyond the level of pure listening, and i simply can't recommend the disc - or the band, for that matter - at all on that level.
stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysWbGhvfcWU
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/music/artists/AcidMothersTemple/2007-Nam/index.html
