Yeah yeah, blah blah, it’s hard to keep up w/AMT, they release too much shit etc etc.. but every so often Makoto Kawabata’s Japanese psychedelic orchestra release something that hands you your ass on a plate and makes you remember just how dazzling they can be at their peak. And this is a perfect case in point. Released to inaugurate Blackest Rainbow’s new Blackest Bootlegs series, Shakespeare From The Cosmic Inferno catches the group at a wild celestial high in Sheffield, England in 2008. The line-up is Pika from Afrirampo on vocals, Tabata Mitsuru (Zeni Geva/Loud Machine 5000 et al) on bass and voice, Higashi Hiroshi on synth, guitar and vocals, Koji Shimura (White Heaven/Jutok Kaneko) on drums and Kawabata on guitar and vocals. The merciful absence of ‘space joker’ Atsushi Tsuyama means there’s less wack and more warp, with the group tearing through “Master Of The Cosmic Inferno/Heart Of Earth/Ecstasy Into The Cosmic Inferno” before melting into an almost two-sides long take on their classic repeat-guitar/dreamboat anthem “Pink Lady Lemonade”, detouring halfway through into a sidereal “Space Disco” wig out. A dream line-up navigating some of Kawabata’s most potent settings of rock hypnotics all rendered with the kinda crude/explosive fidelity that could almost have been master-minded by Nanjo Asahito. It’s enough to make you remember why you fell in love with AMT in the first place. Edition of only 250 copies on 140g vinyl with full-colour printed sleeves. Highly recommended!