– Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs? Label: Space Age Format: CD – The Penultimate Glactic Bordello Also The World You Made Label: Dirter Promotions Format: 4CD
With a band as prolific and expansive as the Acid Mothers Temple, it’s somewhat difficult to select a “typical” release to settle on, and perhaps (perhaps not) Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs? is as good as any as a starting point for the uninitiated. The album opens with a kosmische wind and wibbling analogue synths, mysterious voices from the aether and a sense of psychedelic foreboding, so the ingredients for a lengthy trip are there from the off. In fact, by the time “Daddy’s Bare Meat” kicks in to full Space Rock effect, it’s clear that the ride on Cosmic Shepherd is
The Forum, London 9 October 2004
Only a few weeks ago I was bemoaning my shortage of Laibach material – just a couple of albums’ worth out of a repertoire that spans well over two decades – so I was more than a little chuffed when this new retrospective landed on my lap. This is not really an album for Laibach fans of long standing, given its near-lack of new material, but for the newcomer or the casual listener it’s an almost perfect historical perspective. Probably the only major omission is the absence of any of their very early material from before the suicide of original vocalist Tomaz Hostnik in 1982. Perhaps Mute were unable to obtain the rights to re-release any of this; the obsessive archivist may consider this to mar the compilation’s status as a biographical record.