Wild Gals a Go-Go

As with all other Temple releases apparently co-composed and performed with the help of shadowy outfit the Melting Paraiso UFO, Wild Gals shows Temple once again thoroughly, totally, and completely gone over the top. Main man Makoto Kawabata still heads up the collective, leading everyone (including various refugees from Mainliner, Toho Sara, and Omoide Hatoba) into the realm of so-beyond-stoned psychedelic madness. Allegedly the soundtrack to a Russian underground film of the same name — one can only wonder what it must be like if it exists — Wild Gals is an entertaining keeper. Opening cut "Reverse of the Universe 1" starts things calmly enough, with a nagging and eventually ear-piercing keyboard drone playing out over a series of dark, clanging guitar notes that the likes of Sonic Youth wouldn't be unfamiliar with. "Space Bambino" also goes along fairly calmly thanks to the female vocalist, who also provides similarly sedating influences throughout Wild Gals, as with her echoing tones on the drifting zoneout "Goodbye Ice Cream/Stone Blind Blue Heaven." When "Space Bambino" turns into "Interstellar Over Dope," the monster feedback riffs really kick in, as does the heavy, queasy production which makes everything sound like it's being broadcast through Jell-O. "Mammary Intercourse" ups things even more later on, with massive flanging throughout the charging, blasting performance, not to mention spaced-out keyboard noises and whirring sounds galore. If the song is meant to represent the titular action, one wonders what these folks get up to at night. "Hare Hare Hallelujah/Blow Out" is the big monster at the center of it all, an 18-minute jam with an amazing midsection where tribal percussion, crumbling guitar noises, and spooky keyboard tones intermingle perfectly. It's one of the best tributes to early-'70s German freak rock around, and sounds it.