Temple Stone [live]

by Ned RaggettA live album, but a live album unlike any other, Temple Stone is, as the liner notes indicate, a record of "some experimental performances at sacred places in recent years," in many but not all cases favoring acoustic over electric instruments (a notable exception is a great version of "Rakshu"). Playing at various temples and churches in Japan, Ghost mostly drew on songs from the self-titled debut and Second Time Around, with most of the recordings coming from sessions in 1993. The various selections aren't arranged in any particular order, while there's no hint if songs listed as taken from a performance at a particular site are all from the same or different evenings, so anyone expecting a straight record of the Ghost live experience at the time won't find it here. Those expecting more of the mysterious, fascinating acid folk-rock drama of early Ghost, though, will find plenty of that here. Not merely recreating the album recordings, the four piece lineup, supplemented at many different points by other guests, add further explorations to the arrangements, while the quality of the delivery alone makes the cuts rival the studio versions. "Guru in the Echo" is one standout; Taishi Takizawa's performance on flute is absolutely wonderful, while Batoh's impassioned singing makes it one of his finest recorded moments as well. "Sun Is Tangging," meanwhile, is pure a Amon Düül-style mega-jam at the end, an absolutely stunning all-around effort. Of the unfamiliar cuts, the most interesting is a reworking of the traditional "Blood Red River." Batoh plays it fairly straight himself in terms of singing and guitar, but the band as a whole turn it into a noisy freakout not far distant from the Birthday Party's similarly insane exorcisms of the blues. The sheer chaos at the end is a wonder to behold.