Jennifer Gentle, Kawabata Makoto

2008 release ** "Although this collaboration between Italian psych-pop band Jennifer Gentle and mercurial, collabo-prone Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Kawabata Makoto sounds pretty much like you’d expect, the The Wrong Cage can’t quite be reduced to the sum of its parts. It can be a rich, rewarding document for listeners on either side of the pop/free psych divide represented by the two groups. Separating Makoto’s and Marco Fasolo’s guitar (the latter being the sole JG member to carry over into the present) into right and left stereo channels is both a solution that keeps their distinct guitar tones from getting muddy – Makoto’s guitar is light and no heat, and Fasolo’s rhythmic, spare playing sounds woody by comparison – but can just as easily stand for the album as a whole. Its best moments are the ones that don’t quite belong to either group. So even though The Wrong Cage never quite arrives at a meaningful destination, its meanderings are more than just enjoyable. "