Moon Duo- Mazes (Sacred Bones Records- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride 
87_______________________
All the signifiers are there for this to be the drug album of the year, but it isn’t. Moon Duo’s Krautrock inspired rhythmic miasma of chugging guitars, and bleating organ drone is psychedelic music played by people who seem like they are NOT under the influence of hallucinogenics. Wooden Shjips’ Erik Johnson and cohort Sanae Yamada play dialed in, tightly chiseled, face melting space-rock tunes that offer more than the typical gauzy, loosey-goosey psychotropic mind-tripping music for the pharmacology crowd.
What sets the tracks on Mazes apart from the rest of the stoner set is its binary throb and oscillation, which is a more apt description than might be initially apparent, as Moon Duo is just that- a duo- even when they play live, with a (all computery and whatnot) drum machine. Normally, I could easily consider this a deficit on a band’s behalf, but it comes through on Mazes as a stroke of propulsive genius. Instead of washes of aimless guitar freak out, the songs have a bouncy, joyous lift, injecting a rare energy into an all too often listless genre.
For Fans of: Surf City, Sportsguitar
No comments:
Post a Comment