Moon Duo were very much my spacerock band of 2017 with their Occult Architecture Volume 1 and 2 and though I've yet to see them live, having been a longtime fan of Ripley and Sanae I've been enthusiastically devouring everything they've released, writing about various releases here and in Record Collector over the past few years, and searching YouTube for gig footage - the best of which are the two studio sessions for KEXP.
What can I say about Occult Architecture that I haven't already? Volume 2 has been on repeat here for several months, the lighter contrast to its predecessor's heavy textures and is, perhaps Sparks' Hippopotamus aside, my favourite record of 2017, and most certainly the best new spacerock album I listened to during last year. In Record Collector I heard the first album as being "Dense paint rendering storms on canvas, oppressive. Forecast continues unsettled. They describe it as having elements of English occult literature: Colin Wilson, Aleister Crowley. Mary Anne Atwood, who declared just before her passing that, 'I cannot find my centre of gravity.' This album’s gravity has a strong pull, though, irresistibly dragging us downwards into the repetitive beats of its lo-fi reverberations." I summed by suggesting that "Moon Duo is always predominately about the sound. Words surface out of the swirling maelstrom, an occult ritual within the architecture, another tone adding to mood, but always subservient to the texture, which sweeps from the muscular to the persuasively melodic. Lightness is promised in due course."
When that second record materialised, it was indeed the spring and summer to the first's wild winter. Played back to back it's a brightly-lit antidote to the oppression of its sister. I talked about how "New Dawn, opening here, immediately dispels its elder sibling’s denseness like the air after a thunderstorm, all vibrant and renewed, purifying and cleansing their palate of sounds into the Balearic bliss into the following song, Mirror’s Edge." Summing up, I thought about how "it adds a fresh facet to Moon Duo. We’ve been used to their intensive yet melodic drone since the early days of their Killing Time EP, back in 2009, and while the terrific albums that they’ve released along the way have continued to describe that fuzz and keyboard driven journey, in reaching this album’s sunshine warmth ‘Ripley’ Johnson and Sanae Yamada have elevated their project to a new level."
Trusting that they'll be as prolific in 2018 as that outpouring of work saw them being last year, they're kicking-off with a 12" release that's putting them into different territory again, with a dual covers release that sees them doing Alan Vega's 'Jukebox Babe' and The Stooge's 'No Fun' (the later of which isn't yet available for review ... patience, as the record appears on 19th January from Sacred Bones and can be ordered here or in the Amazon link below). A really deft, bubbly, light touch is brought to 'Jukebox Babe', which though it feels like a sidestep to their usual tones, is deliciously infectious... and I'm guessing that having worked on such an expansive, intense, project as the previous work, they've taken the opportunity to do something different and which didn't require such intensive writing, recording, and planning. Looking forward to hearing what they do with 'No Fun'.
What can I say about Occult Architecture that I haven't already? Volume 2 has been on repeat here for several months, the lighter contrast to its predecessor's heavy textures and is, perhaps Sparks' Hippopotamus aside, my favourite record of 2017, and most certainly the best new spacerock album I listened to during last year. In Record Collector I heard the first album as being "Dense paint rendering storms on canvas, oppressive. Forecast continues unsettled. They describe it as having elements of English occult literature: Colin Wilson, Aleister Crowley. Mary Anne Atwood, who declared just before her passing that, 'I cannot find my centre of gravity.' This album’s gravity has a strong pull, though, irresistibly dragging us downwards into the repetitive beats of its lo-fi reverberations." I summed by suggesting that "Moon Duo is always predominately about the sound. Words surface out of the swirling maelstrom, an occult ritual within the architecture, another tone adding to mood, but always subservient to the texture, which sweeps from the muscular to the persuasively melodic. Lightness is promised in due course."
When that second record materialised, it was indeed the spring and summer to the first's wild winter. Played back to back it's a brightly-lit antidote to the oppression of its sister. I talked about how "New Dawn, opening here, immediately dispels its elder sibling’s denseness like the air after a thunderstorm, all vibrant and renewed, purifying and cleansing their palate of sounds into the Balearic bliss into the following song, Mirror’s Edge." Summing up, I thought about how "it adds a fresh facet to Moon Duo. We’ve been used to their intensive yet melodic drone since the early days of their Killing Time EP, back in 2009, and while the terrific albums that they’ve released along the way have continued to describe that fuzz and keyboard driven journey, in reaching this album’s sunshine warmth ‘Ripley’ Johnson and Sanae Yamada have elevated their project to a new level."
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