Album Review: Moon Duo - Circles

Most would recognise Ripley Johnson as the guitarist – and therefore master of thee almighty drone – of space-rock troubadours Wooden Shjips. Moon Duo is both a logical continuation of and a kick in the nuts to the Wooden Shjips sound; the same heavy grooving guitar lines floating through desert canyons, but on top of a sinister layer of synth-driven machismo.

Circles is the second long-player from the San Franciscan duo (Sanae Yamada being in charge of said synth lines), and they've managed to make an eclectic and driving sound that stands on its own. Opener Sleepwalker will have you sure that this will be a fuzzed-out trip of an album, but that's all thrown on its head by the repetitive pop beats of I Can See (repeated with some surf rock on I Been Gone) and the honky-tonk charm of Free Action. The psychedelia never really peters out, but rather it is infused with a veritable gamut of sounds and influences. Add to this a nifty little Australia/New Zulland bonus disc (which includes the 21-minute High Over Blue, which must be the ultimate definition of modern psychedelia), and you've got a tight little package.

First listens may not provide a clear separations from their fellow minstrels, but Moon Duo have more or less packed what contemporary cosmic rock is, in with some interesting and sometimes surprising influences.