Moon Duo - Occult Architecture Vol.1 (Sacred Bones) 2017
7
Delving into Moon Duo’s latest is a lot like watching Logan’s Run with fresh eyes – the blinding brightness and polished sheen is quickly uncovered to be a smokescreen for a queasy sense of gloom. And so, under Ripley Johnson’s blustery repetition and the frankly massive-sounding embellishments of Sanae Yamada lies the pair’s darkest album, where metronomic beats and swirling psychedelia combine to produce a sense of creeping claustrophobia. It’s not a huge diversion from previous efforts, where repetition is used to amplify their hypnotic worldview until Johnson comes powering through with one frazzled solo after another, but it’s an immersive listen that, combined with its purportedly-lighter sequel, has the potential to become more effective with time.