Space rock is a crowded constellation these days what with Deerhunter, Autolux and Spiritualized all doing the rounds, but San Francisco racket-makers Moon Duo's star shines a little brighter than the rest. Full of grinding guitar drones and synth spirals, their second album 'Circles' is less an orbiting lunar satellite than a full-blown Death Star, its phasers set to krautrock-inspired noise marathons. 'I Been Gone' captures the pair at their best, colliding Queens Of The Stone Age-type stoned garage riffs with the airy vocals of frontman Ripley Johnson (also of Wooden Shjips). For those who can stomach its muscular experimentation, 'Circles' is out of this world.
- Al Horner (NME)


Moon Duo don't exactly make music one would categorize as outdoorsy. For Sanae Yamada and Wooden Shjips axe-grinder Erik "Ripley" Johnson, their compellingly crafted brand of chemically treated krautrocking has felt positively subterranean, taking tried-and-true pop song templates and blasting them to smithereens with looping doses of gleefully woolly droning and guitar noise. Their previous LP, Mazes, made sure not to let too much light in, but also made plenty of accessible strides that suggested the pair wasn't only interested in being another black-light band. So it's with their follow-up, Circles, that Moon Duo seem anxious to bolster their sound while still remaining sinister, groovy, and totally far-and-fuzzed-out. Circles is a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay of the same name, which, among other things, explores the idea of the titular shape's prominence in nature. With much of the album's conception taking place in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, there is a crisp lightheadedness that pervades much of the music here, thanks in part to its layered, rhythmically indulgent production. It's an uncharacteristically varied, psych-y noise-pop record that just plain sounds and feels great.
If there is a whiff of Gaia's presence anywhere on Circle.......
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Duet z San Francisco, który tworzy gitarzysta Wooden Shijps, Riley Johnson oraz Sanae Yamada. Klimaty w jakich duet się porusza to skojarzenia z Suicide lub Silver Apples, ze szczyptą rock'n'rolla, łyżką space-rocka, w mocnym futurystycznym sosie. Do tego garść gitarowej psychodelii i gdzieniegdzie estetyka lo-fi. Dwie pierwsze EPki Moon Duo, "Killing Time" (2009) i "Escape" (2010) zostały docenione przez krytyków. Album "Mazes" (2010) pokazał łagodniejsze oblicze Moon Duo - kołyszące i senne. Z miesiąca na miesiąc ich brzmienie ewoluuje, do powstania albumu "Circles" potrzeba było sześciu miesięcy i trochę izolacji w Górach Skalistych, a przede wszystkim w Blue River w Colorado. Phil Manley (Trans Am, Life Coach) pomógł przy powstaniu albumu i z odludzia materiał powędrował do San Francisco, a potem podobnie jak jego poprzednik, do Kaiku Studios w Berlinie.

Inspiracją do powstania wielu utworów był esej Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1841, który zaczyna się słowami: "The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.”

Space rock is a crowded constellation these days what with Deerhunter, Autolux and Spiritualized all doing the rounds, but San Francisco racket-makers Moon Duo's star shines a little brighter than the rest. Full of grinding guitar drones and synth spirals, their second album 'Circles' is less an orbiting lunar satellite than a full-blown Death Star, its phasers set to krautrock-inspired noise marathons. 'I Been Gone' captures the pair at their best, colliding Queens Of The Stone Age-type stoned garage riffs with the airy vocals of frontman Ripley Johnson (also of Wooden Shjips). For those who can stomach its muscular experimentation, 'Circles' is out of this world.
- Al Horner (NME)


Moon Duo don't exactly make music one would categorize as outdoorsy. For Sanae Yamada and Wooden Shjips axe-grinder Erik ".......
more