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Occult Architecture Vol. 1

Occult Architecture Vol. 1

7.1

  • Genre:

    Rock

  • Label:

    Sacred Bones

  • Reviewed:

    February 21, 2017

The latest LP from Moon Duo builds on their psychedelic formula—corroded guitars, kraut rhythms, steely grit—and allows them to indulge their most sinister tendencies.

Four albums deep, Moon Duo have grown somewhat predictable. The collaboration of Wooden Shijps’ guitar-warlock Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada has always been built on a steady but enjoyable mix of elements: corroded guitars, loopy keyboard lines, krautrock rhythms, and psychedelic strains conjuring both the whirling cosmos and droning abyss. Their new album Occult Architecture Vol. 1 does little to alter the formula, but the key to Moon Duo records has always been the strength of the compositions. And those already onboard with the band won’t be disappointed by the seven tracks here.

Touted as representing the depths and changes of the seasons, Occult Architecture Vol. 1 delves into the bleaker corners of winter and allows Moon Duo to indulge their most sinister tendencies. Like many a great Moon Duo song, opener “The Death Set” is at once swaggering, sexy, and foreboding. Much of their music is low-key cinematic; it’s hard to hear “The Death Set”’s distorted, slow-motion whoosh or its bone-rattling beat and not imagine a character’s dramatic entrance into an unnerving nightclub. Elsewhere, like on “Cold Fear” and “Will of the Devil,” they use queasy electronic textures to flirt with gothier territory.

Well past the lower-fi nature of their earliest work, Moon Duo still don’t operate with a ton of dynamic range. But they use those heart-palpitating rhythms and lacerating keyboard lines to build blown-out, end-times epics littered with subtle twists. Johnson’s death-drive guitars propel “Cult of Moloch” forward unwaveringly, but interjections of synth and a second, spiraling guitar part make the song feel like it’s reaching for spiritual corners of nature. Closer “White Rose”—one long synth ride—has a similar effect, winding down a road into the distance. Moon Duo haven’t gone full-on mystic, however; the new album maintains the steely grit of its predecessor, Shadow of the Sun. Theirs is music still meant for barreling down desert highways in a stolen car, or for the grind and smog of a third-tier industrial city.

That said, Moon Duo isn’t the kind of group to make albums with literal thematic angles. Their style has limits, but discernibility is maybe not the point. Moon Duo’s precise mix of traditions and sounds conjures a nihilistic cool, an image of leather-jacketed outlaws chain-smoking in dark alleyways in seedy cities. Occult Architecture Vol. 1 is a good record that’s at its best when Moon Duo fully give in to these seductive inklings, like on “The Death Set” or “Creepin.’” Sure, we’ve heard the riff from “Creepin'” before, but it’s nice to hear it again.