Mazes
Album | Moon Duo
No longer just a side project.
It's time to stop thinking of Moon Duo as the side project from the guitarist from San Francisco psych-revivalists Wooden Shjips. For one thing, keyboardist Sanae Yamada is at least as important to these gorgeously-textured, multi-layered songs as Ripley Johnson's guitars and vocals. But more importantly, as enjoyable as Wooden Shjips' more overtly retro psychedelic vibe is, Mazes finds Johnson and Yamada coming into their own as songwriters. As on their earlier short-form releases, the primary emphasis is on groove, but not in the full-on hypnotic bliss-out sense. Instead, think of the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On" or Yo La Tengo's "From A Motel 6," songs where the rhythm section's inexorable forward propulsion is matched by memorable hooks, cool solos and straightforward song structure. It's not like they've switched out their acid rock underpinnings for bubblegum or anything, but songs like "In the Sun" and "When You Cut" (which features a fairly explicit Lou Reed homage in Johnson's vocal delivery) aren't just groovy little exercises in atmosphere and repetition, they're genuine pop songs.
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