Moon Duo is the pair of Eric "Ripley" Johnson (guitarist, vocalist for Wooden Shjips) and Sanae Yamada. Rather than a complete departure from the works of Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo is fuller, heavier, louder and arguably more developed than much of the Shjips stuff. Indeed, and certainly in comparison to their old EP’s, this trend is apparent even with Moon Duo’s work per se. Similarly Wooden Shjips sound is heavily rooted in a kind of Californian 60’s aesthetic, vaguely similar to that of contemporary lo-fi artists such as Wavves, and by contrast Moon Duo taken on a more brooding aesthetic. The tracks are simplistic, with drum machines and 2/3 bass notes at best. At times it has the eeriness of 70’s punk duo Suicide, while also having the motorik effect of say, Neu!. None of the tracks are particularly melodic, and they plod along at a fairly conservative pace, but at four tracks in length, clocking in at around 30 minutes long, it is a relatively easy listen. When the pair get going it can be quite engrossing, and it is especially captivating when you remember that it is just two people.

03 Mar 2010

Having stumbled over this project on a blog somewhere I must admit I can’t find out too much information on it, but I can certainly assure you that what I do know I certainly like! Seemingly ‘Aboombong’ is a solo project based in Seattle which has been created using a rather impressive toy kit , which contains a plethora of delights ranging from a Trinidadian tenor steelpan to a Turkish darbuka (I googled them too). In many ways it is an extremely refreshing record, not least because I had started to feel that the whole Noise/Drone sound had begun to stutter a little. What makes ‘Aboombong’ so unique is the wonderfully expansive percussion, and it is upon this that the layers of drones and luscious waves of noise are adeptly placed. In essence it is a quite remarkable blend of infectious afro-percussion, drones, minimalism and melanonchy. Points of comparison are hard to come by, Sun Ra may be a cliched one to chuck out, or perhaps Toumani Diabete gone drone! Despite this I can’t help but feel it’s a lot like the Boredoms in the sense that it develops a distinctly world music flavour, and yet at times it can just defy categorisation.

27 Feb 2010

In contemporary terms White Hills are deemed to be in the Wooded Shjips, Cave mould largely in terms of their distortion pedal abuse. This latest self-titled release features the two ever-present members joined by the sensational Oneida drummer Kid Millions. On paper is a mix of relentless drumming, pounding bass, fuzzy riff’s all packaged up neatly in a very unique brand of space rock. That said, ‘space rock’ is always a bit of a gamble for me, and I think it’s far to say that in many respects it’s generally quite a conservative genre. People seem more than happy to crash out the same big riffs without much thought to developing the tracks in a wider sense, and unfortunately I think this is a trap White Hills don’t adequately manage to side-step.

27 Feb 2010

I don’t really know what’s happened here. I mean, I’ve always quite liked Hot Chip and I’m happy to contend that they have probably been one on the British success stories in the last decade, and we probably should have included them on our BOTD list. Yet despite this there is no doubt that they haven’t really improved since ‘The Warning’. ‘Made in the Dark’ was a bit of a non-entity and I did remember thinking at the time that they should have probably left it there, and lets just say that after their latest effort ‘One Life Stand’ that grammy nomination seems a long, long time ago. OLS is a pretty typical British electro pop record, and by electro pop I mean more in the the Human League/ Depeche mode going on slightly un-cool disco sense, rather than New Order or something. The former has never really done anything for me at all, and I guess if you’re a fan then you may not share my cynicism towards OLS, and yet even then, this Hot chip record does sound awfully laboured. The energy and creativity that it is bursting from the seams on their other records just isn’t here. They seem to have gone for accessibility, and yet, as is often the case, it’s ended up just sounding reprehensibly rudimentary.

26 Feb 2010

If I’m honest I can’t really make my mind up on this record, and yet by contrast many of my friends have certainly not withheld the hyperbole when dedicating their facebook and twitter statuses to their love for ‘Teen Drem’. Something along the lines of “The way Beach House make me feel.... etc”. Well how do they make you feel? I’ll be damned if anyone considers this stuff life-affirming, as to me it’s always been better-than-average fairly conventional American indie, which I don’t really think is really radically different to say Grizzly Bear et al. That said, I did think their debut was extremely endearing. Their sound may not be that innovative, but there certainly is something intriguing about Beach House which draws you in much more so than many of their peers. Their self-titled debut was actually quite raw and lace edged considering it was largely an immaculate pop record. By contrast ‘Teen Dream’ is crisper, cleaner and altogether tidier. I guess that might make it better in the objective sense, and yet I must admit I slightly preferred the first record. People get awfully pretentious when talking about this Beirut-esque/ Frog Eyes type stuff, and I am not entirely sure why. Do you Baltimore/Brooklyn/East Coast American’s never get a bit bored of this autumnal lo-fi indie?

24 Feb 2010