Moon Duo are San Francisco's Sanae Yamada and Erik "Ripley" Johnson, guitarist for psychedelic journeymen Wooden Shjips. After a quick EP and single released within a year of their 2009 formation, they're bringing Escape (via recent lo-fi haven Woodsist) just as swiftly. Four songs in just under 30 krautrock minutes, it's an LP that pulls Johnson even closer to Suicide and Silver Apples, influences that have played an audibly important role in his work with Wooden Shjips. Johnson's vocals are barely there, whispers buried in sheets of two-chord riffs and Yamada's keyboard dissonance. Moon Duo don't stray too far from the deep-cutting, fuzzy gymnastics of Johnson's other band, though he's allowed further freedom to hypnotize on the playground where he's most comfortable. More than just a branching off deeper into another third eye, Escape is a pop record at its core.
Or at each end. Opener "Motorcycle, I Love You" churns along on a classic Phil Spector drumbeat, speeding up as Yamada and Johnson add layer upon layer of shadow and menace. It's a very sexy juxtaposition, and Moon Duo's music is sexy throughout, the interplay between Johnson and Yamada on full, propulsive display. Whether Johnson's taking a pause to add some breathy vocals or working up a froth on his guitar, the song's pulse won't quit. The middle of the record's a different animal. "In the Trees" slows shit down to a grind, Johnson soloing through screens and clouds of low-end more akin to the drone of Wooden Shjips. "Stumbling 22nd St" employs an equally heavy feel, Yamada acting as the song's melodic spine this time out with a keyboard riff her bandmate embraces from time to time by mimicking it on guitar.
The titular closing track is pure pop in comparison, if only in that it's infinitely lighter and easy to digest. Riffing over a drumbeat and a breeze, Johnson sounds a lot like Ducktails' Matthew Mondanile as the latter does when in his zone. All that track-by-track geeking aside, what makes Escape so successful is that these two are able to meet you halfway-- just as they do one another. Traditionally, the repetitive forms they're working with make for relatively passive listening. But this isn't that kind of psych record; textures are engaging, rhythms reveal serious drive. And be it the way they set a hook or the way they lord over each song's space, Moon Duo don't beam you out. They pull you in.
