Moon Duo
Shadow of the Sun
Reviewed by: Max Miller
Shadow of the Sun, the third album by San Francisco psych-rock duo (duh) Moon Duo, makes for a frustrating listen. There is a great deal of variety across the nine tracks collected here. Some songs, like opener “Wilding” or “Thieves”, craft a psychedelic haze from the traditional ingredients of fuzzed-out guitar and swirling organ. Others, like “Night Beat” or “Zero” derive their mind-warping nature from krautrocking minimalist melodies and motorik beats. “In a Cloud” takes a more gentle journey to the center of the mind, employing wah and heavy echo to create a pillow of sound upon which the listener can drift into a stoned coma.
But no matter which way Moon Duo choose to drop out of life with bong in hand, their brands of psychedelia are hardly unique. Shadow is less of an uninhibited acid trip than a stoned rewatching of the Woodstock documentary — a history lesson made all the more sad by the guides’ obvious desire to go back to the time that so fuels their nostalgia. Layer everything with predictably ponderous solos that go nowhere and you end up with one half-baked record that needs to go ahead and pass the damn dutchie to the left-hand side already.
Rating: Semi-Obnoxious
