THE ONLY limit to an artist’s stylistic potency in this age of information is their ability to absorb the sacred vibrations of their record collection without sounding derivative. Guitarist/vocalist Erik “Ripley” Johnson seems to have an alchemist’s understanding of this balance.
His two main projects, Moon Duo and Wooden Shjips, are a culmination of each collective’s knowledge of vinyl obscurities, and while both bands famously ensconce themselves within a velvety Krautrock vortex, it’s the pastoral keyboard play of Johnson’s partner Sanae Yamada that puts Moon Duo on a more buoyant sonic perch. Her playful sine waves envelope the group’s fuzz like a Möbius strip, and provide a dreamy mattress for Ripley’s distinctly Spacemen 3-inspired vocal tropes and death rock guitar hypnosis.