ESCAPE

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Moon Duo's long-out-of-print debut LP Escape, Sacred Bones is proud to present a new deluxe version of the album. The new reissue will include the original album in its entirety, plus three additional rare tracks taken from Moon Duo's wild early days.

What I love about rediscovering things after the fact is that it can take on a whole new meaning comparing it to the new albums.

Now this album IS juicy - it's like being at a banquette and each track is like a huge chunk of juicy meat (or veggies) being served upon you one after the other. It is quite a meal and perhaps only one that one can partake of in small doses and perhaps only once in awhile if you may just feel a little like gorging out!

Motorcycle I Love You

The first track serving cuts like a chainsaw, raw, edgy, and stubborn. Hints of Iron Butterfly, Hawkwind and even some sweet Gilmour-esque guitar techniques from back at Pompey. Wonderful opening track.

In The Trees

Second track slides up on you even as you haven't even finished digesting your first course. Very sly, and very encompassing. It is easy to be lured into this dreamy but heavily moving track. If you like psychedelic moments this will surely whet your appetite. Ozric fans may well enjoy the 2nd section of this song.

Stumbling 22nd St.

Zee Third track certainly highlights the bands early ideas and influences. Heavy keyboards and I would say a nice late 60s deal with a hint of 50s for good measure - good old Link Wray started something that crossed many genres and laid the path for some many experimental bands.

Escape

The fourth track is definitely no escape from the prior 3 but with a different side dish. We are presented with a nice 80s feel thrown in for good measure with a catchy rockabilly drum track - but all along with the driving fuzzy warm coating.

Now for the Bonus Tracks only available as of August 2020 on the special expanded edition of this fine album.

Bonus Track 1: A Little Way Different

Did someone mention that real Pink Panther really wanted to be James Bond? I'm not sure but this is a sneaky track that slyly takes you on a suspicious journey to where who knows. As much as the repetitive motion lures you into false sense of security it really makes the skin crawl and the hairs stand up on end.

Bonus Track 2: Catch As Catch Can

Well, well, well. I guess the thief didn't steal the last track after all. If the Ramones had been lucky enough to hear this track then history may have turned out quite differently for them. Can't help a bit of attitude and anarchy, all-be-it quite controlled and non threatening.

Bonus Track 3: Set It On Fire

As far anarchy goes Moon Duo are about as rebellious as Malcolm McLaren trying to re-start a new trend called 'Vogueing'. Lucky we had Madonna to do it for him. This is the best of the Bonus Tracks. I love the simple energy and driving beat and jerky moments throughout the tune. T-Rex would have loved this camp but slightly mean spirited ballroom jaunt. It's a mean, lean, shredding machine after all.

Overall Rating

I would rate this as a 4 as it shows that Moon Duo are not faking it, EVER. I do like consistency and sometimes there is no reason to change something you have honed. I love Moon Duo, they are AMAZING, and I have to admit, I felt like a bloated, beached whale after listening to the whole album a few times as I was writing this review.

To sum this album up, as a Mr. Creosote once said, "It's only wafer-thin"

* Note from the Band 'We made this record in a rehearsal space in San Francisco in late 2009. It was kind of a classic band space, shared by a rangy assortment of musicians over months and years, behind one of several similar doors in a dark red hall. A windowless room lit by string lights and an odd assortment of lamps, the walls a palimpsest of posters and gig fliers. There was a grimy, burn-pocked rug, cluttered gear in various stages of use and abandonment, and the air seemed to hang in a permanent film of smoke residue and stale beer. We recorded to a 4-track tape machine over the course of a few nights - we'd just start the beats, hit 'record' and let fly. We had a vague sense of coalescence, or fomentation, like a glimpse of a thing in outline which you can't yet see, but neither of us knew at the time that this was the record that would mark the beginning of our life as a touring band and would initiate our connections to so many (now long-time) friends, familiars and collaborators. Ten years feels like both a lifetime and the blink of an eye - measurable but impossible to quantify. These four tracks, and the others that join them here, are a snapshot of our earliest incarnation: flying blind, but high on the freedom of experimentation and filled with hope for things to come.'