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Moon Duo’s guide to psychedelia

Ahead of the release of their new two-part psychedelic opus, Moon Duos Ripley Johnson reveals his key psych releases

As the founder of San Francisco drone-rockers Wooden Shjips and one half of synth-driven psych pairing Moon Duo, Ripley Johnson has frequently set the controls for the heart of the sun. The new Moon Duo album, Occult Architecture Vol 1, is billed by its label Sacred Bones as the first instalment of a two-part psychedelic opus yet Johnson is keen not to define psychedelia too rigidly. All music has some psychedelic elements to me, he explains. Its something that disrupts reality and transports the listener into a different mindspace, forcing them to perceive things differently. And all kinds of music can do that. With that in mind, here are Johnsons seven favourite head-spinning, reality-disrupting, genre-defying psychedelic albums.

Funkadelic, Funkadelic (1970)

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I discovered this through a friends older brother, which is how I came across a lot of stuff as a teenager. It was the same person who turned me on to the Stooges. At the time, you couldnt really find this stuff in a local record shop. You needed someone to guide you. We would record albums to cassette and carry a boombox out into the woods, take psychedelics and trip out to this crazy music.

Growing up in the 80s in New England, we were always looking for something weird as a reaction to the culture of the time artists who were breaking social norms, who were rebels in some way. Funkadelic seemed a little wilder than the usual classic rock stuff Id already heard. They were doing something irreverent and fun but also super weird. The album creates its own world, it takes you along on a ride. You want to go where these guys are going.

Monoshock, Walk To The Fire (1996)

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The first real band I was in was called Botulism. We were inspired by things like Blue Cheer, [the Velvet Undergrounds] Sister Ray, the Stooges, some of Neil Youngs more extreme guitar stuff. We were young and a little bit angry. There wasnt a whole lot going on for bands like that in the 90s. But Monoshock were one band who gave myself and my friends hope that we werent the only ones.

If you listen to Walk To The Fire and then play the first Comets On Fire record you can hear an evolution. When Wooden Shjips first came out [in 2006] and people were talking about this new psychedelic movement, there was an attitude that nothing had been happening since the 60s. But there was lots of stuff happening, it was just underground. Monoshock had already split up by the time we came along, but their album got re-released and now I think its right there in the pantheon.

Twink, Think Pink (1970)

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Twink was the drummer in the Pretty Things when they made SF Sorrow. This is the solo album he did directly after that with members of the Deviants, before they all went on to form the Pink Fairies. I came across this album around 10 years ago after a Wooden Shjips show. Someone from the audience came up to me, really enthusiastic, but also very strange maybe he was actually tripping at the time and wanted to tell me about one of the most psychedelic albums of all time, which was Think Pink.

And hes right, Think Pink is one of the great records of the original psychedelic era. It uses all those classic psychedelic effects, a lot of phase-shifting and panning, but to great effect. It sucks you in and messes with your head. Its well-produced, but its weird. I dont think it was recorded with any intent of being on the charts. Back then, it was harder to make a record. Whats great about a lot of the classic-era psychedelic records is that people got a chance to go into a studio, which was a big deal, and then they made something completely weird that had no chance of selling but they did it anyway, which I think is really admirable. Twink was a genuine freak, he was living the radical lifestyle to the full.

Sergius Golowin, Lord Krishna Von Goloka (1973)

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This is one of three records released on Rolf-Ulrich Kaisers Die Kosmischen Kuriere label the others being by Walter Wegmllers Tarot and Seven Up by Timothy Leary with Ash Ra Tempel, recorded while Leary was on the lam in Switzerland. Theyre all great. This ones got Klaus Schulze on drums and synthesizers. Its really serene and pastoral and then Sergius Golowin, who was sort of a mystic character, does these really bizarre, otherworldly monologues over the top where he talks about Krishna although its all in German so I have no idea what hes really saying. Its incredibly bizarre. Just when youre settling into this relaxing, droning music, these intense German vocals come in, mixed really loudly. Its like nothing else, it takes you to this strange place.

The Congos, Heart Of The Congos (1977)

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I dont think of psychedelic as a genre, I think of it as a descriptor. To me, some of the best psychedelic records are those which come from outside the world of psychedelic rock. This ones a Lee Perry production. It has a very claustrophobic and heady vibe to it, even though it was made in Jamaica, which we think of being bright and tropical. I think its a masterpiece. The vocals are really haunting, with these fire-and-brimstone-evoking lyrics, so theres a sense of dread. I dont know what their mindset was when making it, but it sounds like no other reggae album Ive ever heard.

There are a lot of experimental reggae producers but none that can really hold a candle to Lee Perry. I love how much chance is involved in early dub. These days, especially with computers, things are a little more surgical. I like music thats a little more rough around the edges, that allows for circumstance to be part of the record.

Royal Trux, Twin Infinitives (1990)

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In Wooden Shjips it was very hard for us to tour, for everyone to get time off work and to make it work financially. The impetus for Moon Duo was to do something with just two people that was practical and pragmatic. When youre in a band with four or five people, the vision can sometimes be less focused. When you have just two people its more like a conversation, its much more intimate.

Our obvious inspiration when we started Moon Duo was Suicide but we were also looking at other duos, including Royal Trux. Like us, theyre a duo who were also a couple. Twin Infinitives sounds very personal, very claustrophobic. Theres a certain way they used reverb that instead of making things sound big and open, it made it sound like there was a fog around them. Its also very noisy and fractured and disorienting and sounds kinda dangerous, like they were living on the edge. I listen to it and I worry about them.

J Dilla, Donuts (2006)

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To me, this is the most psychedelic record thats come out in the last 15 years. Im not a huge hip-hop person but this album blew me away. Were back to the idea of psychedelic albums taking you on a journey and creating a world you can enter. This album is like an acid trip or a carnival ride. You put it on and you just get swept away. The songs are so catchy, but they change before you want to them to, which creates this sense of freefall.

For people who dont really appreciate sampling, this is a great record for them to listen to. On the one hand you can say its easy, that with machines and electronics you can create anything. But thats a creative challenge right there. Whats your vision? Whats the story youre telling? Having the tools is great, but you need the vision and you need the soul, the humanity. That all comes across in this record. When you read the story of how he made it, in a hospital bed, its even more incredible [J Dilla was suffering from an incurable blood disease and died three days after Donuts was released]. Its so joyous and so fun. A psychedelic record takes you to a different place it can be a dark place, it can be a light place, it can be something you just never imagined before. And, to me, thats what Donuts does. It never ceases to surprise me.

Moon Duos Occult Architecture Vol 1 is out on 3 February

Read more: http://bit.ly/2kIO7AI

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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Piers Morgan: Im just putting opinions out there. Its my job

This week Morgan has taken on the Womens March, argued with Ewan McGregor, and boasted about being Donald Trumps best British friend. Why does he do it? Does he even believe what he says?

Piers Morgan last cried when his grandmother died, a little more than three years ago. Before that, he cant remember. Im not a crier, really. He sees himself more as a pantomime villain, and I thoroughly enjoy playing up to it. I cant even imagine the pressure of being some kind of national treasure. So for me, the panto villain part, I actually enjoy that whole thing.

Even by his own notorious standards, Morgan has had a fractious week. His Daily Mail column on Monday, which criticised last weekends womens marches, provoked Ewan McGregor to cancel an appearance on Good Morning Britain in protest. Morgan retaliated with another column calling the actor a paedophile-loving hypocrite. Feminists were furious with him all over again when he defended the right of employers to compel female staff to wear high heels.

Then, as Theresa May prepared to meet Donald Trump, he taunted Downing Street by firing off a public memo in the Mail, advising the PM or, to put it another way, showing off about how to approach his friend, the president. If its all going horribly wrong, dont hesitate to mention my name or even give me a call directly from the Oval Office and I will smooth things over. Its the very least I can do for my country. A memorable highlight came with his mute appearance at the National Television awards. He stood beside his Good Morning Britain co-presenter Susanna Reid, who had gagged him with his own tie.

It was Susannas idea, he says. We were in the car on the way, and she said, I think I know exactly how to get a joyous reaction from the nation. And it was indeed one of the great moments in British television, and the nation rejoiced.

The only detail of the weeks dramas that appears to have troubled Morgan was the discovery that working with him makes Reid cry.

I was surprised, he says, suddenly quieter. Because shes never cried at work, never seen her like that at all. So it was an interesting thing for me to discover this week that my co-host quite often goes home from work and cries. Its probably not always unconnected to me. How does he feel about that? A bit uneasy, actually. Quieter still. Yeah. A bit uneasy.

Ive known Morgan a little ever since he was the loud, precociously young editor of the Daily Mirror in the 1990s, and have always enjoyed his company tremendously. But our paths havent crossed since Trumps bid for the presidency propelled the journalist into his surprise new role as the leader of the free worlds best friend in Britain. The pair have been on close terms since 2008, when Morgan won the first series of Celebrity Apprentice, and Morgan now performs the role of Trumps tirelessly loyal defender while constantly claiming to be not a political sympathiser but just a personal friend.

When I watched Morgan reduce a young female guest to tears on Good Morning Britain two weeks ago, berating her as the worst kind of mother, I wondered whether I would still enjoy his company. The tone felt uncomfortably ugly, more in keeping with an altright online troll than the mischief-maker who used to conduct playful feuds with clowns like Jeremy Clarkson. This weeks events could be read by critics as further evidence to support the unhappy impression that cheerleading for Trump has soured Morgan, and turned him into a rightwing, misogynistic bully.

If one is looking for further evidence to confirm that impression, Morgan doesnt disappoint. The 51-year-old bounces into his local pub, just off Kensington High Street, and opens with his reaction to Trumps comments about waterboarding and torture he is exercised by the BBCs misreporting of what Trump said. There is, as you know, a massive debate in America about waterboarding. I dont personally subscribe to torture. But its an arguable point as to whether waterboarding constitutes torture which is startlingly tepid for a man who once campaigned against the abuse of Iraqi detainees by coalition forces.

Morgan has been friends with Trump since he won Celebrity Apprentice in 2008. Photograph: Photowire/BEI/Shutterstock

He refers to a swarm of migration through Europe, and defends Trumps comment about wanting women to be punished for having illegal abortions. It would be a pretty logical thing for somebody who believes abortions a crime.

Critics who suspect Morgan will say anything to generate attention might equally seize upon his admission that this weeks controversies are completely connected to the fact that he has a new series of Piers Morgans Life Stories on ITV next week. He is strategising to maximise publicity all the time, he says freely. Of course! Everyone on TV is. Im just better at it than most of them.

Whether or not Morgan would welcome this, the truth is that I nevertheless find him much more nuanced and less cocksure than his public persona or Twitter feed might suggest. The reliably consistent theme in all of his feuds is intolerance of hypocrisy.

So his objection to the womens marches, he explains, is simply this. How does it help the cause for any woman on that march fighting for genuine issues, for equality and everything else, for one of the lead speakers Madonna to talk openly about having had dreams of blowing up the White House? Im not sure why Morgan would take Madonna seriously, when she herself has said she was speaking metaphorically, and he was willing to take Trump at his word last year (he denied he had meant to incite Hillary Clintons assassination during a rally speech). Because if you make a threat like that at an airport, youd be arrested and put in jail. Why should it be a different rule for Madonna? I point out that she wasnt at an airport, but another speakers incest joke about Trumps daughter struck Morgan as similarly offensive.

Ivanka Trump is a mother of three, very hardworking. I know her very well and I felt really incensed on her behalf when the sisterhood decided to be incredibly offensive about her whilst at a rally designed to counter the anti-women rhetoric of the President Donald Trump. Theres a hypocrisy there which I just found ridiculous. If your main issue with Trump is the way that he talks to people, and the language and the belligerence and the bombast and the wording, then I dont think you should be doing the same thing to him.

What drives Morgan quite mad is hypocritical virtue signalling masquerading as political engagement. Ewan McGregor was basically trying to position me as a great woman-hater. So, I decided to just take a look at his own record in this area, and load of interviews he gave about his great friend Roman Polanski, what a fine man he was, how sorry he was that he had to go to prison, blah, blah, blah and Im like, Really? I wonder how the sisterhood who currently have you down as the No 1 hero for womens rights in the world would feel knowing that Roman Polanski admitted his crime, then left the country to avoid justice when he was facing a long prison sentence for raping, drugging and sodomising a 13-year-old girl?

Why does McGregors affection for Polanksi discredit his feminist credentials, but not Morgans for Trump? Trump hasnt been convicted of raping anyone. Look, my position has been consistently, from day one,that I wouldnt vote for him. But I do know him very well, and I would just like to slightly offer a more tempered view of the man that is being described everywhere as the new Hitler and the monster. I just think now hes there, its like Brexit; I voted remain, but Ive always been a glass-half-full person, and Im prepared to have an open dialogue with people like Nigel Farage about how we now maximise the opportunity of Brexit. The same with Trump. I find the hysteria just pointless and absurd and self-defeating and ridiculous. Ive got friends of mine literally losing their minds. And Im like, calm down, please calm down. I know this guy.

Coming from Morgan, who personally wrote the paedophile-loving headline for his McGregor column, this will strike some as a bit rich, but he goes on: Its very important in this extremity of debate, the kind of thing that led to Jo Cox getting killed, to be calm. Isnt Morgan himself an arch professional provocateur? But Im just putting opinions out there. Im a columnist, its my job. Isnt anyone else allowed to hold contentious views? Of course! And coming from a highly opinionated family, Im drawn to people who have opinions and are prepared to argue them.

I would have thought Madonna, who Morgan never tires of attacking, would fall into that category. No, because she has an opinion quota based on this pure ability to shock and offend, which I find pointless, quite cliched and increasingly very nauseating.

Morgan never tires of attacking celebrities such as Hugh Grant or Steve Coogan either, for whining about the press. But all the complaints made by those two actors wouldnt amount to a fraction of Trumps grievances with the mainstream media, of which Morgan with two newspaper columns and three TV shows is unquestionably a member.

I dont particularly consider myself to be MSM. Id probably be more a kind of renegade; Im RMSM, renegade mainstream media. I dont think the mainstream media has ever fully made me a paid-up member of their club.. As he breaks off this line of thought to tweet about his latest Daily Mail column, I suggest hes on a sticky wicket here. OK, alright. But I am afraid that the journalists have to stop whining.

It was an interesting thing for me to discover that my co-host quite often goes home from work and cries Morgan with Susanna Reid at the National Television awards. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

As a fanatical champion of a robust free press, surely he thinks Trump should stop whining? Its a good point, he concedes. My honest answer is I think theyve all got to calm down . I think Trump has to have a more respectful relationship with the media and they have to have it with him.

For all Morgans ferocious rhetoric, he is surprisingly willing to concede points. Id found his defence of employers forcing women to wear heels suspiciously unpersuasive, and the more we talk, the more ground he gives. Im only saying it to keep the debate going, he admits at one point and when I remind him he praised Julia Roberts for going barefoot on the red carpet at Cannes last year, in protest at the festivals insistence that women attending screenings wear heels, for a fleeting second he looks sheepish. I thought that was quite cool, yes. In an interview with the Times last year, he in fact offered up Robertss protest as an example of what real feminism looked like, didnt he? OK, I think thats a fair point.

Real feminism, Morgan maintains, is not about being a man-hating victim but a strong woman. My mother is an incredibly strong, independent woman. My sister is. My grandmother was. I was brought up around incredibly strong, independent women. Im married to a strong, independent woman. I absolutely define myself as a feminist and take issue with people who think Im not, because by the yardstick of what I give to feminism, which is genuine pursuit of equality in all things for women, I think I pass that test, I do. I do, I love women. Ive always been surrounded bywomen who would never dream of being pushed around by men.

This, I suggest, might be the problem. Go on, he says, genuinely interested. Because Im actually on a learning curve here. When ones only ever known strong women, it can be easy to feel exasperated with those who have suffered experiences that make Morgans idea of strength a pretty tall order. It becomes dangerously easy to get angry with women who stay with their abusers, say, and mistake their predicament for weakness.

I get that. I get it. Totally. He thinks for a moment. I take your point. When I hear that Susanna went home and cried after the show, I would like to have known why, but she would see it as weak to tell me and I dont want her to feel that. He thinks again. You remember, we were put together on Good Morning Britain like an arranged marriage, and I think weve just got to know each other a lot better, and she sees a the upside of having these debates about sexism on air in real time, with me perhaps going on a little bit of a journey of discovery.

Morgans crusade against hypocrisy is, of course, somewhat undermined by the fact that he admits to being a total hypocrite himself Of course! All journalists are! For anyone looking for a reliable rule to explain his wild enthusiasms and fierce feuds, the secret, he says, is really quite simple. Im a human being. If people are nice to me, Im nice to them. An afterthought crosses his mind, and he laughs. Donald Trumps actually pretty similar.