The Holydrug Couple - Moonlust
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
Sacred Bones are having a hell of a year so far. With fine releases from John Carpenter, Moon Duo and Follakzoid to their credit already in the past four months they're now adding further excellent South American psych to that bundle in the shape of The Holydrug Couple's second album Moonlust.
Okay, so it's in fact a touch less psychedelic than the duo's debut Noctuary but the likes of 'Light Or Night' or 'I Don't Feel Like It' (displaying maybe in fact a lack of lust) are still hands down better than the work a lot of their contemporaries have come up with after initial successful albums. That they've managed to expand their sound in an Air-like direction on tracks such as 'French Movie Theme' just highlights the fertile ground they've been picking over when coming up with this new collection of songs whilst retaining their core sound.
Synths and other electronica are made use of through the course of the album to a far greater extent than the pair's sound on Noctuary would ever have had you thinking they would do. Whilst the '80s synthpop acts from their continent that they mention as having played a part in the development of the sound of Moonlust seem in the main, from a quick trawl of youtube, to be less accomplished in terms of atmosphere the influence is nevertheless clear, especially on 'Concorde' and the album's one rather bum note 'Baby, I'm Going Away'.
Messrs Sepúlveda and Parra have though done themselves proud across the bulk of these dozen songs and deserve to be justly pleased with their new baby.
