Long out of print, this collaboration between the then-Sub Pop duo and Masaki Batoh and Michio Kurihara of Japanese experimental rock band Ghost came about after inaugural sessions produced a 7” featuring revelatory versions of Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue and Can’s You Doo Right. Those covers don’t appear here, disappointingly, but they did lay the foundations for a long-lasting partnership that would inform the duo’s sound for the foreseeable future.
The hazy, ambient psychedelia that Ghost bring to the mix doesn’t detract from the subtle beauty of Damon & Naomi’s work. Of their own material, The Mirror Phase and The Great Wall stand out: the former a lilting vocal trade-off, the latter ending, atypically, in a squalling guitar battle. Covers of Tim Hardin’s Eulogy To Lenny Bruce and Alex Chilton’s Blue Moon show their deft way with an interpretation.
Strangely, for a collaborative recording with experimentalist Toykoites, much of this album features Damon & Naomi at their most English-sounding, as traditional folk forms are brought to the fore. One of the pair’s stronger albums as a whole (though beginners will be best advised to start with their debut, More Sad Hits), this is an evocative treat of a record.
