At the end of the day, the simplest things are often the most satisfying. Take Erik “Ripley” Johnson as a paragon: as leader and one-quarter of San Franciscan psych-droners Wooden Shjips he’s already used to keeping it simple through motorik grooves, atonal drones and one-chord riffing, and when he’s not doing that he plays guitar – alongside Sanae Yamada on keys – in Moon Duo. Hey, even the name is simple. Lighter in approach than Wooden Shjips’ heaviostiy, Moon Duo’s droning is fuzzily approachable and welcoming, and following debut album Mazes, they’re back with second, Circles, that while not exactly experimenting or departing from the first record’s template, remains an album that’s coming close to as good as anything Ripley Johnson’s “day band” has given us.

Circles takes its name from, and is inspired by, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on circles found in nature, and although you wouldn’t perhaps regard Moon Duo as the particularly outdoorsy or connected to the earth, they probably would be drawn to Emerson’s point that the circle is “repeated without end” in nature ahead of any thoughts about transcendentalism or philosophical musings on the individual and society. Taking centre stage – in a kind of individualist way – is Johnson’s damaged, effects-heavy guitar which riffs its way across the tracks on Circles whilst Yamada’s keyboard work acts as a secondary lead, soloing brightly across many of the tracks like Suicide on hippy-ish uppers.

Opening track ‘Sleepwalker’ is a heads-down blast and sets the tone for everything that comes after; ‘I Can See’ drones its way into your head, and it’s followed by title track ‘Circles’, whose brightness calls to mind a sandblasted version of ‘Molly’s Lips’. Alongside the psych and drone, though, is a surprising nod to ’50s rock and roll: ‘I Been Gone’ is direct and to the point, dominated by organ stabs until a demented Chuck Berry-style solo smashes in halfway through, and ‘Sparks’ is similarly broken down by a frazzled Johnson solo and a vocal that sounds like Jon Spencer on Mogadon. The only slight letdown about the latter track is that it’s replicated nearly note-for-note by following track ‘Dance Pt 3’ and – frankly – that renders ten minutes of Circles slightly boring. I wonder, though, if I would feel the same way if it was a single near-ten minute track…

Things are saved by a quick return to form through the stomping swamp-rock of ‘Free Action’ (Johnson gives free range to his effects on this one), the gentle shoegaze jangle of ‘Trails’ – which would never make it on a Wooden Shjips record – and the extended slow-jam closer ‘Rolling Out’ which answers my question about how boring a ten minute Moon Duo track would be: 8 minutes in, I could still have listened to ‘Rolling Out’ if it was double its length.

What Circles shares with Emerson’s essay is consistency and solidity; the near-certainty of the circle in nature is replicated by Moon Duo’s commitment to keeping this record solid. There’s little variance in pace or tone – despite the threat of Johnson’s powerful guitar ripping it apart at the seams at times – and I’d be damning it with faint praise if I called it a reliable record. But that’s kinda what it is: reliably fun, but above all, a reliably good piece of music.

Listen to Circles