If you tried to make an album from samples nicked off Dublin charity records, you’d end up with some mouldy purgatory soundtracked by James Last, Leo Sayer, Harry Secombe and the RTE broadcast of the Pope’s visit.
Thankfully Moses Archuleta was able to cast his net a bit wider and mine thrift stores while on tour drumming with his real band Deerhunter, for his first album as Moon Diagrams. If you were pleasantly surprised by Chilli Pepper John Fruiscante’s legit deep house experiments as Trickfinger, Lifetime of Love is another engaging sidestep. If ‘solo project by Deerhunter drummer’ screams indie leftovers, Lifetime of Love eases your snarkiness right away.
The album is a 10-year project based on random LPs Archuleta chose for their covers, looped and repurposed, leading to a collection of happy (and melancholy) accidents.
Opener Playground is a smudgy choral piece that sounds like a tape of a tape of a tape of william Basinski’s Disintegration Loops. The fever dream-reverbed Moon Diagrams has a vocal that recalls an early Nick Cave love song heard from the next room, and the ambient 4/4 pulse of Nightmoves and The Field-like dubby drone house on the 13-minute The Ghost & the Host are wafty headphone mood pieces.
Even with quite a few tempo shifts – from the above woozy Washed Out ambience to the chopped & screwed hip-hop of Bodymaker and the Chic-like new wave disco on End of Heartache – Lifetime of Love is a comfort blanket that stops any tossing and turning, and it’s one for looping over and over.
Moo Kid 