Yoo Doo Right Earn Their Spot Among Montreal Post-Rock Royalty with 'Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose'

BY Stephan BoissonneaultPublished May 19, 2021

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A droning mechanical chord strum oscillates next to a war drum beat and soon after, a synth line opens the gates for a monolithic wall of sound. It's as if Yoo Doo Right have created a universe out of thin air, only to quickly and violently tear it down. It showcases the immense control the Montreal-based psychedelic post-rockers flex on their debut full-length, Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose.

The album is the perfect accompaniment for getting lost in a city, with twists and turns that tease the brain and put the listener into an esoteric daze. There are traces of Animals-era Pink Floyd, Sunn O))), Popul Vuh and plenty of shoegaze titans on this eight-track album. Yoo Doo Right show they are masters of composition as each song beautifully bleeds into one another.

The jumpy, hallucinatory "Marché Des Vivants" evokes a calming and euphoric trance, while the repeated vocals of "Back up / You're moving too fast" in the almighty (and brilliantly named) "The Moral Compass of a Self-Driving Car" recalls several of the best scenes of the early '60s, moving from heavy, fuzz-filled mayhem to discreet, pillowy psychedelia. The title track begins like something on the Black Angels' Passover with a dark and menacing post-rock outro, while "Join, Be Curst" melds Persian scales with doom metal atmospherics thanks to heavy bends and massive drums.

Yoo Doo Right have collaborated with local post-rock luminaries Godspeed You! Black Emperor, toured with Japanese psych wizards Acid Mothers Temple and taken their name from a Can song. Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose proves that they can sit comfortably amongst their heroes.
(Mothland)

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