Wooden Shjips originally formed in 2003 when Ripley Johnson had the idea to make psychedelic noise with musicians playing unfamiliar instruments and in some cases people who didn’t play instruments at all. A few albums on and things got a little more serious, they gained a vast number of devoted followers with members of Pavement and the Arctic Monkeys both devoting their love for the band, they have albums out via Sub Pop and are just about to embark on a tour with some dates supporting Pavement at Brixton Academy.
In keeping with their long tradition of doing things just that little differently we have the second edition of their compilation of hard to find Wooden Shjips material featuring two self released European tour singles as well as covers of Neil Young’s Vampire Blues and Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Contact.’ Compilation albums have a tendency to be fairly poor at best, the kind of B-sides and rarities that were left off of the album for a reason but with Vol 2 it is quite the opposite, Wooden Shjips groove their way through this warped seven song stunner.
Their music creates a trance inducing state of euphoria that you rarely find with most bands and somewhere in the middle of the meandering, repetitive beats, scuzzy distorted guitars, old school organ and droney, mumbling vocals you have here one of the best psych rock albums to be released in years. Their covers don’t just pay homage to the great men that originally wrote the songs, they take them to places that just weren’t possible until these four acid casualties got their hands on them.
All of the old tricks are in place here, there’s lots of wah and fuzzboxes but this San Fran four piece deliver these seven tracks in such an unrelenting fashion that you just can’t stop listening. I was instantly hooked.
Words : Gordon Reid
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