Lovingly pinched from The Skinny: Gone is the lo-fi fugue of Wooden Shjips’ DIY recordings: West marks the San Franciscan psych-rock disciples’ debut in a “proper studio” under the trusted gaze of de facto Thrill Jockey engineer and Trans Am founder Phil Manley. And the move doesn’t harm them one little bit; a cleaner production aesthetic forgoes the foggy mix of past releases to afford these sprawling, skyward-facing jams sufficient room to breathe.
Variously echoing the acid-drenched otherworldliness of 13th Floor Elevators (‘Lazy Bones’, ‘Looking Out’), the propulsive minimalism of NEU! (‘Black Smoke Rise’, ‘Crossing’) and the scuzzed-out finale of Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Rust Never Sleeps (‘Home’), West feels like the brooding soundtrack that Zodiac deserved.
Continue reading: Wooden Shjips – West | The Skinny.
Watch the officlal video for ‘Black Smoke Rise’ below.
Tags: Album of the day, Dave Kerr, Phil Manley, psychedelica, Ripley Johnson, The Skinny, Thrill Jockey, West, Wooden Shjips
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 1:40 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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