April 21, 2009

Album reviews: Wooden Shjips

Dos

8 / 10 Clutch on to something long enough and the world will eventually come to pry it from you. Wooden Shjips have always been clingy fuckers and ‘Dos’ is no different, barrelling along forever in a psych-kraut groove the quartet seem to prize more than their own tender parts. There are no tender parts; its hypnotic centrepiece ‘Down By The Sea’, is hardy enough to survive for 11 minutes on one riff, while ‘Fallin’’ manages slightly longer on two chords. A cosmos currently gawping at The Horrors’ crashing of motorik rhythm into garage rock should lap this up – the difference being that ‘Primary Colours’ was written by English public schoolboys and ‘Dos’ by bearded, middle-aged men from San Francisco. So, less shoegazing and ’80s pop, more Doors and ZZ Top. Still magnificent, though.

Kev Kharas

More on this artist:
Wooden Shjips NME Artist Page
Wooden Shjips MySpace

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