Making use of a limited palette of instruments and ideas is an approach that has tripped up many a musician as they’ve endeavoured to get to the core of their creativity and cut out any frills and fireworks. Both Moon Duo and singer/guitarist Ripley Johnson’s other band Wooden Shjips have always attempted to do just that and almost without fail they’ve succeeded. Moon Duo’s fourth … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Moon Duo – Shadow Of The Sun
Wooden Shjips have been mining the same rich vein of droning, psychedelic space rock over three albums and a couple of compilations yet here, on their fourth, they show no signs of going stale as they slyly inject subtle variations into their tried and true style. If Back To Land has anything to differentiate itself from previous releases it is in the looser and lighter … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Wooden Shjips | Back To Land
2013 was a pretty strong year for music. From the established artists hitting their late-period straps to newcomers breathing new life into old forms, it felt like a year where a whole range of styles rose to the top. There were plenty of surprises with new albums appearing out of the blue from Bowie and MBV and also irritating marketing campaigns that felt like they … Continue reading FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2013
It’s always a mighty challenge to narrow down all the songs you’ve heard in one year and slot them into order on a nice tidy list of 20. I’m sure I’ve missed a handful of gems but these are all songs that have either captured my imagination, feet, ears or all of the above and made me think “damn that is a great song”. 1. … Continue reading DS Favourite Songs of 2013
by Chris Familton It was only last year that Moon Duo gave us their debut album Mazes, a record which showed that though guitarist Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips) was still operating in similar terrain to his aquatic pals, the addition of Sanae Yamada’s synth textures provided plenty of new angles to discover and bliss out to. Circles takes that template and stretches and tightens it … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Moon Duo | Circles
written by Chris Familton Newcomers DCM (Wolfmother’s Chris Ross and Daniel Stricker of the Midnight Juggernauts) set up their keyboards and effect units on the dancefloor in front of the stage and opened the evening with some glorious kraut-tinged electronica that was the perfect sonic calm before the storm to come. They showed a nice balance between pseudo ambient washes of sounds and some harder … Continue reading LIVE REVIEW: WOODEN SHJIPS @ OAF, SYDNEY (24/03/12)
Following their brilliant album West, Wooden Shjips have used the talents of Andrew Weatherall, Sonic Boom and kandodo to remix three tracks for the vinyl/digital only EP Remixes. The Remixes 12″ is limited to 2500 copies, with 500 of them on special color vinyl. All pre-order customers will receive a free instant MP3 download of all the 12″ tracks. All pre-orders will also ship on the … Continue reading NEWS: Wooden Shjips release limited edition remix EP…
2011 has been another massive year for music, at least it feels that way. Invariably the availability and access to recorded music is easier and greater than ever with streaming and file sharing available at the click of a button. Each year I seem to increase the size of my list, purely as a result of the volume of stuff I get to hear. The … Continue reading DS Top 50 LPs of 2011
written by Chris Familton San Francisco psych lords Wooden Shjips have had a great run of releases so far with no misfires among the albums, EPs and compilations they have issued since forming back in 2006. West is the band’s fifth album and finds them shifting into a cleaner, more concise musical space. Sure all their trademark signifiers like the droning organ, krautrock drumming, ambivalent … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Wooden Shjips | West
INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE RIPLEY JOHNSON IS A BUSY MAN, RECENTLY RELEASING NEW NEW ALBUMS WITH WOODEN SHJIPS AND MOON DUO. HE TAKES THE TIME TO EXPLAIN TO CHRIS FAMILTON WHERE THE LATTER FITS INTO THE WORLD OF DRONING PSYCHEDELIC ROCK. Establishing yourself outside a band where you have gained a loyal following can be a tough task. There are the perils of not being as good … Continue reading INTERVIEW: Moon Duo
Droning SF psychedelicists Wooden Ships will release their new album West via Thrill Jockey on August 15th. Tracklisting Black Smoke Rise Crossing Lazy Bones Home Flight Looking Out Rising Check out For So Long from their Dos album… Continue reading NEWS: Wooden Shjips to release new album in August…
That’s it then, 2010 done and dusted and although it wasn’t the best year ever for new music there were some damn fine records released. This year we’re seeing an even more eclectic mix of flavours coming through from witch house, minimal electronica, americana, experimental and the all encompassing indie tag. Have a look at what we loved through the year, click on the covers … Continue reading ds…twenty five – our favourite releases of 2010
Doubtful Sounds 