West is in fact the debut studio album from Wooden Shjips. Although the band formed in 2006 and have released several recordings on 10” and 7”, plus a couple of other homemade studio sessions, it’s not until now they’ve gone through the process via a professional studio. And the results were worth waiting for.

The overriding theme of this album is the American West, even though the band grew up on the East Coast the west has remained a place of abstraction and fascination for them.

The music is nothing short of epic, dense fuzzy guitar lines, ghostly vocals amongst the haze make this one of our personal favourite albums of the year so far. Sounds like a nod to the 60’s and 70’s psych music from the west coast but with a distinctly modern twist.