Wooden Shjips - Vol. 2

Turns out that the ghosts of some 60s acid-casualties have possessed a modern day group of San Franciscans in order to have them to play tunes of a forty year vintage. The results are brilliantly trippy, with the meandering, Motorik jam of opener Loose Lips, complete with too-stoned-to-care vocals, setting the pace for what is a most satisfying slab of psychedelia.

Ubiquitous and strangely archaic flanger effects rise and fall over Grand Funk Railroad grooves, like a hippie splattering peace signs on a concrete wall. Outta My Head is, despite its title, the most focused effort, ditching the woozy jams in favour of stretching the raga rock of The Beatles’ Taxman into a relentless krautrock workout. For the second and even more miraculous time, Wooden Shjips have returned to a thoroughly un-cool era of rock history, and still managed to make it sound, like, totally groovy, man. [Joe Barton]