VOL. 2

The second volume of collected scraps from the bilges of Wooden Shjips provides a handy sampler of the band's monomaniacal music. In seven tracks it covers a lot of territory, but don't be surprised if the view looks familiar at each stop, marked on every side by the same hypnotic acid-rock rhythms and way-out guitar solos.

The skeletal motif in the artwork for both volumes makes perfect sense: these are bare-bone recordings of bare-bone songs, totally unsuited to a Progressive Rock forum but maintaining a stubborn allegiance to the primal strength of the electric guitar. There's a stray live track, not sounding too different from the obviously live-in-the-studio stuff elsewhere. There's also the unexpected detour of a Neil Young cover ("Vampire Blues"), absolutely destroying the laid-back flab of the 1974 original.

And then there's the highlight of the disc (and its longest track): a suitably groovy update of the 1968 Serge Gainsbourg song "Contact". The new version misses the metallic gold mini-skirt of sexpot Brigitte Bardot, but embellishes that ultra-chic Euro-'60s vibe with an irresistible beat replayed verbatim for eight-plus minutes, transforming a hipster touchstone into a Shjipster classic. The album's last three tracks, beginning with "Contact", continuing with the so-called "E-Z Version" of "I Hear the Vibrations", and concluding with the aptly-named "Outa My Head", are worth the purchase price of the album all by themselves, the titles alone suggesting a thematic link, inviting listeners into the eternal trance.

Like its companion, Vol. 2 isn't the best embarkation point for your maiden voyage aboard the Wooden Shjips. But after a season or two before the mast any veteran Shjiphead will recognize (and appreciate) their single-minded modus operandi...and here's more of the same, only similar.