Wooden Shjips’ Remixes 12” makes me curious

I will confess that I’m usually not a fan of remixes. I find that remixes usually just end up sucking the life out of a song by adding a lot of drum machines and loops, thereby creating a new version that tends to be a shadow of the original. This is the stuff of DJ 12” singles and B-side filler. If it’s not broken…. That being said, when a band like Wooden Shjips gets remixed I get curious.

The three remixes on Wooden Shjips latest 12” are decent, but not essential. They are interesting as a curiosity, but when I want to listen to Wooden Shjips I would not pull this off the shelf. Sonic Boom did do a nice job with his track “Wiking Stew.” Sonic Boom creates something new but adheres to the soul of Wooden Shjips sound. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Andy Weatherall’s take on “Crossing.” This remix takes the punch right out of the original by replacing the drums with drum machine beats and cleaning up the bass sound. The groove is gone leaving a light version of the original. Finally, there’s the twelve minute epic “Ursus Maritimus” from Kandodo w/ Ripley. This is a nice trance-inducing track. Again, it’s good, but not essential.

This collection of remixes is a nice experiment that die-hard Wooden Shjips completists will need to own. I’m happy to have heard it and satisfied my curiosity, but now I’m going to go listen to West again.

Purchase Wooden Shjips Remixes 12” via Thrill Jockey