At Echo Lake

Vinyl LP pressing. 2010 release from the lo-fi Alt-Roots/Rock outfit. He distance between 2007's at Rear House and at Echo Lake may at first seem only semantic, but it more properly represents a move from a kind of informal back porch jam ethos to a fully-committed vision of the infinite possibilities of group playing. Over the past few years, Woods has established themselves as an anomaly in a world of freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outré company of vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Earl's Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer/songwriters. At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows.