Ty Segall and White Fence. Two lo-fi bros making stoner garage-rock cut with warmth and humility, studying bright melodies as obscured by the thick textures of saturated, overdriven, in-the-red tape recordings. Now that they've come together, the results sound as you expect, but no less righteous for the fact.The pair's collaborative LP, Hair (due April 24 on Drag City), is full of loose, woolly, rough-hewn jammers in which the tape sound —and the different qualities of different takes— is used evocatively. "I Am Not a Game" sounds cool and sweet when ripped back to gentle organ patterns, but the snarling guitars in the background forever threaten assault; and when Segall and Fence-boss Tim Presley's guitars fire up togther, suddenly the song is peaking in pained, fried-out fashion.
"I am not a game," Segall snarls, and the retort may not mean much to those listening at home. Or may mean everything. It's poetic shorthand, syllables to be sung before the shredding; words that sound great as a refrain even if we know not the game that's being played.
Ty Segall and White Fence, "I Am Not a Game"
Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, the seventh Spiritualized album, is due out, on Fat Possum in North America and Double Six worldwide on April 17. And full details have now been unleashed, including the positively head-scratching cover-art you see to your right. 'Huh?', indeed.
There was a hint of dance-punk fervor when ridiculously-named Albertan outfit Shout Out Out Out Out arose in the mid-'00s, with 2006's Not Saying/Just Saying. Six years on, and they've grown ever-more sleek and stripped-down; the six-person mania of their live shows producing spartan synth-pop jams.