Ty Segall - Three Bells

 

Do you want to go back in time? Go through a portal and find yourself back in ....1972. Lying on an unmade flat with bongs, joss sticks and the general detritus you would associate with an unkempt suburban teenage bedroomin the Midwest from that year. If you fancy that experience then fret not. The record has arrived to tick all of the 1972 boxes you might possibly have.

The record concerned is West Coast acid troubadour Ty Segall's new record Three Bells. As you might expect. It's FAR OUT MAN! Segall has form for this kind of stuff. I've listened to quite a few of his records down the years and this time portal thing to 1972 seems to be his guiding principle pretty much every time he visits a studio to 'lay down some tracks' as they tend to put it in Rock & Roll parlance.

I like Segall as I like his closest musical cousins Oh Sees and have enjoyed a number of his records down the years. Just as I've enjoyed theirs. Fine as their records are though, I'm not an obsessive fan of either. I've seen them both over the years in the local gig warehouse The Boiler Shop and got tired of both acts mid way through their sets.

While both are exceptionally proficient they both seemed like massively talented acts involved in what I found to be a kind of Retrophilia. An exercise that was ever so slightly devoid of actual soul and heart even though the groove patterns laid down were incredibly impressive. I decided that I thought records were both band's natural element. Perhaps I didn't experience either in their best venue.

Three Bells is OK but Ty didn't blow my mind - this time. In the words of The Delphonics. There's just too much noodling to impress your muso mates going on. Pressing on effects pedals and making 'Wagh!!!' faces int he mirror in music shops  like the outakes from a Wayne's World movie. I'll continue following Segall's career because he's one of the good guys but getting back to 1972 is beginning to seem like a bit of a dead end creatively and I hope he chooses different options next time round.