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[one_half last=”yes”]TY SEGALL
Manipulator
Release-Date: 26.08.2014
Label: Drag City
Tracklist:
01 Manipulator
02 Tall Man, Skinny Lady
03 The Singer
04 It’s Over
05 Feel
06 The Faker
07 The Clock
08 Green Belly
09 Connection Man
10 Mister Main
11 The Hand
12 Susie Thumb
13 Don’t You Want To Know? (Sue)
14 The Crawler
15 Who’s Producing You?
16 The Feels
17 Stick Around
NBHAP Rating: 4,5/5
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TY SEGALL, the crowned garage prince of the Californian coast, is back with another blow – it’s the new LP, Manipulator. For SEGALL, Manipulator has been a significantly longer labour of love; after a year of writing and creating, a full month (gasp) was spent putting it to track. That’s a stark comparison to the numerous other records he’s pushed out into the world, wriggling and hungrily lunging for air, in the space of a mere day or two. It’s a kicking and flourishing musical family that the artist has gifted to the world. In fact, Manipulator is his seventh spawn since 2008, joining an overall collective of seventeen albums (not to mention countless singles and EPs) via his spectrum of monikers and side-projects such as FUZZ, SIC ALPS, THE PERVERTS, and PARTY FOWL. Sure, prolificacy isn’t always a virtue – but what’s special about TY SEGALL is that the quality is always ridiculously on point.
The opening and title track, Manipulator‘s slightly more polished feel gives it a WHITE FENCE tinged hue, bubblegum vocals chorusing throughout. The Singer is a sun-split slow-mover, touched with delicious tips of sensual melancholia. SEGALL‘s voice pulls into the higher planes, bursting the clouds and soaring, belches of grey giving way to shards of summer. Then It’s Over jumps into the ring, slightly aggressive, fretboard squirming around the neck. ‘It’s over, it’s over, oh-ohhhhhh’ is the howl, driven down into the dust by rounds of manic guitar.
The song Feel is driving music, spurred on by long expanses of highway, fingers reaching from the empty mouths of windows to hit the air, skipping back with the gusts; and then the head follows, tangles of hair shaking involuntarily to deliciously warped audial visions. This is the affectionately addictive track that stands coyly in your way, batting bejewelled eyelashes, insisting that you go back and press repeat just a couple of cheeky times before continuing onwards. It’s the track that pulls one side of your mouth into a lopsided bass-scrunch, eyes closing into fuzzy throes of joy as we’re launched into the kaleidoscopic realms of – wait, what does the sign say? – that’s right, Garage Paradise.
Photo by Denee Petracek
Hold onto your shirts, travellers; I know we’re a little out of breath, but the journey’s only halfway through. The Faker sidles in at an easy enough pace to allow us to wipe the sweat from our shiny brows. The Clock is, again, slightly more stripped-back, woozed over with the swoon of strings. ‘He’s gonna make a mewveh, of his entire liiife…’ forms the backbone of ‘Green Belly’; a strutting, delicately-picked track that pushes out its stomach like a peacock. Together, the three tracks seem to function as a sort of interlude, an opportunity for air.
Then we turn a vaguely intergalactic corner and begin to pick up speed once more, with The Connection Man wiring us back up to the monitors. It’s a seemingly brief track, but it pulls the shoulders back into motion with a welcome velocity. The Hand is another highlight of the second act, sugarsweet vocal harmonies layering themselves over heavy, gyrating riffs. It’s a thick sound that closes in like walls, easing down into melted goodness, fading into croon. The Feels sucks us into the final track with a dark and brooding intensity, as Stick Around leaves a sweet, slightly solemn taste on the tongue. It’s almost like a highschool leaver’s anthem, bidding us farewell: ‘And although, we have to go, you know we wanna stick around.’
Ty Segall puts on a famously spasmodic, sweaty, lightning-strike of a show, and it’s going to be a blast to watch him let these new tracks loose on audiences during his upcoming dates, which take him from the US, across Europe and all the way over to Australia. He’s certainly not a musician known to stop for breath. The record is officially released on August 26; until then, you can listen to a free stream over at NPR Radio.
‘Manipulator’ is a delicious slice of garage pie, dripping with psychedelic ices. Layers of raw-edged guitar and shimmering harmony come together to make this one hell of a summer record; one that’ll keep spinning long after the sun’s retreat.
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