“Drink Coca Cola, drink Coca Cola, drink Coca Cola…”
By now, some of you may have noticed that many of my reviewed acts follow a similar trope of ‘psychedelic’ rock - namely King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Oh Sees of recent. Yet for all the hypnotic repetition imbued on my malleable mind from this genre, the American multi-instrumentalist Ty Segall and his Freedom Band left the most convincing impression on me during his 3-night residency inside London’s Oval Space. Aside from the more cavernous aspects of the aforementioned acts, the intimacy of this space combined with Segall’s impassioned breakout LP of 2010, Melted, proved to be one of the most hypnotically indelible sets this year.
Into the time machine the sold-out crowd went, as Segall’s band imminently churned out a multitude of fuzzied tones and cataclysmic drumming off their most recent LP, First Taste - snatching likened tropes from The Beatles’ 1966 LP, Revolver. Rhythmic grooves and passionate vocal deliveries from Segall and his band within ‘Taste’, ‘Whatever’, and ‘I Worship The Dog’, made for imposing viewing to this highly-anticipated set showcasing this musician’s illustrious repertoire.
As the playback of their recent LP continued, Segall eventually joined his on-stage drummer in doubling the rhythmic duties, purely exhibiting the musical prowess and raw talent of Segall. With his wailing vocals burgeoning the crowd’s sensories throughout ‘I Sing Them’ and ‘Radio’, it became easy to realise the profound effect of his unique take on older tropes of psych-rock in tonight’s updated sheen, acting as a hypnotic force-of-nature revelling in sporadic experimental tangents.
With the reshuffling of the on-stage entourage in place, Segall & Co at last delved into their seminal 2010 LP, Melted, with the ringing of their a cappella expression “finger on it”. In a sea of scuzzy chaos ensued by the distorted tones brought shortly thereafter, ‘Caesar’, ‘Girlfriend’, and ‘Sad Fuzz’ suitably played their part to increase the velocity during a time in which the set should have been plateauing. Yet the tones exuded by the acoustic guitars on stage, as well as Segall’s hybrid 1977 Travis Bean guitar, fulfilled such an explosively clanky sound - forever offering further percussion to their facade.
Encasing the sweaty pit of garage-rock euphoria led by Segall’s free-wheeling world, was the undeniable influence of their predecessors of the last half-century - namely Can, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. Such seminal sounds were particularly evident amongst the slower tracks of tonight, such as ‘Mrs’ and ‘Alone’, at last offering an albeit brief respite for our raucous Friday night. However, none of these tropes of old were better exemplified than in the encore track taken from Segall’s LP of last year, Freedom’s Goblin. For the track ‘She’, the crowd returned to the elongated foray of psychedelia - riffing, grooving, and bopping incessantly to the upbeat track extended to such epic proportions.
Having churned out no less than 5 full-length LPs over the past two years, Segall has proven his connoisseurial taste for the aforementioned genres - explicitly focusing on 2 albums for this evening. Whilst some of the tracks proved slightly over-bearing in their rock ‘n’ roll deluge, the collective sounds were impressively well-mixed for a crowd ready to embrace a new caricature of modern, underground rock. The long-awaited return of Ty Segall and his freedom-foraging buddies proved overwhelmingly tempestuous amongst these three nights in Stoke Newington so, if you’ll excuse me - I’m off to quench my thirst with some refreshing Coca Cola right now.
8/10
Ty Segall's latest LP, First Taste, is out now and can be found here.
Main photo is courtesy of Freddie Payne, whose work can be found here.
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