What seems spontaneous and 'free' when played live can often sound noodly and tame when committed to disc. This album by Ty Segall and White Fence (aka Tim Presley) is a case in point.
It was recorded quickly in an attempt to simulate the garage band lo-fi ethos but the production just ends up sounding rushed and sloppy.
Arbitrary and clumsy editing plagues several tracks. The opening song, Time, bursts into life with a blast of electric guitar tagged on incongruously at the end while Scissor People shows how not to cut and paste in the studio.
It's not helped by the slurred, druggy vocals which give the songs a laconic quality that you'd need to be half way stoned to appreciate fully.
What the California-based duo (plus band) are capable of can be seen/heard on You Tube with a blazing live version of I Am Not A Game. The studio version of the same song is two minutes shorter and doesn't carry anywhere near the same energy rush.
On the other tracks , the slacker mentality that informs Easy Ryder could be a Nirvana outtake while the ghost of Skip Spence watches over The Black Glove/Rag with a melody that threatens to break into Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man at any moment.
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Crybaby is their throwaway psychobilly tune and (I can't) Get Around You owes much to psychedelic garage bands like The Seeds. Tim's brother Sean sings, plays on and helped co-write the rambling closing track Tongues.
Only one of the tracks hits the five minute mark and the total running time for the eight tunes is under thirty minutes. There are a few good fuzzy riffs but you get the impression that they'd be more at home with long, sprawling jams rather than keeping all the songs so short.
Given the album title and fisheye cover photo, it's no surprise that the album is strongly fixated on sixties psychedelia.
This countercultural theme is embraced by a press release which speaks of wanting the music to facilitate a connection "with the Eternal that is out there somewhere". To my ears they fall some way short of this vague target.
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