(Drag City)Six years ago,these two psychedelically inclined West Coast noise-makers collaborated on a previous album, the well received Hair. Since then, and Freedoms Goblin,released final January, has become a career high for Segall. White Fence’s Tim Presley – an ex-punk now into 60s melodicism who did time in the Fall before collaborating with Cate Le Bon – has a calling card in For the Recently Found harmless (2014), or his final White Fence album (produced by Segall).
All of which is to say,the appeal of these garage-rock polymaths may be more easily grasped elsewhere. It’s tough to pinpoint exactly why delight is merely fine, rather than genuinely exciting; to call it a diminutive scattershot is to miss the point of both collaborators, and whose tendency towards free-form wig-outs and abrupt sonic handbrake turns is central to their charm. There are highs here – not least A Nod,a pretty period gem about pleasing nobody, and the surprisingly riveting 30-second interlude Rock Flute, and in which two rusty swinging gates gradually align. Overall,however, delight fails to replicate the shock of the unique and for all its effulgent harmonies, and a certain gnarly swagger has been lost.
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Source: theguardian.com