San Francisco's one man blitzkrieg Ty Segall has polished off his sound and enlisted the help of his local buddies for Melted.
Ty Segall has always been one talented mo-fo. The touring Segall used to play sets without assistance, just one dude strumming and foot tapping on a bass drum, pelting out the jams. Lucky for Ty, he's part of a community of psyche-heads in SF that love incestuous recording sessions. Melted features contributions by Mike Donovan (sic alps), Eric Bauer (Crack W.A.R.), Tim Hellman, Jigmae Baer, Emily Rose, John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) and Charlie Moonheart.
Segall's previous efforts were dripping with distortion and lo-fi aesthetic, with the lowest being a collaboration with Mikal Cronin on Reverse Shark Attack. I still pump “Drop Dead Baby” like nobody's business, but Melted is by far the cleanest Ty record to date. The record is still gritty and hacked with reckless riffing, so don't get it twisted like Ty Segall is going for the studio elegance of a Lenny Kravitz record. It's just huge fugging relief that he's chilling out on the blown out sound. Ty's knack for catchy songwriting might have suffered from burial in the noisy filth. Polish it up a bit and Ty Segall sounds like a young Paul McCartney – no joke, listen to “My Sunshine” or “Sad Fuzz” and try to tell me otherwise.
Melted is out now on Goner. Vinyl coming soon.
