Album Review: Ty Segall – First Taste

Fuzz, high-end frequencies, noise and destruction are often the words associated with Ty Segall, California’s psychedelic rock lovechild. The album opens with Taste and it’s a spiritually powerful blast of fuzz right away. Whatever continues this with lightly distorted bass notes, overdoses of echo and what sounds like a few wind instruments hiding in the background. 

When most think of psychedelic rock, they imagine doses of reverb on everything - Ty Segall blends clean and split tones all throughout this album, even opting for completely clean in Ice Plant, and the result is amazing as it transitions back into reverb and fuzz with The Fall. I Worship The Dog features kazoo-like sounds while finishing with a horrible yet perfect recorder solo. The Arms is definitely a favourite, it’s simple and the strings are breezy and up-tuned. When I Met My Parents Pt 1, launches into I Sing Them with a fast-paced drum section, whereas When I Met My Parents Pt 3 focuses more on phased, spiralling notes, reverb and choir-like vocals. Radio and Self Esteem continue to add more to the album before Lone Cowboys brings back the up-tuned strings. This is an album you can put on repeat – Ty Segall has done it yet again!