The light is glaring. The mist hangs thickly amongst the shifting shadows. You’re at a concert that just keeps on moving. Whether it’s 1990 or today doesn’t really matter at all. As long as the riff’s right and the drums are driving the beat, this vacuum of timelessness can remain. Somewhere amidst the glaring stage spotlights shining in from the side, you can hear or see Ty Segall, who is clearly striking a harder note once again with his new album Chrome.
Not that he’d recently turned his back on heavy guitars and driving rhythms, but his music had recently veered a little more towards a happy-go-lucky direction – not that there was anything wrong with that. But now Chrome is here, and with it the band is back: Ben Boye, Evan Burrows, Mikal Cronin and Emmett Kelly, who co-wrote half the songs. Massive riffs, two guitars, fuzz and drums driving forward with full force make it abundantly clear: this is something that’s here to stay.
Tracks such as ‘Running to Nowhere’, ‘Let Go’ and ‘Separation’ alone paint a distinctive picture that smacks of punk and, in a way, sounds like it too. Perhaps not quite as raw and a touch more complex in their composition, but the feeling is unmistakable: forward, through the shadows. They want to stamp their feet again and throw their heads back!
Chrome
