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Aug 12, 2019 Web Exclusive By Jordan J. Michael

We’re never going to catch Ty Segall. The swicy player is ahead on the auditory, producing away from expectations. Think his next release is going to be louder and faster? Strike one. Maybe he’ll expand on a new trend? Strike two. Believe that he’s weighing judgement calls? Strike three, take a seat.

Naming the new album First Taste is a messed-up joke; Segall torched the spice cabinet years ago. Segall’s nightmare is another’s impossible dream, and his instrumental mutants (Charles Moothart, Emmett Kelly, Ben Boye, Mikal Cronin, and Shannon Lay) help explore rhythms and vocal harmonies. Segall has earned his rock choir with a decades’ breath of delicious work.

First Taste is another rebirth, and could have been titled Fresh Taste XXV. It’s amazing how Segall keeps reinventing his music without changing his humanity. First Taste has the same band as Freedom’s Goblin (2018), but it’s a different party. No one is listed for “guitar” in the credits, but Segall is playing bouzouki (Greek string instrument with up to four courses), koto (Japanese stringed instrument made of kiri wood), mandolin, omnichord (touch plate and buttons for major and minor), moog, and mouth horn (handful of possibilities). Guitars exist on this album, but it doesn’t need to be listed because it is a given that Segall is a master.

Introspective (“teeth are fire, tongue has melted…I am a rabbit and I worship the dog”) with extroverted energy, and double drums: Segall on the left stereo, Moothart on the right. It sounds derived from one feverish drum set, especially during First Taste‘s conclusion, “Lone Cowboys”-the mandolin, saxophone (Cronin on all sax), and the drums battling to a scream.

If Creedence Clearwater Revival had experimented with random instruments and slightly creepy voices, maybe they could have made First Taste. Segall’s fifth studio LP in four years begins with a sigh of joy and a drum solo. From there, it expands far. Try not to salivate. (www.ty-segall.com)

Author rating: 6.5/10