CMU Approved

Approved: Ty Segall – Manipulator

By Aly Barchi | Published on Wednesday 20 August 2014

Look who it is… extraordinary psych-rock machine Ty Segall, back again, with his seventh solo LP ‘Manipulator’. Cynics have only to look at his discography to see that Segall makes records in record time, at lightspeed, and most times keeps the bar at a height most artists, given the rate at which he’s creating, can only dream of.

Though the same doesn’t in fact go for ‘Manipulator’, which, given the fourteen months it took to write, is a rare case of Segall taking his time. It’s as if (actually it just ‘is’, as Ty states in this Pitchfork chat) for the man who’d ticked off practically every sonic idea in the book, maybe ‘patience’ was the only trick he needed still to try, because ‘Manipulator’ is the finest thing he’s released in a while.

It’s not as if songs like tricksy glam jam ‘The Clock’ or the relentless stride-by-stride everest beast ‘Feel’ seem any less immediate – they’re simply better (bigger, wiser, richer, fleshier) than past tracks Segall has fabricated in a “mad dash”. The opportunity to be more leisurely was something Segall had been waiting a long time for, he earned it with endless sweat and toil, and ultimately puts it to the greatest use imaginable.

Or in his own words, which are really all that matter as a guide to ‘Manipulator’: “I always rush things, but that was part of the plan originally – I wanted all of his stuff to be emotional first-takes. The grime was part of what made it cool and gave it a real quality. But this record was about finding out how to become a perfectionist while holding onto that rawness”.

Dig into the LP now while you still can via NPR, as it’s released next week. And this is Ty playing ‘Feel’ live on ‘Conan’: