Coming to Thee Oh Sees on hearsay that my new favourite artist Ty Segall plays with them, I was looking forward to actually hearing them. In homage to a first listen, I will also review as the album goes along as a means of keeping some sort of freshness to it.
Opening track ‘Wax Face’ immediately calls to mind why I love the new psychedelic scene that is growing in America at the moment and, whilst the vocals do take some getting used to, they soon grow on you and you find yourself grinning at the sheer audacity of the music.
Obviously influenced by Nuggets era music, this is not a bad thing and it is good to see a new generation of musicians taking up the mantle. This may be one of the more important aspects of the demise of the record industry but that’s for another time. On with the show, and bring out the fuzz guitars.
‘So Nice’ features a rather woozy organ at the beginning and soon segues into an almost Barrett era Floydian song with pieces of Ray Davies thrown in. Quite extraordinary. It isn’t long before the sitars kick in and you are reminded that people used to make music this good before. Fears that the album may be a bit samey are banished and opportunity is thrown open as to where Thee Oh Sees go next.
The white noise of ‘Cloud #1’ is intertwined with blasts of organs creating a foreboding atmosphere before the pounding riff of ‘Floods New Light’ crashes in. In amongst the almost surf like music, Beach Boys harmonies collide in what could almost be an out-take from one of the more calmer Ty Segall albums.
Lyrically it’s difficult to make out what they are singing about but then that doesn’t matter as you are carried along with the sheer joy of it all. The music is spacious enough to let the different parts seep through and create a psychedelic stew which is never overbearing. Then you get to the title track.
‘Putrifiers II’ is almost epic in scope with its slow build up and as it develops it becomes the turning point of the album by giving it more range and proving that Thee Oh Sees aren’t just about joyous anthems. Syd Barrett is to the fore once again and in all honesty, this song would fit in perfectly on ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’.
There are moments of unhinged madness on this album which are always going to keep Thee Oh Sees an underground concern but then they are hardly going to be bothered by that. As with all great music, conformity should be thrown out the window and the strangeness embraced. ‘Will We Be Scared’ is a prime example of this as we fall deep into the psychedelic chasm which MGMT did so well on their last album. A lilting nursery rhyme of a song, it is playful and creepy at the same time and may well return to haunt me in my dreams.
It may seem that all sense of normaility is lost by the time ‘Lupine Dominus’ finishes and you find yourself wondering how you are going to escape the weirdness. ‘Goodbye Baby’ provides a welcome respite as we rise from the chasm into sunlight once again on layer upon layer of harmonies. The woozy organ serves as a transcendency which flowers up into bird song greeting us as if we have reached a new dawn. ‘Wicked Park’ then sees us off on our journey and you wonder what the hell you are going to play next to top that.
Overall, first impressions are of a very well done album which is not afraid of going to places many musicians would fear to tread. Possibly one of the most psychedelic albums I have heard for a long time, it has made its way onto my ipod (which is high praise indeed, what with limited space on there!). I will most definitely be revisiting this album again and again to sample its weird delights and my bank balance is groaning at the thought of having to buy up their other albums. It may be a bit too much for some people; it does get extremely odd at times, but give it a chance and the myriad delights it holds will stay with you. Not amazing, but very enjoyable and worth a go. Take the trip, it’s a long strange one.
Released September 17th on In the Red Records.
Posted by Martyn Coppack.
