Ty Segall & White Fence: Joy

In 2012 the stars aligned and a collaboration between two of rock n' roll's most prolific modern artists came together for an album titled Hair, the result for any ardent garage / psych fan was a feeling of pure joy. Fast forward to 2018 and Ty Segall and White Fence have followed through on a follow up, pushing boundaries and defying expectations and the result once again is Joy.

While the Hair album bore a brand of Rock n' Roll best described as  common ground between the two artists  catalogues, dipping it's toes into the modern psych sound with unhinged release, the follow up is a song cycle that really needs to be listened to as a whole to reap the auditory treasures. Since the release of Hair, both Ty Segall and Tim Presley of White Fence have both remained restless and pursuant in their volume of output. 

Joy clocks in at 30 minutes over 15 tracks, half of which are under two minutes long. Upon first listen, Joy seems to flutter by in half the time, an illusion perhaps due to each song bleeding into the next, fusing each track into what is essentially one piece, or at least that 's how it should be consumed. Four songs, "Good Boy", "Body Behaviour", "She Is Gold" and "My Friend" stand alone in the singles department. Body Behaviour sounds like the closest song resembling White Fence, and gets in just enough guitar ripping at the end to remind us, that on this album, joy comes in all shapes and forms. The album sounds like it could be a companion piece to Tim Presley and Cate Lebon’s project Drinks, it’s steeped in sense of exploration and eccentricity sadly lacking in today’s musical landscape. This is a record that will no doubt age well with time, being locked into a timelessness, not really anchored by any particular sound. To fully appreciate what is going on here, let go of any previous notion of what a Ty and Tim collaboration would sound like. Acoustic gonzo meditations give way to paint peeling thrash, sometimes within the same song. What they have captured here is a fun capsule of two of today’s greatest, creatively letting go. The shift in sounds throughout plays like a radio dial tuned in to two artist looking for that thing they haven’t touched upon yet. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 6 years for the next Ty and Tim collaboration, but in the meantime, despite it’s running time there is a lot to uncover throughout Joy. Play and repeat.

You can visit their Bandcamp here.