Garage rock renaissance man
Ty Segall
often records drums first when making his records before tracking loads of squalling guitars, squealing synths, and yowling vocals over the top. On
Love Rudiments
, he decided to stop at percussion, and used a variety of instruments hit with sticks and clapped together by hand to create an album that details the arc of a romantic relationship from first fleeting glance to last sorrowful look. A short list of the tools put to use in this pursuit are cymbals, xylophone, tubular bells, vibes, tympani, wood blocks, tambourine, cowbell, electronic drums, and a regular drum kit.
Segall
proves to be a very expressive percussionist, giving the segments like "First Look" and "The Dance" a suitably light, airy feel. He captures the excitement of the early stages of love both emotional and physical on "Walk Home, Pt. II" and "First Touch," while thudding through the downfall of romance with proper angst on "Confrontation," and clanging moodily on "Realization." It's interesting throughout, with
showing as much imagination here as he does on his usual fare, which is to say, quite a lot. Fans of his more blitzed-out rock albums might not guess that he has the finesse and skill to make something as musical -- despite the lack of instruments -- and thoughtful as this. He does, though, and
is worth at least one spin. If you are a drummer or percussionist looking for tips on how to construct an album that tells a story, this would be a fine piece of course work to refer to. ~ Tim Sendra