Deforming Lobes in Bloomington, MN

Ever since someone got the idea that an album should be more than a bunch of singles put onto a bigger piece of plastic, musicians have faced a particular dilemma: if you've made an ambitious and stylistically eclectic album, how do you make that work when you're playing those songs at your show? 2018's
Freedom's Goblin
was one of the most expansive and diverse projects of
Ty Segall
's quite prolific career, but when it came time to hit the road after the album dropped,
Segall
came up with a simple but effective formula: forget the minutia and rock out big time. 2019's
Deforming Lobes
was recorded during two January 2018 shows in Los Angeles, and the song list curiously omits any tunes from
. What it does deliver is
and his band laying into their music as if their lives depended on it.
documents a tight, heavyweight rock & roll band turning up the amps and wailing hard for the fans, and if it doesn't have a subtle bone in its body, it proves beyond a doubt that
and his bandmates are still committed to the sweaty, passionate glory of The Rock Show. On
,
is backed by
the Freedom Band
, the same core of musicians who helped him make
, and they sound like a force to be reckoned with.
Emmett Kelly
is a great guitar foil for
, matching and complementing the noisy majesty of
's soloing,
Ben Boye
's fuzzy keyboards lend force and color to the arrangements, and bassist
Mikal Cronin
and drummer
Charles Moothart
hit with the impact of a runaway cement truck.
Steve Albini
and
Greg Norman
recorded the concerts, and considering how crushingly loud this seems to have been, they've captured a commendable amount of detail in the final mix, allowing the listener to admire the individual contributions of the musicians as well as the grand spectacle of the ensemble in full flight.
feels like
's answer to the
MC5
's epochal
Kick Out the Jams
, and if it lacks that great album's sense of lysergic experimentalism,
's ability to graft garage punk noise onto a sonic onslaught worthy of
Blue Cheer
more than compensates. Play this one loud -- as if you have a choice -- it's going to be loud no matter how low you set the volume. ~ Mark Deming