GØGGS – Pre Strike Sweep
Featuring on these pages more than most, GØGGS is the more-than-prolific Ty Segall’s ugly thrash-punk outlet alongside long-time buddies Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult and Charles Moothart of FUZZ and other garage-ripping projects. Screaming out for a hyphen that just doesn’t come, Pre Strike Sweep is this band of bros’ follow-up to their 2016 S/T debut and, once again dominated by the all-consuming bass of Michael Anderson, it doubles down on that album’s hardcore inspo and crashes it headlong into outsider noise-art and Segall-brand distortion.
Eleven tracks that weigh in well under the 30-minute mark, Moothart takes the opportunity to beat the kit with his face, Anderson’s buzzsaw bass swelling to explosion point at the crest of every thick riff. Alternating too between sub-two-minute scorchers and luxuriously proportioned three-minute bass-dozers, an enormous amount of metal is left in the mix leading Pre Strike Sweep to a firework display of welding arcs and angle-grinder sparks. A flashback to the smoke-filled foundries of a medieval armoury, Shaw’s incandescent, angry bark sets the whole thing aflame, piercing feedback and tortured guitars jostling for the attention amidst scrambled synth-play and crude post-punk edges.
An early climax, the four-minute title-track casts a particularly black shadow, squealing wah wah and cosmic synth triggering a regressive Neanderthal response in Shaw as he batters the blown-out space-rock with a club. It’s a heavy divebomb from the highest board that ripples across the album as a whole. Teach a man to fish at this pool and you feed him for a lifetime, yet – a feast for those that love guitar – Pre Strike Sweep takes no chances, preferring to blast-fish with dynamite throughout.
Best track: “Pre Strike Sweep”
~Pre Strike Sweep is released September 28th 2018 via In The Red.~