Wasted Shirt – Fungus II
Well here’s a collab you didn’t know needed to happen, but – the product of Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt and the one and only Ty Segall – Fungus II is one that demands to be heard all the same. Segall duly pits his shred put against that trademark Lightning Bolt grind, the resultant experimental racket a real death-match in which each contender leaves the ring bloodied. Accordingly, there’s “blood on the highway, blood on the seats” during “Harsho”, a car crash of FX and challenging drums that’s really just the tip of this iceberg.
Segall, of course, isn’t averse to a collab (see his double-headers with White Fence, Mikal Cronin and others) and Wasted Shirt certainly gives him chance to blow off the cobwebs, refreshing his prolific sound by digging deep to go next level and deliver an absolute onslaught of guitar at times. Recorded in Segall’s home studio back in 2018, Fungus II consequently sounds like it was an absolute riot to get down too, the 2-minute single, “Double The Dream”, for example, a relatively coherent yet fully maximised wave of crashing guitar volleys, alarms, crunching bass and snarling punk vocals.
Verging on instrumental warfare with percussive polyrhythms, Fungus II is not a record that’s likely to crossover to many Segall fans though despite its marauding bass fuzz and work-out wail. Those more inclined to power-sludge and doom may fare better however, the LP’s second half in particular branching out from either contributor’s common hunting grounds to deliver a hot flow of face-rippers full of crumpled drums and high-end riffing, the static-filled closer diving head-first into thrash, abject noise and car-horn drone too. Furious fun at every turn (just check out that artwork!), Fungus II is the aural equivalent of tuning your engine by bouncing the revs off the limiter in second gear. Pity your speakers.
Best track: “Double The Dream”
~Fungus II is released February 28th 2020 via Famous Class.~