Preceded by the 'She Got Harder' single in November 2015 GØGGS is the latest in a long line of Ty Segall bands/projects/releases (although it's existence is described as a "necessity" by fellow core member Chris Shaw). 

Now to my mind Segall's Ty Rex album of Marc Bolan covers was one of the most pointless releases of recent months (or compilations of older recordings, if you prefer) and his subsequent Emotional Mugger album left me similarly cold. Given the amount of material forthcoming from him over the past decade it could well be I've reached peak Segall. Still, with Shaw & regular collaborator Charles Mootheart in the band and guests on the album including Mikal Cronin and Wand's Cory Hanson there's always a chance of an unexpected breadth of sound or something else different to make this stand out from all of his other material.  

Fear not. A month after having written the preceding paragraphs, in which time Segall & his band of Muggers played an insane show to close out Primavera Sound 2016 thereby proving I'd jumped the gun in feeling I'd had enough of his output and having been enthused by the (just over) 25 minutes of GØGGS, it's safe to say this is one of his most vital & visceral works. Who needs greater breadth?

It's primitive, pounding punk at its best. What do the guests contribute? No idea - if not for the live rawness of the product it could easily be the work of just the man himself, such is the near total absence of any other personality aside from his. There are some backing vocals later on but for the bulk of the ten tracks all you have is Segall's urgent vocal delivery, rudimentary guitar riffs (fuzzed to the nth degree and heavy as you like) with the drums thumping basically behind it all. Great stuff.

GØGGS is available from amazon & iTunes.

Whilst the ninth edition of Le Guess Who?, on paper, initially struck me as less exciting a prospect than earlier line-ups, the event seemed to suffer a few more cancellations than previously (all were though filled by replacements of the same calibre) and numbers of attendees didn't appear to be as numerous aside from on the Saturday night (& practically any show in the Pandora) in practice its own unique charm proved inimitable.

The introduction of the Le Feast element to the festival programme was, for me, a masterstroke, allowing for a greater opportunity to chat with like-minded individuals without the need to shout over noise in a bar area or at the risk of spoiling a show for other attendees. There were also plenty of new acts to be discovered, making up for that initial wondering about how to at some points fill one's time.

In 2016 Le Guess Who? naturally reaches the decade point of its existence and with Wilco already confirmed as one of the event headliners you already get the impression that many musical gems will be on stage over 10 - 13 November.

Earlybird tickets are already available here.

Further images from this year's festival can be found here.

Thanks as ever to Jess at Le Guess Who?, to Ellen & Rose and our fellow guests for the great meal and cosy atmosphere in Le Feast and to Sofia, Eva & Kostas for being fantastic hosts. Cheers too to Stef for making the journey from Nijmegen each day, hanging out and providing quality coverage.