White Fence - For The Recently Found Innocent

Tim Presley's return for his sixth album as White Fence finds him for once in a proper studio, with Ty Segall behind the controls for a second time and Drag City footing the bill for the first time. Apart from that For The Recently Found Innocent is as recognisably a White Fence record as any of the previous five & comfortingly so.

One of the highlights at last year's Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, Presley & his touring players delivered a joyfully souped-up take on all things '60s beat & garage. His abilities as a songwriter run the whole gamut of styles from back in the day so whilst For The Recently Found Innocent does have its pounding, floor-filling tracks ('Arrow Man', 'Paranoid Bait') there are also lighter and more wistful songs redolent of Syd Barrett ('Goodbye Law'), darker gems bringing to mind The Pretty Things ('Anger! Who Keeps You Under?'), Kinks-like wit in the shape of 'Raven On White Cadillac' and the expected numerous nods to US bands of the same era.

What's so utterly enjoyable about this album is Presley's continued habit of starting many songs on notes that sound like they've been going for longer than the record button's been pressed for, lending the whole package a kind of cut and paste aura, as if randomly compiled from a prolific but unknown in their time older group's extensive catalogue. Such an approach could be a disaster for less able practitioners than Presley & Segall and with the wrong collection of songs being used you'd end up with a total dog's breakfast but here it works wonderfully well.  

For The Recently Found Innocent is released on July 21 and available from amazon and iTunes.

Details of Le Guess Who? 2014 can be found here.