Peacers - Peacers

Ty Segall gets everywhere, perhaps you may view him as the unwanted friend’s request you receive on Facespace or the continuous emails about that non-existent accident you had and the claim you can make. Nah, that’s utter bollocks because everyone’s favourite psych-warrior is back, but this time he takes more of a back-seat view as the joint collaborator on Mike Donovan’s new idiosyncratic creation, Peacers.

Recorded in Germany over a 10 month period, ‘Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru’ is Donovan’s blend of craggy, lo-fi approach with subtle nuances added on to the trippy vibe which is indelible within the psychedelic genre.  He even has the guile to add the rough, glam-rock edges of The Sweet variety at times.

Blissed out simplicity is opener ‘At The Milkshake Hop’, it’s carefully packaged, not over indulgent, just a couple of blokes jamming and creating a landscape that sets a mouth-watering template for the following 14 tracks.

It’s easy to see why Segall and Donovan make a great combination when they set their minds to it.  The driving key changes and chugging guitar on the utterly infectious ‘Laze It’ really showcase their abilities to make fantastic and marvellous hook laden songs.  What they do isn’t necessarily new but their visceral approach and relative easy style is their unique selling point.  Yes there are shades of Ty’s solo work and Thee Oh Sees but the unprecedented flow of great tune after tune makes it both mellifluous and cuddly at the same time.

Keeping in the vein of both parties inexorable appetite for knocking out LPs, a lot of the songs on this album are very short but what they lack in longevity they instantly make up for in charm (see ‘Institution shave’ and ‘Piccolo and Ant’).  Donovan even does his best Paul Westerberg impression with the threadbare no frills ‘The Kid’, whilst the polar opposite ‘Kick on the plane’ sees both Segall and Donovan wrestling with their respective guitars.  I’m not for one minute proposing they duelled like a couple of 15^th century jousters here but both of them suitably temper their control and refrain from fully wigging out, in other words carefully keeping their powder dry.  The only time when the pistols are drawn and the volume is cranked up is on the fully loaded 60s maelstrom ‘Blume’

‘Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru’ has a very laissez-faire feel too it.  It fails to take itself too seriously whilst still maintaining both Donovan’s and Segall’s slacker ethos but with less of a pedal to the floor approach of their previous respective outputs.  A really interesting and instantly likeable piece of work.