Fuzz
II
Release Date: Oct 23, 2015
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Garage Punk
Record label: In the Red Records
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Album Review: II by Fuzz
Very Good, Based on 13 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
The second album from Ty Segall and Charles Moothart’s Sabbathian semi-supergroup (now featuring Meatbodies mainman Chad Ubovich on bass) lays on more of pretty much everything, and lays it on thick: it’s almost twice the length of the first, the recording is denser and punchier, the riffs are proggier and the solos wilder. There’s something pretty magnificent about the way seven-minute opener Time Collapse/The 7th Terror goes about its business: low-end and high-end guitars strut in perfectly evil unison (it’s not exactly camp, but certainly a bit schlocky) then break into a glorious, storytelling solo and end on a hypnotic, megalithic stomp. At the other end, the 14-minute title-track finale goes up like a rocket before smearing into spaced-out abstractions and snapping back disorientingly; in between things stay more concise, sometimes heaving closer to Segall’s garagey solo material (Let It Live), elsewhere going all in with the full and unabashed Ozzy-Iommi worship (Pipe).
Based on rating 8/10
Fuzz —being Ty Segall and his fellow longhaired destroyers — once again set out to melt your mind and sear your brain with their riff-heavy cacophony on II, the sequel to their 2013 self-titled release. Twice as long and twice as strong, II evokes Segall's knockout Slaughterhouse (the album artwork is once again done by the weirdly brilliant Tatiana Kartomten), as it hits harder than its precursor, in the best way. It's heavy, but never exhausting or monotonous."Let It Live" starts off sounding like Sabbath's "N.I.B" (beginning with that sneaking bass riff), before Segall's calm vocals come in; then comes the guitar noodling, before it dissolves into controlled chaos, as strings and wild percussion beget a slowed down main riff.
Based on rating 4/5
As much as people tend to focus on Ty Segall’s prolific output and his agility as a musician, other aspects of his career get overlooked. Not only has the 28-year-old Californian cycled through far more styles of rock than he’s been given credit for over the last few years, but his artistic growth in that time has been spurred by an underrated cast of collaborators. Side-project Fuzz is the perfect example.
Based on rating B
Ty Segall produces music at such a relentless clip that it’s fair to ask when he has the time to actually sit down and absorb his influences. To picture him patiently digging through a crate of used LPs or reading up on the history of progressive blues in the United Kingdom is to contradict the persona the music media has pegged him with for years — that of the restless maniac whose heart will explode if he stops hurtling himself into project after project. But Fuzz, the aptly named “side project” Segall formed in 2011 with high school friends Charlie Moothart and Chad Ubovich, is not the product of a short attention span.
Based on rating 7.0/10
Two years ago Ty Segall—in the midst of releasing solo records, as well as collabs with Mikal Cronin and White Fence—stepped behind the drumkit for the fuzzed-out ’70s heavy rock bliss of Fuzz. The power trio tried to keep Segall’s identity hidden, without success. And while his spirit (and vocals) are part of Fuzz’s DNA, they’re not the focus.
Based on rating 7/10
Ty Segall isn’t yet as prolific as Robert Pollard or Ryan Adams, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t trying his damnedest to reach their collective level of (over)productivity. Since 2008, his solo output alone encompasses seven full-length albums and in excess of 30 singles, EPs and miscellaneous live or split records. Factor in his collaborations with Sic Alps, White Fence and Mikal Cronin, as well as limited-run releases, and it’s clear that the 28-year-old’s catalog is calibrated to give completists fits.
Based on rating 7/10
Fuzz, Ty Segall's suitably named project focused on the noisy glories of first-stage heavy rock and grubby late-period psychedelia, haven't advanced much from a songwriting standpoint from their self-titled debut album in 2013, but their second studio offering, efficiently titled II, shows the trio's gift for the monstrous jam hasn't failed them in the least in the two years since the first set emerged. While Fuzz's attack doesn't fall entirely outside the boundaries of Segall's trademark sound, as on the first LP, the band's big name primarily plays the drums, and it's guitarist Charles Moothart and bassist Chad Ubovich who truly erect a wall of cranked-to-ten guitar fury with this material. The onslaught of Moothart's guitar is powerful and fluid enough that it's developed more of a personality of its own than on Fuzz's earliest recordings (despite the obvious influence of Tony Iommi and Leigh Stephens on his style), and the brontosaurus stomp of Ubovich's impenetrably thick basslines keeps these tunes firmly rooted at all times.
Based on rating 6.7/10
On an episode of "WTF With Marc Maron", Mikal Cronin spoke about the scene he, Ty Segall, and Charles Moothart came up in during high school. As he explained it, he would throw parties at his parents' house in Laguna Beach, and their small circle of musician friends would write songs and start bands specifically for the events. Different combinations of the same people were getting together and exploring different vibes.
Based on rating 3/5
If the sophomore album of stoner/classic metal troupe Fuzz reminds us of anything, it’s that music is its own museum. The album’s hard-edge grooves and fattened riffs almost perfectly recreate the era of Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, and Mountain, celebrating an age of long hair, curiously smelly leather jackets, and eroticized guitar solos. Yet at the same time, its loving quotation of the past serves as a selfish legitimation and exaltation of itself, of its own value as an album.
Opinion: Excellent
Fuzz's excellently heavy, self-titled first record, released in 2013, was culled from years of jam sessions between drummer Ty Segall (the very one) and long-time buddy/ace guitarist/tone god Charlie Moothart. Could the L.A. trio - with Chad Ubovich on bass - pull off as strong a follow-up in a much shorter time frame? Yes. Yes, they can and have.
Opinion: Excellent
Two years after the release of their self-titled debut, rock power trio Fuzz return with a record rife with crunching, distortion-riddled riffs that head forth alongside tightly knit rhythmical grooves. The three vital components of Fuzz (Ty Segall, Charles Moothart and Chad Ubovich) may each be prolific musicians in their own right, but their work together under the Fuzz banner is one that is of a heavier, more calculated disposition. Together they have crafted an album that swings and punches its way through fourteen sturdy bouts of proto-metal hard rockin’.
Opinion: Excellent
Fuzz — II (In the Red)Photo by Denee PetracekIf it’s hard to keep up with all the Ty Segall bands, calling one of them Fuzz doesn’t help. They’re all pretty fuzzy. Given the mandatory muffling of the Ty style, Fuzz is about as distant from the Epsilons as you can get, Epsilons being the seltzer-charged brat band that presented him to the world all the way back in 2006.
Opinion: Great
Via singer Ty Segall, familiarity ensues early on this power trio's sophomore LP. In this outfit, the busy "Girlfriend" songwriter bandies his wonted six-string for a noble go on the drums. Commencing the hourlong disc is brazen seven-minute opener "Time Collapse," its stoner psychedelia mash enduring throughout 14 tracks. Black Sabbath echoes in Segall's vocals and guitarist Charles Moothart's monstrous blues-doom solos, but Kyuss and the late Jay Reatard's like-minded ethos also arise.
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