Ty Segall

Love Rudiments is a meditation by Ty Segall on his first love: the drums.

Known popularly as a singing guitar player, he generally starts the recording of his songs by laying down a drum track. Love Rudiments kicks off with drums and percussion, then adds a few other percussive and production aspects. It travels a great journey in this configuration. However, Love Rudiments wasn’t written or performed to present as some kind of solo drums album — it’s just another music album, with vibes (figurative as well as literal), feels, a theme and a through-line. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Ty’s made an instrumental album of percussive music that rides the wild surf of a waxing-then-waning love affair — from the first blinding look, to the eventual recognition, that look back at love’s rudiments, viewed from beyond and outside that seemingly infinite sensation. And why not? Drums are a melody instrument too. Ty plays them with precision and sensitivity, delving deep into the textures of timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, percussion and e-drums, all of them occupying space within the luxe stereo spread of the drumkit. In the process, a psychological space is opened — a private emotional location where only two can meet. Love Rudiments reembodies the passion and compulsion that drives all of Ty Segall’s music in a suite of moments played on orchestral batterie to explore the most delicate passages of human interaction — playing on the bones of love.