The trio Axis: Sova create music outside most genre labels. The act's newest record, Shampoo You, drops this Friday on God? via Drag City Records and it's an invigorating slab of psychedelic garage rock.
On a shorter number like the spry "New Disguise" the trio -- Brent Sova, Tim Kaiser, and Jeremy Freeze -- crank the amps up and stroll through some Nuggets-influenced territory, while the fuzzy "Dodger" harks back to older Ty Segall stuff, the woozy rock tinged with flashes of bright melodic joy. It makes sense that they sound like there's a debt owed to Ty since God? Records is his imprint. Elsewhere, the longer "Same Person Twice" sees the group pursue a trippy form of electro-pop even as the tight "Shock Recognition" calls to mind Love and Rockets numbers.
At their very best here, Axis: Sova offer up the sort of music that should please Ty fans, and even those who worship at the altar of the Super Furry Animals. Without denying the Sixties bands that have clearly inspired them, Axis: Sova at least have found a way here on Shampoo You to pay tribute to the past while pointing a sonic path towards the future.
Shampoo You is out on Friday via God? / Drag City Records.
More details on Axis: Sova via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Grant Engstrom]