Ask any child on the street corner what motivates his or her every waking moment and you’ll keep hearing the same sentence spew out of those little mouths ad nauseam: “I want to be like Keith.” If the child is Japanese, this sentence will be in Japanese. 『 私はキースに成りたい。』
Who knew that the Orange Milk Records co-honcho, former TMT editor, and solo synth sorcerer Keith Rankin (a.k.a. Giant Claw) had such a following in the international juvenile underground? Young and impressionable minds recline inside the spherical chamber, waiting for those metal fingers to descend from above and e x t r a c t them straight into the prize slot.
Following close behind the omni-digital mind-melt of the DARK WEB LP, a hot&fresh NEW Giant Claw cassette entitled 22M Never Felt So Alone is already here to wrap itself around the coils of your developing brain. The tape’s impossibly dense title track presents a nice little Exhibit A to lead kids everywhere down the path of Keithdom:
1. Combine disparate traditions into a multi-headed electronic chimera beast:
¤ gimme the gurgling basslines of acid techno
» swirl in some mutant drum machine funk a la Prince
± branch off into fragments of reggaeton, baroque synth minimalism, glossy Vaporwave muzak
▒ frost the concoction with squelchy video game melodies
B. Don’t be afraid to keep stacking on the layers:
If people aren’t barraged with dozens of tightly interwoven stimuli at every moment of their listening experience, you’re not getting the job done. Do not let those brains rest.
三番. Do not leave the comfort of your sofa.
Giant Claw’s 22M Never Felt So Alone constitutes 1/3 of the inaugural tape batch of Cleveland-based label Suite 309’s expanded incarnation, along with releases from Radio Shock and Splice Girls. Keep one step ahead of the kids and preorder all three on Bandcamp right now.
• Giant Claw: http://keithkawaii.com
• Suite 309: https://suite309.bandcamp.com