Santa Cruz duo Giraffes? Giraffes!’s brand of math rock pits a war between body parts to see which will prevail: heart or brain. On sophomore album More Skin With Milk-Mouth, the band’s music wanders between the decidedly technical, prone to manic starts and stops, and the emotionally suggestive, with bewitching melodies tending to cascade across the ears like a waterfall.
The instrumental two-piece doesn’t have much use for words over the course of the album’s five tracks, save for a recording of 20th century Zen deep-thinker Alan Watts waxing philosophical about dreams on “I Am S/h(im)e[r] As You Am S/h(im)e[r] As You Are Me And We Am I And I Are All Together: Our Collective Consciousness’ Psychogenic Fugue.” As illustrated, song titles are long-winded, most falling into abstract territory like “When the Catholic Girls Go Camping, the Nicotine Vampires Rule Supreme.” The two-minute long “The Ghost of Eppeepee’s Ghost” showcases an interesting dichotomy: Joseph Andreoli on guitar with plenty of loops up his sleeve, and Kenneth Topham, quick to both play drumslayer and pound a glockenspiel like a typewriter, thriving in their ability to meld two seemingly opposing parts into a whole. It’s a well-executed mix with enough components - a rapid-succession whip of cymbals here, a thoughtful guitar flourish there - to offer a reprieve from too many driving beats and repetitive arpeggios.
“A Quick One, While She’s Away,” a joyous sonic collage, rounds out the half-hour long record in a perfectly satisfying feedback-drenched climax. The only drawback to this colorful work is its brevity. Can’t the battle between gross anatomy take a little more time to pan out? (Loves In Heat Records) Originally published in West Coast Performer, April 2008
