Giant Dwarf – Kicking Bones
8.20.18 by Ryan Masteller

For local baseball action, I’m forced to suckle at the nasty teat of the Miami Marlins (ugh), as their AA affiliate in Jacksonville, the Jumbo Shrimp, is the only team within reasonable driving distance. It’s not an inspiring hometown nine – I mostly scour the opposing lineup for top prospects or rehabbing major leaguers, but even then I’m looking at squads from, like, the Cubs or Braves organizations, and the only thing worse than the Marlins is the Mets and the Braves. In fact, the whole NL East can suck a big fat lemon. Except for my precious Phillies.

You’re probably like, shut up about baseball already, nobody cares, we listen to podcasts and tapes and secretly hope that one of them contains some kind of lost Can/Miles Davis mashup. Well, I’ve got a bridge that spans both those things, your complaint about my baseball digression and your hope for that unlikely collaboration! That’s right, check out Giant Dwarf, its name an oxymoron that mindlessly parallels my mention of the Jumbo Shrimp, a connection so slim that I won’t even talk about it anymore. (Poor Scampi lowers his head, turns around, and closes the door behind him on the way out.) This Giant Dwarf is an experimental head’s dream collaboration, as it pits Very Special Recordings artist and trombonist Rick Parker (whose 2016 tape “Free World Music” with Li Daiguo was a standout) against Brooklyn drummer Jeremy Carstedt and Austria-based guitarist Martin Philadelphy (with whom I’m sure I’d instantly get along with that last name). The result is a Can-meets-Miles Davis fusion fest, and that’s not just because Can and Miles are dropkicked into the promo text!

Although that’s certainly part of it, and it’s the main reason I couldn’t wait to jam this into a tape player and hit Record. I mean Play! I almost really fucked up this tape just there. Whew. Back to it, the interplay between these three warped minds is phenomenal, as vibe shifts from laid-back world-building to dynamic shredding and back, each swirling around the others like a miniature tornado that forms a big normal tornado upon convergence. Parker’s trombone, slathered with effects at times, works magic when paired with Philadelphy’s guitar, and with Carstedt’s drumming as the backbone, Giant Dwarf truly lives up to its name. I mean the Giant part, obviously – the scope is huge, the sonics massive, and Parker plays synth too, like he’s got more than two hands or something.

These excellent tapes are available from Very Special Recordings, but who knows for how long???