Giant Dwarf
s/t

Isn’t a giant dwarf something of a contradiction? Unless it is a giant that is short in stature, that would be if giants existed which is far from certain. The band that calls itself Giant Dwarf exists though, and they are from Australia, a land of many giant fires but hopefully the fires were not too close to their location in Perth. They recorded the album before fires broke out and it is their debut album, a self-titled one with a walrus on the cover. It is a pretty good cover and the name is also one that provokes thought, it contains of nine tracks that I had hoped would be as good as the cover and the name.

Stoner rock, or fuzz rock are probably the best way to describe this band and album, with some psych touches for added depth or something to that effect. With nine tracks and a rather short playing time it doesn’t need to be very varied and it isn’t. The production isn’t very exciting either, it is pretty ordinary sound for an album of this genre and the style is threading paths that many have used before them, so the sense of novelty or originality is very difficult to muster. Decent vocalist can be added to the list of things that is noticed when listening, and then I kind of run out of things to use to describe this album.

It isn’t a great album, quite far from it actually and after some deliberation the rating ended up on the lower half of our scale. The ending track is good, but the rest of the album is rather bland and forgettable. That is the issue I have with this album, there is nothing that draws me to it – the songs are quite dull and I end up listening but not really hearing the album as my mind starts wandering to other things that is more interesting for a mind. So, it has taken many plays through this album to reach the conclusion that it is an album we can do without.

I am not suggesting that you toss this album into one of the fires raging in Australia, and I am not saying that it is bad – just that it is one more of those albums that doesn’t really do anything other than exist. Fans of fuzz or stoner might disagree with me, but I doubt that anyone with a more diverse taste will. It is one of many albums that we can do just as well, or even better, without.

HHHHHHH