Giraffe Running, featuring Greg Barrett on bass guitar and Hag on drums, recorded five original compositions in a studio way back in 2005, using only drums and bass guitar. Then the pair sent these creations, largely unsupervised, into the big bad world and allowed friends and ‘admired musicians’ to have their wicked way with them – the idea being that each person would stamp their own creative ideas on each of the tracks.
Two years later, Giraffe Running bears the fruit of this initiative and, by and large, it’s worked.
Disc 1 contains the original five tracks, while the 15 collaborations are on the second CD. Each collaborative effort retains some aspect of the rhythm set down on the original.
Hugh Holmes of The Waltons’ eerie and at times psychotic offering, ‘I Reach For Pictures’, immediately stands out from the pack, and while not the “best in show” by a long shot, it's a measure of how far people veered from the original concept.
Eoin Dillon of Kíla used the sparse accompaniment as a springboard for a fast-paced traditional air, employing uileann pipes, guitars, and a harmophone, as well as sampling a Bulgarian female vocal that uncannily mirrors the earthy tone of the pipes. Rebecca Collins’ ‘Comic Strip’ jumps without warning from pleasing melodies into discordant chaos and back again with impressive ease.
While some tracks implode under the weight of their ambition, the overall effect of the album is interesting and positive. A brave idea, it has yielded impressive results.