(Gaia [ex-TNOTB] returns to our site with a review of the 2011 EP by Sacramento’s Giant Squid )

Cenotes – EP
Giant Squid
[Translation Loss]

Tracklist:
1. Tongue Stones (Megaptera Megachasmacarcharias)
2. Mating Scars (Isurus Metridium)
3. Snakehead (Channidae Erectus)
4. Figura Serpentinata (Pycnopodia Sapien)
5. Cenotes (Troglocambarus Maclanei)

35 minutes

Giant Squid’s music is as strange and rare and phenomenal as their namesake. Their works are subtle and nuanced, a delicate orchestration of oceanic sounds dancing lithely with the guitar’s heavy-handed jig. The band’s ecological philosophy deserts their urban surroundings of hometown Sacramento, California; you’ll be more likely to find them roaming a nature reserve or peering into rock pools by the sea.

It is that natural curiosity that shines through their body of work, most noticeably on 2009’s full length The Ichthyologist, where multiple guests leant their instrumentation to Giant Squid’s complex orchestration. Flutes, banjos, violins, cellos, trumpets, oboes, all additions that were explored to their limits and bent to main songwriter Aaron Gregory’s will. The Ichthyologist got them signed; it was that good.

Now Giant Squid return with the EP Cenotes (suh-noh-tees), a comparatively simpler record, the grandiose composition stripped away and no guests are involved. This is Giant Squid spouting their own black and inky concoctions. Continue reading »