Search - Curly Giraffe :: Curly Giraffe

Mellow, retro California rock from an unlikely source

David Goodwin | Westchester, NY United States | 10/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Curly Giraffe" is the alias of Kiyoshi Takakuwa, bassist of the long-lived (in various forms) Japanese group Great3, who're probably best known in the States for being the darlings of--and for being produced quite extensively by--Tortoise's John McEntire.



Curly Giraffe is Takakuwa's second major solo project I'm aware of (the first was the group "Honesty" with El Malo's Shigekazu Aida), and it continues the trend established by Honesty's two albums. Apparently, despite serving as the bassist of the Great3, Takakuwa *really* has always wanted, more than anything in the world, to be...



...a slightly trippy, infinitely mellow American singer-songwriter from California in the 1970s. If you were puzzled by the random inclusion of Seals and Croft's "Summer Breeze" on the Great3's first album...well, here's your answer.



The good news is that Takakuwa is really, really fantastic at being a slightly trippy, infinitely mellow American singer-songwriter from the 1970s. "Curly Giraffe" is sung entirely in English, and Takakuwa has a deceptively pleasant, smooth voice that fantastically complements the proceedings.



There're several standouts on the album: "96708" is a lovely, pastoral ode to nothingness; "Star of Nightjar" and "Rocket Man" are a bit more mournful and experimental; and so on. The overall effect is wonderfully bucolic, and recalls the Great3 at their most laid-back.



The only potential criticism I could really levy at "Curly Giraffe" is that it is what it is: if you don't particularly care for that laid-back, "Let-It-Come-Down"-style California vibe, you might not particularly dig this record. If you do, however, it comes highly recommended. Make sure to check out the band's em-why-space (I'm sure Amazon's looking for that!) page for some samples of this record and its two followup albums."