Music Style Electronic, Experimental

Musical Influences Devo, Gary Numan, Steve Reich, Eno, My Bloody Valentine, The Cars

Similar Artists Aphex Twin, Severed Heads, Boards of Canada, Pulsars, Figurine, The Magnetic Fields

Artist History Mission Giant began making electronic music in the Fall of 1996 after the short-lived Denton, TX spacerock trio, Prismatic Otter, disbanded. Two of the former Otters, Gavin DeCuir and M, started to coax sounds from any device they could find which had an electric pulse. A third Texan, Aaron Graves, armed with only a banjo and an old turntable soon joined up. The band began to craft music with a mix of instruments including vintage synthesizers, children's toys, assorted drum machines, old exercise records on vinyl, pawn shop Casios, and a Sega Genesis video game system. Mission Giant would bang away at anything. In 1998, two other fellows, former Dooms U.K. member Corbett Sparks (D.J. Geeky C.), and former Good/Bad Art Collective member Shane Culp, enlisted to assist Mission Giant in the creation of songs. Although Mission Giant currently has 5 core members, membership is always in flux. Members of the San Antonio synthesists, Crevice, have appeared with Mission Giant on stage and in the studio. Texas visual artist and Life Partner, Marshall Garth Thompson, has turned knobs with the group. Mission Giant once even sabotaged a Captain Audio performance by swarming the stage with ninja-like stealth and infiltrating the ranks of the band to wreak musical havoc.

Group Members Shane Culp, Gavin DeCuir, Aaron Graves, M, Corbett Sparks

Instruments synthesizers, circuit-bent toys, tone-generators

Albums Friends of Sound (ubr06), I Scream Social (ubr10), Brotherhood of the Plug (ubr15/socket01)

Press Reviews Exposé 04.02 This Texas-based five-piece has been around long enough to produce 14 tape and CD releases on their own Fellowshipwreck label, going back to around 1996. A couple of their discs have even been released for wider distribution on the Uncle Buzz label: Friends of Sound was the first (reviewed in issue #19), and this is the second. This is a difficult band to describe; their sound lies somewhere between primitive electronics, new-wave pop, and twisted avant-garde experimentalism, seeming to do an end run around most of your standard "progressive" styles. Chaotic and noisy at times, melodic at others, the 22 short pieces of song based material feature raw electronics (audio generators, Theremins and such), keyboards, programmed rhythms, vocals (usually heavily processed) with occasional guitars, bass and drums, plus sampled sounds and speech, loops, and myriad studio gimmickry. For comparisons sake, let's take equal parts of Faust (first 3 albums), early Devo, and early Kraftwerk, put them in a blender, and send them 30 years into the future. One might be reminded of the more eclectic side of classic Silver Apples, given all the incidental lab equipment that seems to be in use... maybe these guys raided the local electronic surplus store on bargain clearance day. As a result, their music pulsates and grooves, but it's still twisted, extreme, and art-damaged enough to keep even the most cynical techno-trasher (this writer, for example) engaged for the full 50 minutes, and reaching for the repeat button when it's over - Peter Thelen

Additional Info Additional catalog of independent Mission Giant releases listed at Fellowshipwreck Music, http://missiongiant.com/fellowshipwreck/

Location Denton, TX - USA

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