Keith Rankin's solo recordings as Giant Claw are as trippy, colorful, and unpredictable as his eye-catching visual artwork. Since debuting in 2010, the project's numerous releases have ranged from dense sound collages and synth freak-outs to mutated prog rock and psychedelia to footwork and vaporwave. Along with Seth Graham (with whom he makes similarly bizarre, unclassifiable music as Cream Juice), Rankin runs the eclectic, highly productive Orange Milk Records label. Rankin provides the artwork for most of the label's releases, including albums by Sean McCann, Foodman, and Jerry Paper, in addition to releases on other labels by Guerilla Toss, Giraffage, and Sedcairn Archives. Rankin has also received acclaim for his work as part of the prolific vaporwave group Death's Dynamic Shroud.wmv.
The Columbus, Ohio-based artist began releasing tapes as Giant Claw in 2010, the same year he co-founded Orange Milk. Following several tapes and CD-Rs on labels like Digitalis and Bridgetown Records, the project made its vinyl debut in 2012 with the EP Haunted Planet (Wool Recordings) and LP Mutant Glamour (Orange Milk). In stark contrast to these warped, playful Krautrock-esque releases, Rankin displayed his darker, cinematic side on 2013's Music for Film, released by Constellation Tatsu. Other releases from the same year, including Impossible Chew (Field Hymns) and Max Mutant (Tranquility Tapes), explored influences such as chiptune, free jazz, and library music. Giant Claw's 2014 full-length Dark Web, a split release by Orange Milk and Noumenal Loom, was a postmodern collision of footwork and contemporary R&B, and was easily the project's most acclaimed release to date. The MIDI symphony Deep Thoughts followed in 2015, and Giant Claw vs. Guerilla Toss, Rankin's remix of five songs by the New York-based punk-funk collective, was released by DFA in 2016. Giant Claw's fragmentary yet spacious Soft Channel was released by Orange Milk in 2017. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi
