Pitchfork

Headgit, last year's debut EP from Githead concisely mapped out an interesting sound built on sharp, no-nonsense rhythm and textural guitar interplay. In my review of that record, I even hoped for a full album from the group, which-- as a joint side project of Wire's Colin Newman, Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner), and Minimal Compact's Malka Spigel-- threatened to be little more than a promising one-off. Well, they've delivered that full-length, and though it's very solid, I'm finding myself rather wishing they'd followed the blueprint of Wire's own Read & Burn series and just issued another EP.

The Githead sound hasn't changed on the LP, but the songs have grown longer, and Profile suffers as a result of the more long-winded delivery. The band's compositions work best in quick bursts, as they were presented on the EP, but here they stretch them out and work with a narrower palette on each song, sometimes dimming their memorability. It could just be that on an album where the vocals are predominantly spoken and the guitars stripped back to textural and harmonic roles, the relative lack of melody is simply more noticeable over a long period of time. Whatever the case, the record crawls by in a sort of ambient pop vein with a noticeable dub influence and pads the space between highlights with patches of extreme competence, but not much more.

The highlights are worth the trip, though, especially Spigel's "My LCA (Little Box of Magic)", a song that slips along on soapy bass and clicky programming. (The Beat Monster this time is accompanied by live drummer Max Franken). Spigel's deadpan speaking tone on the verses gives way to a chorus that features her multi-tracked voice singing a two-part harmony in unison with herself, a technique that has the odd effect of adding a melodic hook to the song without really feeling like a melody. Newman's spoken word is more forceful and urgently rhythmic on "Cosmology for Beginners" than on most of the rest of the record, and the song benefits greatly from the increased intensity.

Unfortunately, the stand-out moments are tempered by the generally static grooves a the kind of compositional streamlining that cuts out a lot of the good stuff along with the gristle. Instrumentals "Pylons" and "Antiphon" feel like they're building to something bigger but never reach it, and you have to wait through too much basic time-keeping to get to the meat of "Raining Down". Whether or not this is it for Githead, it's a shame that Profile doesn't generate the same excitement as their debut, but there's enough quality material lurking in there that it's hardly a total waste. Still, Headgit is quite a bit better, and should be all most people need from this project.