Profile
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Tracklisting
- Alpha [MP3 clip]
- My LCA (Little Box of Magic) [MP3 clip]
- Cosmology for Beginners [MP3 clip]
- Antiphon [MP3 clip]
- They Are [MP3 clip]
- Option Paralysis [MP3—full track]
- Wallpaper [MP3 clip]
- Raining Down [MP3 clip]
- Pylons [MP3 clip]
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Profile is the album of the year so far. Genius.
- Dean Thatcher, Mixmag Update (UK)
Arrangements that pit Newman and Rimbaud's guitars in combinations of jangly arpeggios, sheets of distortion, choppy rhythm licks and steely lead lines, all anchored by Spigel's loping Wobble-esque dub basslines and at times brutal drum-machine beats. The results cohere into a sonic juggernaut.
- Andy Gill, The Independent
What you get here though is a set of songs that simply demand to be played to death. And the more you play it, the more you love it! A great album.
- Andrew Cowen, Birmingham Post
This album finds the band making something of a quantum leap, especially in the manner in which the music is delivered... It's as if the band is its own entity and it's somehow grown up. While Profile is hardly the most deadly serious of records, it's certainly more mature than the band's debut: the arrangements are tighter, the mix is better, and the continually weaving mesh of instruments weaves its way further into your brain.
- Craig Grannell, Wireviews
This first collection of immediate classics conceals treasures of melodic grace and sharply cut efficiency.
- Nicolas Julliard, Le Temps (Switzerland)
Robin Rimbaud (Scanner), Colin Newman (Wire) and Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) make a debut with a first album so modern that it's scary.
- David Saavedra, El Mundo (Spain)
Profile is a more fully realized exploration of the interface between organic and electronic musics that shows Githead expanding its range and developing a distinctive sound... It's catchy without being vacuous, intelligent without being too clever for its own good.
- Wilson Neate, Trouser Press
Githead are a hipper than thou super group comprising Robin Rimbaud from Scanner, Colin Newman from Wire and Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact. What sounds quite serious on paper translates to accessible but unusual music. The key to all this is Malka Spigel’s basslines, which undulate with a strange sonorous funk that invokes Jah Wobble at his best. The guitars of Wire are also conjured up, but with a more melodious tint. Cosmology For Beginners is as spacey as it sounds, and the whole album hums with a weird punk-funk that seems to inhabit a dimension slightly different to our own.
- Ben Murphy, DJ magazine
Lyrics
Alpha
Endless time, an endless sign
The alphabet will cease to rhyme
Empty rooms where fate assumes
A narrative can be consumed
Other fates will be revealed
Evidence is signed and sealed
Elegance, in endless time
Poise and grace becomes sublime
Checking out, and what's implied
After all, you think you lied
Endless choice and endless dreams
Are they just beyond your means?
Undefined, not undermined
Pay the toll or stay behind
Endless dreams and endless schemes
We all prefer to play those scenes
My LCA (Little Box of Magic)
You made me look at the world with different eyes
Tall electric pylons, planes in the sky
Little box of magic in my hand
Little box of magic sees the world
Tunnels, fields and signs everywhere
Faces, lights, reflections in the air
Little box of magic in my hand
Little box of magic sees the world
Little box of magic in my hand
Little box of magic sees the world
Colours, magic colours, paint the world
Colours, magic colours, paint the world
Cosmology for Beginners
Marqueed marsupials, in frenzied ambivalence
Defacing their megaliths and freezing their assets
Starting resolutions, firing their humanities
Being extra careful with fractured reality
Bonding their uni-bombs, fishing for condoms
Skating on thin rice, breaking your pardon
Hanging with the insteps, barking at the wrong sea
Writhing from the pressure, coughing in the right tree
Radioed signals
Fire-hosed carpetbaggers
Filling in crossroads and drinking the ambulance
Sticky backed plastic in blue piece of evidence
Shopping for haloes, looting the carpets
Sacking your Romans and hissing your targets
Crazy evolutionaries dampen ancillaries
Enigmatic beehives, tenting your Hillarys
Leafless and railing the urge to persist
Bending the meaning and writing a list
Fail-safe departments impeding the cause
Writing instructions and looking for flaws
Grasping for meaning, trailing the senses
Enlightened descriptions for putting up fences
Not certain, entirely, If this work is all your own
Not quite sure, entirely, If it's your or just a loan
Keep thinking, what's missing? Your senses overblown
Keep trying, to enlighten. To make your feelings known
Cosmology for beginners
Radioed signals
Fire-hosed carpetbaggers
Deep fried shag
Maintenance republic
Scatter headed babble
Antiphon
(Instrumental)
They Are
They are articulate
They are here
They are working on the schedule for next year
They are so talented
They are awake
They are an expert and a pioneer
They are unusual
They are in love
They are detailed and appealing
They are trusted
They are playing
They are often caught stealing
They are good
They are back
They are "bad boys" again
They are doing well
They are the one
They are a law unto themselves
They are delicate
They are sexy
They are all Irish charm
They're extraterrestrial
They are a fool
They're a quite delightful character
They are our smallest doll
They are a Belgian
They are only 18" long
They are a dog
They are second from right
They are lying on her bed
They are good
They are back
They are "bad boys" again
They are doing well
They are the one
They are a law unto themselves
Option paralysis
Balance risk against potential
Create your own special pet
Innovative professionals
Adept at removing history
A worthwhile use of public funds
More opaque than other text
Why not switch, choose me now
A personal plan to suit your needs
Our new crisis
Is it conscience or control?
One step in development
A natural extension of choice
Training at all experience levels
Missing from the launchpad floor
Lets make it better together
It's best for you in this phase of life
A maximum degree of flexibility
Trading below intrinsic value
Abstract reasons and solutions
5 per cent less on all your calls
Our new crisis
Is it conscience or control?
One step in development
A natural extension of choice
Wallpaper
Take a look at the work, a minute ship, carved from gold
A scene from the last supper
Set in the eye of a needle
The artist himself is left confused
A steady hand and a fascination with ants
Shrink The World; Micro Hip
Streets ahead, love at first sight
Splinters of wood, complete with doorways, windows, tables, chairs, TVs
Fly hair paintbrush
A powerful hand, a meditation technique
Refreshingly clear, of complex matter and abstract ideas
Shrink The World; Micro Hip
Streets ahead, love at first sight
It's a painstaking battle
To keep still
To keep alive
To keep consciousness
To keep slowed down
To be blown away
By little things
Causing bigger impacts
Shrink The World; Micro Hip
Streets ahead, love at first sight
Raining Down
I can hear you say
I can hear you clearly
It's raining down in my head
Everything you say
Everything you're thinking
It's raining down in my head
Standing in the rain
I can hear thinking
Pylons
(Instrumental)