Baw with the baw! Hi everyone, Bawthany Bawtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Giant Claw and galen tipton album, Mobile Suit Gym Rat.

Yes, here we have a brand new record of songs from Giant Claw and galen tipton, which really caught my attention, though it did take a minute.

Some background, as this project has been crafted by two super prolific creators who have crossed over before. galen tipton, a producer and DJ who has made music for years, sometimes under the names dj galen or even recovery girl.

And then Giant Claw, aka producer Keith Rankin, is not only the co-founder of the music label Orange Milk Records, which this album is on, but he's mostly known for his production as a solo artist or as one part of the ever-evolving electronic and experimental music outfit, Death's Dynamic Shroud, who are always dropping new and exclusive music within the hallowed halls of their Mixtape Club, which is what originally brought to my attention the last notable collaboration between galen tipton and DDS: the album You Like Music from 2024, which was one of my favorite records of the year, though the review I approached it with was nowhere near in my traditional style. I kinda had it edited to be as groovy and as glitchy as the music I was talking about; shoutout to Yung Skrrt.

Still, it is a fun project to go back to from time to time, mostly due to its glitchy, jittery, and deconstructed flips on numerous different dance music styles. And yes, while it may be a little unceremoniously short and to the point, I still think it's a highlight release for Keith Rankin and, galen tipton respectively.

And now, a few years out from that record, both tipton and Rankin have been a part of numerous new projects. galen actually just dropped another album this year following this one here, this tide pool bath project, which honest to god sounds like a waterfall of ones and zeros pouring into an ocean of pixels and silica gel packets. tipton also dropped this Death of Music project, which I was told in a way was like a spiritual successor to the You Like Music record that I reviewed originally.

Though, I don't know, to my ears Mobile Suit Gym Rat here feels more like a proper follow-up, because in a lot of ways it comes across as operating with much the same concept, in terms of pulling apart, flipping, and mutating all of these different popular dance music grooves and tropes. But galen and Keith are pulling from a different well of inspiration this time around, turning this record into an experimental chop shop for all of these '80s electro and new jack swing beats.

Yes, that's right. After a quick intro that sounds like the start of a beach level in a PS2 racing game, we speed immediately into what feels like a set of hairspray-scented block party jams, with stuttering vocal edits, huge gated drums, and a lot of vintage synth and sample hits, too. With, of course, occasionally a hint of melty, hypnagogic, vaporwave-aligned surrealism that anything Death's Dynamic Shroud related typically does pretty well.

Now, the tracklist on this record contains plenty of hard-hitting beats that ride along some really brisk pacing, outside of maybe a few smoother jams gems like "Junk Band" as well as "Trendless World," which has kind of a linear progression to it with a brighter and bolder finale. Then there's also the closing track, which is kind of a spacey breakbeat number with some smooth vocal leads. Kind of a surprising choice considering like nothing else on the record quite sounds like this, and the track in my opinion is hardly good enough to warrant such a wild stylistic switch-up at this point on the project.

So I guess I am kinda getting my biggest issue with this record out of the way first, by saying I don't feel it commits as fully to its prime sounds and aesthetics and inspirations as much as it could, digs deeply enough into them. But still, when the tracks on this thing are good, they are good.

"Dark Empath," for example, a track whose group vocal samples and synth hits kind of feel like a combination of a smooth R&B jam and a pep rally, and an electro-industrial anthem too. And the song is just packed with with so many strange little rhythmic and melodic variations, it's just a thrilling listen throughout. We also have "Gungan Motion," which almost has a jock jam energy to it. I love the track's many little vocal edits. It sounds like a demented Salt-N-Pepa remix.

Meanwhile, "The Avant-Teen" is the perfect soundtrack to some kind of interdimensional old-school breakdance competition. And as much as I love the music on "Seething Chud," the real highlight for me is the random vocal sample of T-Pain, who, I remember was in the midst of this rant about people kind of repetitively making the same style and type of music over and over again. And that is exactly what he's demanding in this angry rant, that people kind of like switch it up, try something else, do something different. And it just somehow fits so perfectly in the midst of this beat.

"Sip Flavored Air" brings some throwback electro vibes big time. Those claps are hitting, and I love that Keith and galen continue to mold these really snappy rhythmic melody lines out of these very tiny vocal micro samples. "Trauma John" is handily the darkest and heaviest track on this entire record, and then "Angel Crap", while not the last track on the LP, obviously is my last favorite song on it. Which, again, does make for a bit of a spotty tracklist overall.

But still, even if Keith and galen, in my opinion, didn't dig as deep and push as broad as I think they could have with the wealth of different dance sounds and styles that were so prevalent during the 1980s and early '90s. When they are focused on their mission here as, as much as they should be, the outcomes are usually pretty great, making for some of the most fun weirdo dance jams you're gonna hear in 2026. Which is why I'm feeling a decent 7 on this one.

galen tipton. Giant Claw. Forever.