Giant Swan – Fantasy Food
After years of underground promise as one of the UK’s most exciting propositions, Giant Swan make a serviceable, if not wildly exciting return
Giant Swan’s brilliant 2019 self-titled debut album solidified their position, after years of underground promise, as one of the UK’s most exciting propositions. But this is a slightly shaky return; it's a streamlined version of their sound they return with in Fantasy Food, one that largely jettisons the abrasive edges of their previous releases.
Gone are the multi-part shapeshifting tracks that wander across genre, mood and tempo. Here things are a little more straight down the line, all driven by a steady momentum and mammoth kicks. It makes Fantasy Food feel just a touch too linear, too predictable in a way Giant Swan haven’t been before. A track like Sugar and Air feels indicative of this problem, whereby things change in the track but it doesn’t develop. The mood doesn’t really alter, and it doesn’t build to anything, but rather plods through and once it’s done feels a little like it was never really there.
That said, the EP is by no means a bad one. You know full well these would all work in a club, so to that extent it has done its job. Boasting is good squelchy fun, bounding along like a big daft Alsatian, and the title track’s rolling synths and groans of noise have a genuine looming presence. It does speak volumes that the latter is the EP's only track without drums, and the one that leans most into their noise and avant-garde tendencies.
Listen to: Boasting, Fantasy Food, RRR+1