Bleep

On the Do Not Be Afraid Of Tenderness EP we find Giant Swan running the gauntlet of their caustic industrial techno sound. While the genesis of these tracks may have been markedly different to those of their preceding records - the Coronavirus pandemic forced the duo to create these numbers apart from one another as opposed to together in-studio - the results remain unmistakably Giant Swan. This is visceral, primordial, curious dance music which unsettles and thrills in equal measure.

Opening cut ‘Silkworm’ is the kind of grizzled lopsided techno banger which has become synonymous with the Giant Swan name since they first emerged in the mid-2010s. There is a relentlessness to the drum programming here which virtually orders the listener to surrender control of their physical capabilities - something also found in parts of the other cuts on Do Not Be Afraid Of Tenderness. However, on ‘DYFLGOT’ and the record’s title-track those driving beat passages often give way to ominous drones, disembodied song and glitching noise, an effect which heightens the uncanny power of the Giant Swan sound further still.

Giant Swan return, via their own KECK label, with the Do Not Be Afraid Of Tenderness EP. This is a record that epitomises all of the things which make this Bristolian duo one of modern techno’s most brilliantly unique outfits.