Giant Day’s ‘Alarm’ Broadcasts Dystopia from Off the Grid
Elephant 6 Recording Company is set to unleash ‘Alarm,’ the second full-length album from the duo known as Giant Day, on October 10.
The band, comprising multi-instrumental veteran Derek Almstead (The Olivia Tremor Control, of Montreal) and Emily Growden (Marshmallow Coast), already broke E6’s 15-year silence with their debut. While their 2024 debut, ‘Glass Narcissus,’ carried the weight of that legacy, ‘Alarm’ drops the historical pretense to grapple directly with the present. Having traded the classic Athens “scene” for a rural Pennsylvania farm, they broadcast from off the grid, wrestling with the “dissonance” between their bucolic isolation and the encroaching chaos of the world.
This record both reflects the present and unfolds alongside it. The music is a furious scramble of psych-funk, post-punk, and synth-pop velocity that compels listeners to move through the day’s dread. And here is the brave, damning heart of ‘Alarm’: Giant Day captures the uniquely modern horror of a world on autopilot, a planet hurtling “Steady at the wheel / no distractions.” Yet in their glittering soundscapes and their final, tender offering…”Call if you need anything”…they break their own fortress, allowing birdsong to crash through the dystopian walls of the synthesizer.
The Doomsday Clock is ticking, but in the final ache of this album, something verdant survives.
Headline photo: Giant Day performing live at the Flicker Theatre & Bar on September 6, 2024 in Athens, Georgia. (Credit: Giant Day)
Giant Day Facebook / Instagram
Elephant 6 Recording Company Website / Facebook / Instagram
