Ciao! by Tiga
LABEL: Last Gang Records / Turbo Recordings
The louche Barbarella-meets-Gainsbourg-via-Bryan Ferry circa “Slave of Love” atmospherics of 2006’s Sexor belied the salient fact that Canadian dance producer Tiga was always destined to be more than a one-note priapic fluke. From his early days in the mid-nineties rave scene to his remixes for the Scissor Sisters and LCD Soundsystem, the late bloomer’s oeuvre has always been characterized by versatility and mutability—two qualities generally unknown to the contemporary dance scene. Boldly eschewing the singles game for an album-length statement in an era where the latter is generally perceived as being obsolescent by both aging house-heads and the new crop of banger-loving hipsters, Ciao! finds Tiga bidding the unadulterated groove adieu in favor of a richly textured electronic pop sound that recalls recent endeavors by Lindstrom and the DFA stable.
While the “White Horse” bass riffs and salacious moans of “Sex O’Clock” will placate the sleaze contingent, the microtonal squeaks (a la Tiga’s popular ZZT side project) and house-y gospel moans (or to the average dancer, “ooh, ooh, yeahhhh”) of “Overtime” are something else entirely: a template for some post-electro mutation that the current league of nostalgic producers wouldn’t dare to—or couldn’t possibly—envisage. The track gently segues into “Turn the Night On”, a lapidary piece of three-minute pop melding gurgling krautrock instrumentation to a soulful piano melody that recalls the best of Laura Nyro. These disparate influences culminate in the concluding “Love Don’t Dance Here Anymore”, where our DJ ponders the power of music and dance floor politics in such a poetic fashion that you’ll probably be more inclined to move around in your head instead. With the help of producers Soulwax and James Murphy, Tiga has crafted a fine album that will likely grow in critical stature as dance music continues to overcome the popular and pervasive mischaracterizations that have plagued it as a genre for the past half-century.
REVIEWED BY SEAN MURPHY
SEAN'S FAVORITE TRACKS: "Sex O'Clock" • "Love Don't Dance Here Anymore" • "Turn the Night On"
Read more by Sean Murphy on his blog, Brooklyn Music
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