We’ve been eagerly looking forward to the release of Tanya Tagaq‘s new album, Tongues, since its announcement last September. The good news is that we won’t have to wait much longer as the release date has been brought forward to the end of January. The incredibly talented Inuit throat singer and composer is now giving us another preview of Tongues with the release of new powerful song ‘Teeth Agape’. The track is offered with an accompanying video animated by David Seitz. Watch it below and grab the album when it arrives on January 21st through Six Shooter Records.
With the last stretch of the year upon us, we’re already eagerly looking forward to 2022 with the recent announcement of a new album from Tanya Tagaq. She released an EP, Toothsayer, in 2019, but the new album is her first full-length since 2016’s Retribution, which was one of our 15 Picks of the 2016 and remains an active favourite. Entitled Tongues, Tagaq’s new album arrives on March 11th through Six Shooter Records and was produced by Saul Williams and mixed by Gonjasufi. As with previous efforts, the immensely talented Inuit throat singer and composer taps on environmental and human rights issues, specificialy the struggle for Aboriginal rights in Canada. Featuring excerpts from her book Split Tooth, the album “speaks not to horrors and crisis”, as the label describes, “but directly of these things.” It adds that Tongues “is the soundtrack of righteous taking-back of personhood and power. It is a triumph of strength and intelligence that invites the listener to join her in a personal victory over colonization, over those who take without consent.”
The powerful and poignant title track serves as a phenomenal taste of what Tagaq has in store for us. The track is offered with a video directed by Caitlin Veitch and with 3D Animation by Omar Rivero (Driftnote).
There’s no artist out there quite like Tanya Tagaq. Listening to her music, all the more in a live context, creates each and every time a truly unique, absorbing and intense experience. Always innovating and pushing boundaries with every release she puts out, the immensely talented Inuit throat singer has announced a new 5-track EP, following 2016´s album Retribution, which was one of our 15 Picks of the year and remains an active favourite. Entitled Toothsayer, the music on the EP was originally commissioned by London´s National Maritime Museum to accompany an exhibition called Polar Winds, and features percussionist Jean Martin and electronic producer Ash Koosha. “I named this Toothsayer because I always liked the term soothsayer, to look into the future and to speak wisely,” explained Tagaq. “Teeth represent protection and hunting in nature. We are going to have to get our fists up and our teeth out to carve our way to survival in this world.” The album title is also linked to Tagaq’s first book, Split Tooth, a novel about a girl growing up in Nunavut in the 70s, blending memoir with fiction.
Ahead of the EP´s release on March 1st through Six Shooter Records, Tagaq has shared the otherworldly and compelling first single ‘Snowblind’. As the the title suggests, it “expresses the sensory experience of snowblindness, a condition that can produce colourful pulsating shapes amidst darkness,” describes the press release. “The contrast of brightness and darkness, a recurring theme in Tagaq’s work, is at once environmental, physical and emotional and political.” Listen to ‘Snowblind’ now.
Weaves earned a Polaris Music Prize nomination this year for their self-titled debut album, as did Tanya Tagaq for Retribution, which was one of our Album Picks of 2016. Weaves have a second album on the way, Wide Open, and it features a collaborative track with Tagaq called ‘Scream’. Fresh off their performance together at the awards ceremony, Weaves have unleashed a video for the track, serving as the third single from their upcoming record.
“I almost don’t think of ‘Scream’ as a song, it’s like a sculpture in the middle of the album, sticking out poking people like a 3D installation,” said Weaves’ lead single Burke. “This song came out of my heart. The band and Tanya elevated it in a way that’s just real and raw. It’s definitely an experience.”
Tanya Tagaq‘s Retribution is an album utterly powerful and urgent. One of our 15 Album Picks of 2016, we’ve hailed it time and again as an album to be treasured evermore. Tagaq has recently unleashed a video to accompany a quieter and soothing song from the album, ‘Sivulivinivut’, which means ‘Ancestors’ and finds her singing in Inuktitut. Featuring the Northern Sky, the video was directed by Light Echo Productions. Watch it below.
Adult Swim have started rolling out new music as part of their 2017 singles series, which is set to feature artists from the likes of Brian Eno, Explosions in the Sky, Julian Casablancas, Thundercat and Run the Jewels, to name but a few. We’re in for a treat with their latest instalment coming from the hands of Tanya Tagaq, whose latest album Retribution was one of our 15 Album Picks last year. Entitled ‘Frostbite’, the new single is both otherworldly and delicate and you can listen to it below.
