Tanya Tagaq – Saputjiji (Six Shooter) – There’s a lot to unpack here, layers to peel back, layers in terms of what she might be saying and well as playing, this is complex, not in terms of the music being made, more in way she’s using her music to say so much, to question so much, to push at so much. This is a wonderfully difficult album to pin down, this is a wonderful album full stop, this is an album that satisfies on many levels.

“It’s been 12 years since her album Animism shocked when it unexpectedly won Canada’s prestigious Juno Award, bringing furious discourse on the country’s mistreatment of their indigenous people into the mainstream. During the years that followed, she has continued to grow her art across multiple platforms, becoming one of the most powerful Inuit voices. Such a cultural powerhouse in fact, that it only follows that HBO and Netflix wanted her involvement when they tackled the subject (True Detective and North of The North respectively). There have been many other accolades since her 2022 album Tongues, including a Mission Impossible theme, a new children’s book, and recently announced the stage adaptation of her bestselling book Split Tooth – a performance which will be intertwined with her forthcoming body of musical work.  Now she prepares for Saputjiji, to be released on March 6th – the day of her London ICA show…” 

Oh there is so much here, it is a musical box of many moods; fury, a literal fuck you at times, or more a fuck off! And yes, a gentle sadness alongside that ferocity, some surprising warmth, melancholy alongside her distinctive throat singing weaving around her sometimes warm sometimes icy electronic soundscapes and her spoken word.around her at times very experimental yet always accessible music. Some of it almost sound art (actually, no almost about it), cleverly put together, formed with life, sometimes minimal, placed in her own order, less is more. Three curses? Four lovers? Eight paths?  

Lyrically this probably is it’s Tanya Tagaq at her most forthright, this is indeed her aiming straight for the jugular, aiming straight at, amongst others, the military-industrial-capitalist-tech powers of these very fractured times. We need to get behind her, not that she asked to be the leader, she would be a great leader, I’d follow her. 

Oh and a word for the percussion, synths and organ by producer and longtime drummer/collaborator Jean Martin

And then there’s the almost ambient bits that are coloured so well, that she voices so so well; none of it feels forced or overworked, her art feels natural, instinctive, warm, right and somehow it fits just fits together so well as one whole thing when Saputjiji could easily have been a disjointed collection of pieces. This is an intriguing album, an album you need to nurture. She doesn’t want to go down with everyone else’s ship,  Foxtrot, Uniform, Charlie, Kilo, Yankee, Oscar, uniform…. Let’s ask AI: “FUCK YOU. Do you want to continue this conversation using the NATO phonetic alphabet, or should we switch back to plain English?” AI replied…

“Saputjiji, the harbinger of change. The standing tall. The unyielding. Designated protector”. 

Hey, there’s been some good albums already this year, this is as good as any of them… (sw) 

Bandcamp / www.tanyatagaq.com / www.instagram.com/tanyatagaq

Dates if you read this in time…

Mar 3rd – Berlin, Berghain | Panorama Bar | Säule
Mar 6th – London, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)

Meanwhile, from four years ago…