Tiga tiga burning bright
Is Tiga underground electronica’s first international superstar?
Barry O Donoghue, 28 Feb 2006
Dance music doesn’t need a saviour, but if it did, Tiga would most likely make the shortlist.
Dance music doesn’t need a saviour, but if it did, Tiga would most likely make the shortlist.
On paper, the Canadian seems like a marketing department’s wet dream – impeccable rave credentials (used to run a record shop, still runs his own techno label, Turbo), a knack for knocking out crossover dance music hits (‘Pleasure From The Bass’, ‘You Gonna Want Me’ and seminal oldie ‘Sunglasses At Night’) and a unique image (he’s currently rocking a mid-’80s Brat Pack look).
His lifestyle seems impossibly glamorous, almost harking back to Studio 54-era hedonism: jet-set DJing, making music with famous pals, indeterminate sexual preference… And the sum of all this odd fabulousness is Sexor, his debut album.
But here’s the funny bit: the person at the end of the phone line is nothing like the coke-addled sex dwarf Hot Press was expecting. Tiga is mild-mannered, considered, engaging and extremely smart. So who/what/why is Sexor?
“It’s not really a grand concept – more of a little concept!” he laughs. “Sexor isn’t an alter-ego exactly, but it’s a character, kind of Bowie-ish. Sexor is kind of absurd, kind of ambiguous – it’s open to interpretation.”
The Bowie reference is interesting – pop’s great chameleon has made a career (well, numerous ones) out of reinventing himself.
“Everyone is concerned about their image in some way, right? And there’s such a vacuum, such a space to fill creatively. Well, I think there is. And I would never compare myself to Prince, but I loved the way he had the whole lot: the look, the symbol, for me, it adds to the music overall.”
The back of the album features a handwritten note ‘Sexor 74 – 04’, while the music is littered with references to his past: a cover of Public Enemy’s ‘Louder Than A Bomb’, the Altern8 homage/pastiche that is ‘You Gonna Want Me’, an interesting cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Burning Down The House’. Lyrically, a number of the tracks reference a sort of rose-tinted, Beverly Hills 90210-esque childhood that may or may not be fictional. And a hidden track features a voicemail from what sounds like his mother on Valentine’s Day. Now, correct us if we’re wrong, but this is a personal album, right?
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