Tiga - Gentle Giant Remixes

Artist: Tiga

Title: Gentle Giant Remixes

Label: Turbo Recordings

Catalog #: T084

Genre: Techno/House

Release Date: 13.07.10

Rating: 7

The latest in a series of remixes bred from 2009's Ciao!, Tiga's Gentle Giant brings together three well-respected producers for the purpose of having their way with the low-tempo acid trip of Gentle Giant. Martyn, Efdemin and Mathew Jonson all take a swing at the slow rolling, vocal centric synth parade, cobbling together a number of interesting departures that range from excessively ravey to deep and bountiful.

Martyn's Heaven remix cuts its angelic vocal samples from the wailing bursts after Giant's 4 minute mark, coupling them with synth choir licks and acidic raver analog. The track starts off deceptively mild, building up a backbone of percussion before kicking in tons of trance/acid throwbacks and glitchy flourishes. While more than a little gimmicky, the hodgepodge of sounds is surprisingly melodic, at times holding the sort of otherwordly beauty that originally made New Age music so popular. Yet like New Age music, the moments that overdo it often match the moments that don't point for point, and by the time that the track sails into a modest outro of synthetic violin you might be reminded why the genre did not maintain that popularity for long.

Efdemin's cut is an astoundingly solid deep house track, using the vocals very sparingly (and with a almost imperceptible robotic tone shift) while diving right into the skeletal percussion and rising synth tones that make up the background of Giant's dreamy fade. Synth gurgles slowly upward from the minimal beats before vanishing into a tasteful shimmer, which in turn leads into the single vocal interlude of the track. This serves as the platform of the drop, which bursts with a satisfyingly housey energy that maintains power through its modesty.

Mathew Jonson's signature bounciness turns its head in both his dub and remix proper, relying on subtle key shifts to change up the bouncing analog and spacey pseudo-glitch hooks. A jittering keyboard brings a sense of urgency to the last half of the track, ending with an old-school theater opera feel as aspects of the full melody drop out into a watery sheen, then silence. The major difference between the two tracks is that while the dub avoids the Brad Turcotte/Marc Almond-esque vocals and focuses on pounding out rythms, the remix samples them much in the same way as the original track, giving the impression of a harder, less gentle Gentle Giant. Besides a few modest key shifts that slightly scale up the intensity, the tracks are almost identical (though the remix is two minutes longer).

While a bit of an eclectic mix, Tiga seems to favor having a wide array of takes on his music. Gentle Giant is a fairly strong showing that, while at times relying on gimmick more that substance, knocks out a number of quality tracks that continue to extend the lifespan of Ciao!

-Jared Rosen

A1) Gentle Giant (Martyn's Heaven Remix)

A2) Gentle Giant (Efdemin Remix)

B) Gentle Giant (Mathew Jonson Dub)

-Digital Only:

4) Gentle Giant (Mathew Jonson Remix)