Tiga – No Fantasy Required

Expansive, ambitious and deliriously fun...

Cutting-edge clubbing is so passé, maintains Tiga Sontag and his innate shrug on a third album full of yesterday’s tomorrows. Full of the big, sleeve-rolling synth gestures and irresistible vocal lethargy that built 2005’s zippy ‘Sexor’ (featuring ‘Pleasure From The Bass’ and some cannily integrated cover versions) and the turbo-upping ‘Ciao!’ of ’09, here, there’s an even more concise focus of dancefloor tracks, knowledgeable quips from the ‘80s and the misted walkway between the two, turning the dancefloor into a catwalk before languidly crumpling the shoulder pad. Let’s drop acid, like on ‘Always’ and ‘Planet E’, ‘cos Paranoid London and Hudson Mohawke said so, but be all insouciant about it.

The angular electroclash idolism, here assisted by Matthew Dear, projects a Bryan Ferry hologram over the title track and ‘Tell Me Your Secret’, programming soft focus style and substance to get you holding your iPod above your head outside your best gal’s house. Of the ever sharpening, pro-Zoolander electro-pop, ‘Bugatti’ and ‘Plush’, already stocking up on anti-wrinkle cream from 2012, are pretty shameless; future yuppie anthems for those who weren’t around for ‘Loadsamoney’. In full ironic, fashionista stride, the fun factory puffing out ‘3 Rules’ performs a ‘Dowutchyalike’ feat of crowd participation, dancefloor bisection and hipster delirium.

Game for a laugh, Tiga backs himself to create electro-house class and pop poignancy without it feeling like a gratuitous wardrobe change. ‘Make Me Fall in Love’, featuring Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, and ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ accelerate the edgy danger and glamour the Canadian always has in his top pocket. Contorting the voguing into a gurn, ‘Having So Much Fun’ is an ear-plunging detonation declaring its invincibility, replacing glitz with grave ricochets and a believable, speedballing hype. That coexistence of OTT aspiration and genuine hope, the trashy and shattering that very façade, and out and out groove, creates an excellent reality to escape into.

8/10

Words: Matt Oliver

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