Tanya Tagaq - Animism (Six Shooter Records released May 27).
This is not your mama's throat-singing, far from it.
Tanya Tagaq, from Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktuutiak), Nunavut, on the south coast of Victoria Island, has travelled the world honing her traditional vocal skills and adding new twists along the way.
She's collaborated with both Björk and the Kronos Quartet on projects over the past decade giving their music traditional cred while extending the reach of her own soundscapes.
Animism includes Tagaq's wonderful, otherworldly throat-singing in the mix but within contexts that also feature Western classical music and electronica. From the opening track — a cover of The Pixies "Caribou," co-written by Kim Deal with Black Francis — through to the closing endgame of "Fracking" — Tagaq has put together a brilliant package of "northern soul." A very successful blend of old and new ideas. Beautifully done.
