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It's time to mix up the format with a collection of all three of our main editor's opinions on the new Tiga and Clarian EP, Stay Cool.
March 16, 2018 - Turbo Recordings
The Honeyboy Jones
Montreal based Turbo boss Tiga has teamed up with Montreal based dreamy newcomer Clarian to produce a hot love triangle of tracks. Stay Cool continues to expand Tiga’s linage, growing the family tree along classics such as ‘Let’s Go Dancing,’ ‘Bugatti,’ ‘Eye Luv U,’ and most recently, ‘Woke.’ Though Clarian is news to me, he is not news to Tiga, having worked along side the master for material on 2016’s No Fantasy Required LP. Tiga reciprocated with a infectious remix of ‘Under the Gun’ from Clarian’s debut album Television Days. It’s only right that the two have come together on a collaborative EP.
‘Stay Cool’ provides the much needed but often forgotten instructions for those in crisis. Amid a very Tiga 909 percussive loop and drippy acid bass, the lyrics “stay cool,” ‘I don’t need an airplane ticket,” and “hold your position” step in to reassure listeners who might be feeling uneasy. The track is divided into three acts. Act one is sparsely populated with only the most important audio elements, giving space to ponder the reasons why one would not need an airplane ticket, and why that information might be relevant when spoken aloud. Most people who do not need an airplane ticket either have no need to travel, or no need to pay someone to travel, such as an individual who owns their own airplane, or even a faster form of transportation such as a rocket. Either way, the person in question is already solidly cool and even helping to keep others in the same state. Act two introduces a more melodic acid bass that floats onto the mix, providing the track with increased depth and intrigue. Act three brings in an ethereal additional mystery vocal bit that—spoiler alert—is actually from the second track of the EP.
The mystery vocal bit is quickly identified in track two, ‘You’re So Special.’ Tiga’s famously reassuring voice proceeds to very unsarcastically let someone know that they are so special, giving, flexible, that they have a diet, and are not judgmental. All listeners will really want to be the someone that TIga is talking to, but Tiga is most certainly talking to someone who is actually special. There’s just no way that Tiga could be speaking directly to all of his millions of listeners at once on this record. These slightly disappointing sentiments ride on top of a slightly delayed slightly melodic staccato instrumental with a hefty mouthfeel and sweet aftertaste.
‘You’re So Special (Trance Mix)’ is the B side to the EP. It offers a different take on the previous track, but doesn’t sound quite as polished as the rest of the EP. In fact, I’m not even sure if this could be considered within the musical genre of trance, but at this point I’m inclined to believe anything that comes from Tiga’s mind, so I won’t push the issue. 🍍
Lady June Lockheart
Tiga is the guy I pull out at parties to help guests in my tiny living room synthesize. He’s a perfect conversation starter when paired with some booze and acquaintances. And apparently he also pairs well with Montreal-based producer Clarian, resulting in the delightful Stay Cool EP. Not only is this good dance music, it is injected with Tiga’s signature tongue-in-cheek meta-modern poetry. So contemporary, we laugh-sob. What a good bonding exercise.
The instrumentation on this EP is nothing revolutionary. It’s all stuff we’ve heard before in techno music, artfully engineered for the perfect dance floor experience. But the lyrics are the secret ingredient that sets the songs on Stay Cool and all of Tiga’s creative work apart from the masses. Without lyrics, this would be general music for dancing—consistent and well-crafted, but forgettable.
Tiga is the complete package, a poet laureate for those of us who define “cool” as an affectionate mockery of culture and “friendship” as quantifiable data. All the lyrics on Stay Cool indicate some sort of internal dialogue with the self. The EP’s namesake track ‘Stay Cool’ is entirely an instructive mantra for guiding the self through the noble pursuit of being cool at all times. It seems silly, but is it actually silly? The second song ‘You’re So Special’ is a monologue of affirmations Tiga whispers tenderly to himself aloud every time he looks at his reflection in the mirror. It’s insanely catchy, and the word “special” just keeps floating around in my brain like a bumblebee around a flower.
Plus, after you’ve listened to this EP all the way through, you realize that the first song samples the second song in a complete circuit that bends spacetime.
I always know what I should be paying attention to at any given point in Stay Cool. There is a clear auditory hierarchy. And the playful syntax of the songs provides solid support for the narrative poetry. A particularly good moment occurs when the siren effect is first introduced in ‘Stay Cool’ and built into an abrupt cutoff, casually skirting expectations. Also of note, while I’m at it, are the sprinklings of fake human vocal “oh’s” as melodic interludes and the synths that sound like farts. And we can’t help but smile when ‘You’re So Special’ bombards you from the beginning with cute beeps and boops and various other digital robot noises, eventually joined by a flute that’s a little off, like a honky bicycle horn expressing childlike joy.
Wrap all of that goodness up with an unexpectedly preposterous trance remix, and you have an EP dripping with the irony of modern existence.
Here’s to a lot of Tiger with a little Clearasil. Keep on doing you. ☔
Mister Lance Manion
Stay Cool may be a short album about not letting your fantasies get between you and the world. The songs are each six minutes and some change. An amateur numerologist may stop short with self-fulfillment finding the songs to be approximately 6,6,6. Not I. The numbers come up to a total of eighteen minutes and fifty-four seconds. According to a blogspot and also www.sunsigns.org, 1854 corresponds to four angels who are “proud of you and your efforts, Angel Number 1854 wants you to know that you are going to notice things coming into your life as a result of your focus. Everything that you do comes back to you, so if you put hard work into your soul destiny and connecting with your angels, you’ll get all sorts of positive things heading in your direction, all of which you’ve earned.”
I hope that as a reader you’re not coming up against incongruent forces between my interlude about angels and my opening as romantic objectivist and humanizer, though these are things that you may not yet have unpacked from my first sentence.
Time remains.
‘Stay Cool’ embodies a philosophy. Gradual progressions and industrial overtones drive forward lyrics like "I don’t need an airplane ticket,” and “assume your position.” Each song on this little EP gets most of its evolution through equalizing. It’s difficult not to draw parallels between the numerological significance and the basic qualities of the EP. When a listener allows itself to identify with these songs, the principles of evolution and adaptation come about. Via homeostasis (equalizing) the song and folk adjust to altering climates. This is you. Good things are coming your way. Clarian and Tiga say so. Angels say so. ⛰️