Tiga – ‘Gentle Giant remixes’ (Martyn, Efdemin, Jonson)

Tiga – ‘Gentle Giant remixes’ (Martyn, Efdemin, Jonson)
Turbo
[July 2010]

Before I even listened to these remixes I loved the package. Why? Without it, I would never have realised that one of my favourite tracks of recent times is in fact by someone I thought I didn’t like. Tiga’s ‘Gentle Giant’ is a mournful house masterpiece which borrows heavily from the emo tones and sombre synths of Soft cell, and which, frankly, sounds just fine as it is. Testament to just how good the track is, then, are the heavyweight names which have been enlisted to remix it: if in doubt, call in the big dawgs...

First to offer his take on things is Dutch dubstep doyen Martyn. Retaining the original’s bendy synths right at the heart of the track, he fills the distant background with churchy, hymnal atmospheres and litters dusty, far off claps and snappy broken beats below. The ruefulness of the original remains beautifully ever-present and, as such, Martyn’s treatment of ‘Gentle Giant’ is akin to how you would treat a real gentle giant – with caution and respect, but ultimately with enough confidence to poke it around a bit.

Next, Berlin’s master of detailed micro house sounds, Efdemin, offers up what is, for him, a fairly big, bold groove. A simple, railroad house beat and a scattering of wood block hits make up the first half of the track before it breaks to allow in a line from the original vocal. Then it’s swiftly off again to more persistent tss, tss, tss house territory. In its own right a fair track; in relation to the original it’s barely recognisable and in terms of this package overall, it’s the least essential.

The final two cuts come from Mathew Jonson. The first of which (Mathew Jonson dub) is a bouncy jaunt through a sci-fi world: frazzled synths and space age laser beams shine through the bouncing bassline and diffract into tiny specks of cosmic dust which float around from beginning to end. It’s a heady, hippy workout which sounds like a not too distant relative to some of the material on Jonson's recent debut long player, Agents of Time.

The Canadian's second offering has a distant, echoing version of the original vocal weaving its way in and out of your ears whilst a more tensile synth-line undulates relentlessly, like a galloping horse, from start to finish. It’s not a funky or groove-laden jam per se, but it’s the one with the most inherent movement; the one with most urgency and, as such, you somehow can’t help but get nod along as you get swept up in its rolling forward motion.

No one track here outdoes the original, but Jonson and Martyn certainly breathe alternative life into a record which you may have otherwise had trouble playing out, such is its brooding intensity.


Kristan J Caryl

1) Gentle Giant (Martyn's Heaven Remix)
2) Gentle Giant (Efdemin Remix)
3) Gentle Giant (Mathew Jonson dub)
4) Gentle Giant (Mathew Jonson remix)