Anger is an energy, John Lydon sang so memorably on “Rise,” a song about apartheid from Public Image Ltd’s Album (1986). In the body and voice and words of Tanya Tagaq, anger is a burning, raging, maybe even purifying white-hot flame that ignites her music and her call for “a collective shift of consciousness” to wake up and change the world before it’s too late. Saputjiji, which means “designated protector,” is a powerful and beautiful spear aimed at the powers that be, the warmongers and ravagers of the Earth and humanity, and a warning sign for anyone not paying attention. Inspired by her 2018 book Split Tooth, the lyrics bluntly reference dark and heavy subject matter, expressed in Tagaq’s stunning vocalizations, backed by percussion, strings, synths, guitars, and guest vocals by Celina Kalluk and Damian Abraham, and produced by Jean Martin and Sumach. The opening track, “Fuck War,” could not be more direct, as she shouts the song-title words amid sparse bass and percussion and some blood-curdling throat singing. In “Foxtrot” she uses the NATO alphabet to spell out f-u-c-k-y-o-u in the lyrics against an ominous, pounding backdrop. But the quieter tracks, in which Tagaq softly sings or speaks, are even more devastating, as in “Exit Wound,” where she gently sing-speaks about the smell and sound of a gun and the feel of a bullet in her mouth “just in case,” or the agonized whispered and wailing voices of “Bohica,” or the eerie “When They Call,” where she gently advocates for life over death on top of cello and drums. The closing “Imiq,” the most beautiful of all, features chants, soaring synths that back the vocal trills, and breathy hums cascading over and around each other in a style that is Tagaq’s alone.
Mary Dickie is a Toronto music and arts journalist whose work has been published in a variety of different publications over the past couple of decades, including Impact, Eye Weekly, Maclean’s, ELLE Canada, The Toronto Sun, FASHION magazine and IN Toronto. She is also a member of the Polaris Music Prize jury.