It’s ten years since Tiga’s last solo album, the slightly tepid No Fantasy Required was released. So, it is something of a relief to discover that the Canadian DJ, producer, remixer and label head has taken a somewhat more direct route with his new disc, Hotlife.
In Tiga’s 2026, harsh and sleazy electro-clash tunes rub up against more minimalist techno-punk workouts in an album that reaches backwards as much as it pushes forward. So, while there are collaborations with contemporary fellow travellers like Boys Noize, Fcukers and Maara, there’s also a hypnotic reworking of INXS’ 1987 megahit “Need You Tonight” and a couple of tracks that seem to reimagine Soft Cell for dancefloors in 2026. One thing that’s clear with Hotlife though, is that Tiga has absolutely no wish to find one particular sound and then stick with it.
Hotlife is an album that ebbs and flows but pushes ever onwards. The “Hotwife” collaboration with Boys Noize is robotic and insistent with Daft Punk-ish vibes, while “High Rollers” adds an acid squelch to a gangster tale that Tiga delivers in a Grandmaster Melle Mel style. The insistent “I am your Detroit Sunrise” even goes full Plastikman and “Silk Scarf” blasts listeners with Euro catwalk techno that’s begging for a battering strobe light overload. However, the Soft Cell-flavoured “Friction”, which comes on like an even more urgent and hypnotic rerub of “Sex Dwarf” and “Sexless Pornographic Losers” with its “Memorabilia” vibe and Maara laying down some serious attitude, are magnificent highlights in a mountain of fine sounds that are emphatically not built for sitting things out but for moving feet and spinning heads.
For a man who once said that albums had become pointless, Tiga has put out something special with Hotlife. A collection of beats, grooves and loops that are just as contagious, mind-twisting and soul-shaking than any others intent on leading all-comers, Pied Piper-like, to a hot and sweaty dancefloor.
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