“Colonizer” is the latest single off the Canadian indigenous throat forthcoming album, Tongues, out on March 11th, 2022. The tune is about accountability. “Oh, you’re guilty” she sings. “It’s not a question” a press release goes on to state.
These are themes that will be explored further on the upcoming album. “Tongues “speaks not to horrors and crisis, as previous Tanya Tagaq albums wordlessly, powerfully encircled, but directly of these things. Tongues is Tagaq at her most explicit and specific. The album will also balance industrial, electronic sounds with poetic passages from Tagaq’s bestselling mythobiography, Split Tooth.” a press release noted.
“It is a triumph of strength and intelligence that invites the listener to join her in a personal victory over colonization, over those who take without consent,” the press release continues.
The genesis of “Colonizer” was Tagaq’s improvised live show with Nanook of the North in Manchester, overlooking New York City’s Columbus Circle. The tune serves as a response to Tagaq’s performing in both visible and symbolic colonial spaces.
Tagaq also released a second version, ““Colonizer (Tundra Mix)”, which will also appear on the album. This mix was a collaboration with producers Saul Williams and Gonjasufi. This iteration is starker and slow-building and is also well suited to the song’s theme.
“These two mixes of ‘Colonizer’ are so different but we liked them both equally,” Tagaq wrote on Twitter describing both versions as “a reflection on accountability and action.
Listen to both versions below: