"Inuk Throat Singer Tanya Tagaq Demands "Retribution" in Aggressively Kinetic New Video." - THUMP
Last month experimental Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq released her fifth studio album, Retribution, addressing politically-charged topics including climate change, the Canadian government’s treatment of indigenous communities, and the continued prevalence of sexual assault (highlighted by a somber cover of Nirvana’s “Rape Me”).
Today we’re premiering the equally gripping music video for the almost eight-minute title track, which opens with the foreboding lyric, “My mother grows angry, retribution will be swift.” Directed by Brian Johnson, it sees the one-time Björk collaborator growling and writhing chaotically in an eerie industrial warehouse, accompanied by fellow Inuk performer Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and a lone wolf.
“The ‘Retribution’ video embodies the idea of nature being forced into unnatural spaces. It’s about how one cannot remove the essence of life and instinct out of our bodies, no matter how debilitated this society becomes,” the singer told THUMP over email. “Laakkuluk is a Greenlandic mask dancer that articulates the emotional elements of humanity. Fear. Anger. Laughter. Lust. Our ode to nature is our ode to life.”