- A techno guided meditation that draws parallels with the escapism and introspection of the dance floor.
- Taking her name from the ancient French gigole, meaning "dancing woman," DJ Gigola is serious about capturing the playful hedonism of the club experience. Bass-heavy floor-fillers like "Papi" and "No Es Amor" have already earned the Berlin-born DJ and producer a strong reputation for experimenting with the relationship between techno and pop music. Instead of going for crossover gold, however, her debut album Fluid Meditations strays from the path, offering a potentially divisive hour-long concept piece, sprinkled liberally with spoken word instructions from Gigola herself. It's an eight-track continuous mix of original material that shines a light on the relationship between meditation and dance music, underlining the powerful introspective states possible with both. Wading through themes of gratitude, presence and affirmation, it's a debut that fans of Gigola's live sets—which glide between high-octane dance genres—may not have seen coming.
The first hint at the detour was November's "Gratitude Practice," a captivating and pacey cut that mingles high-pitched synth stabs and soft, flickering percussion with fragments of introspective spoken word: "Can you allow your mind to be silent?" Around two minutes in, Gigola's arrangement of thudding kick drums and oscillating bass completely drops off, revealing the meditative focus that sits at the heart of the entire project. A detailed, whispered commentary ensues, giving instructions like, "Sense the feeling of gratitude within you / And send it outward, to the world around you." Punchy yet distant drums and ethereal pads hover in the background, creating a sense of spaced-out contemplation that subsumes the entire album.
Fluid Meditations's melting pot of genres throws everything from stomping trance and swaying dancehall rhythms into a scene set by an eerie, ever-present ambience: sweeping filters, whispered vocal fragments, field recordings of wildlife. Between the rhythmic sections, Gigola's lengthy compositions (with most running upwards of seven minutes) pause for breath, making each new beat drop hit even harder. Those moments of kick drum climax also offer a break from the guided meditation, a chance to zone out and appreciate the depth of the sonic world she creates.
Gigola offers a variety of soft commands and mantras that range from the open-armed "Welcome to this continuous stream of fluid meditations," to the more didactic "Whatever we may perceive appears and disappears / Comes and goes." The latter quote comes from "Presence Practice," which roots listeners in a deep sonic experience built on resonant synth bass and the rolling rhythms of a bongo-led percussion arrangement. But as is often the case with meditative teaching, some of Fluid Meditations's vocal commands are vague, with lines like, "Observing experience / You are beyond experience," offering little in the way of practical instruction. Affirmations like these might actually contradict the album's focus on creating a deep listening experience, suddenly asking listeners to move "beyond" the here and now.
Vagueness aside, DJ Gigola capably highlights the affinity between meditative states and the flow state escapism of dance music, and she sounds believable doing it. The soft commands the LP is structured around won't be to everyone's taste, but for the most part, it's an immersive work that succeeds in its motion. That might be down to her production skills more than her wellness credentials, because Fluid Meditations wouldn't work as well as it does without the fantastic music underneath. The tapestry of field recordings and found sounds is worth coming back to, and the moments of punctuation—immensely satisfying rhythmic drops, brief glimmers of the dance tracks that have dominated clubland for the past year—are thrilling each tie. At her best, Gigola convincingly assumes the role of a patient and purposeful guide, but at times she's let down by some of the vague clichés associated with Westernised meditation and the wellness industry. Still, it's sincere, earnest and more than a little gutsy, a refreshing send-up of the usual techno album conundrum.
Tracklist01. Intro
02. Presence Practice
03. Embodiment Practice
04. Unfolding Practice
05. Stream State
06. Affirmation Practice
07. Gratitude Practice
08. Outro