Melodic House Artist Kaigan Translates Personal Determination Into Euphoric Electronic Soundscapes through ‘Tired Of Almost’

Tired of Almost is a 3-track by melodic house producer and DJ Kaigan, who hails from the remote Desaiganj in Gadchiroli. This record, his press release states, is completely self produced on Ableton Live and fuses “euphoric builds, harmonic layers, and deep basslines”. The inspirations to the sounds he attempts to curate are evident, mid 2010s electronic music, Chainsmokers, and Avicii come to mind – and a lot of it, he states, is about grit and determination, a culmination of his sticking in his pursuit of music-making post him dropping out of college : “The opener “Tired” sets introspective tones, escalating to the deep emotional vocals from Koz3 from Gagtok and melodies drafted with amifalling?. “Without You” delivers peak-time energy, closing with “Just Us Two“—a testament to perseverance.”

Kaigan’s production is sharp, and he knows where he is going with them — the body of his music is constructed to enable dancing while also relying on heavy, punchy grooves here and there, and crescendoes that build up in a kind of movement, emulating a process of breaking free and going forth, especially the outro to Just Us Two. The lightly echoey soundbeds, distorted vocals and the balance built on the last track works – making it one of the most immersive numbers on the record. It is in contrast with the opener, Tired, which has a more obvious leaning on lyricism  and singing : it also almost reminds one of Icarus-era Zayn Malik, or  in terms of vocal delivery and the kind of club-adjacent sad-electro-edgy boy music that had dominated pop culture for a good bit prior to 2020.

Overall, Tired of Almost sounds and feels like an announcement of arrival of sorts. Kaigan’s instincts as a producer are confident and emotionally legible, and his ability to translate personal grit into melodic house frameworks gives it a kind of intrinsic sincerity that is quite wonderful. The EP succeeds most when it lets the structure breathe and flow without excessive control exerted onto it to channel it into a specific direction. While the vocal execution occasionally undercuts the immersive world the production so carefully constructs, it does not render the project un-listenable. For an artist working independently from a geographically and infrastructurally distant context, the ambition in vision here is notable. Tired of Almost may not fully resolve its tensions, but it is approaching clarity – which in itself is commendable.