Iglooghost is an artist that I’ve paid attention to for a long time.
His debut album, “Neō Wax Bloom,” came out in 2017 and was one of the very first EDM albums I listened to that wasn’t, like, from a video game OST. However, I didn’t really pay as much attention for his next solo album, “Lei Line Eon.” As far as I can tell, it wasn’t received nearly as well as “Neō Wax Bloom,” so I figured that I wasn’t missing much by having it on the backburner of my listening backlog.
This one I found out about from someone posting a link to the YouTube premiere, and I decided to listen to it because I saw a friend say it was really good. In my personal opinion: Iglooghost is back.
Yes, There Is Lore To This Album
A unique thing with Iglooghost’s discography is that each album has a worldbuilding concept behind it. In “Neō Wax Bloom,” it was the adventures of strange creatures in the wake of two giant eyeballs crashing into their world of Mamu; for “Lei Line Eon,” it was investigating the power of “Lei Music” to summon bizarre entities from other dimensions.
For “Tidal Memory Exo,” do not fear: the worldbuilding is just as insane, and done through a promotional website that I spent way too much time browsing. Here, the United Kingdom has been subject to an apocalyptic storm that has polluted the ocean, and now strange artifacts from a long-lost trilobite civilization are washing up on the coasts.
However, despite all of what I just mentioned, there are still people arguing over electronic music on the internet. Iglooghost inserts himself as a member of the “tidal scene,” comprised of “weirdos” salvaging the artifacts and attempting to reconstruct an EDM scene through pirate radio and genres named stuff like “sporestyle” and “tektonikcore.” This is the world “Tidal Memory Exo” is from, not ours.
The Actual Music
There’s a reason that I bring up the lore, and it is that Iglooghost does a phenomenal job at making an album that really does sound like part of a post-apocalyptic EDM scene.
The sound design is, as expected from Iglooghost, absolutely incredible, with these super technical metallic sounds contrasted with the aquatic theming of the album and its lyrics. It’s one of the most difficult-to-classify albums I’ve heard in a long time, and man, am I glad for it.
While it’s still an electronic album, “Tidal Memory Exo” stands out in Iglooghost’s discography in how vocals-focused it is. He’s done vocals before, but not like this – almost every track has him full-on MCing at some point.
A lot of this specific aspect comes from grime, a genre that originated in the 2000’s UK. It’s an unusual choice for Iglooghost, who usually doesn’t make music that has a very obvious influence, but it works to make the album feel alternate-universe-2000’s without being stereotypically Y2K.
A common criticism I’ve seen for this album is that it isn’t particularly memorable, and to be honest, I do have to somewhat agree. The best parts are from Iglooghost showing off his skill more than anything else, and combined with a general sameness between tracks, I can see how that would cause it to bounce off of some people. That said, I still really enjoyed it, and the sheer creativity on display massively outweighed this aspect for me.
Summary
Not going to even pretend here: this is probably my album of the year. I am kind of biased by being very into topics like “Paleozoic fossils,” “weird EDM subgenres” and “metallic/organic contrasts,” but it’s still absolutely worth a listen even if you aren’t. It’s one of the most unique EDM projects I’ve heard in a while, and could definitely see it still holding that position for a long time.
Highlight Tracks: “New Species,” “Alloy Flea,” “flux•Cocoon,” “Dewdrop Signal”
