Tidal Memory Exo - Iglooghost: Review
Review by Lav:
Iglooghost is an electronic music producer that I've been following for quite a while now. He had a pretty spectacular start to his career with a debut album bookended by three EPs packed full of jittery, bombastic, and slyly conceptual combinations of drum and bass with bubblegum-tinged hyperpop. Since 2018 though, Iglooghost has begun to wander in different directions than the sound that made him. That came through on side projects like XYZ, Amber Eon Micro, and Lei Disk. His sophomore album Lei Line Eon dropped in 2021 and hit me and many other fans as a mixed bag despite high anticipation. The album is much more compositionally abstract and sonically shrill than his first and it's a record that I still struggle to feel sometimes despite my admiration for the styles and genres it is clearly inspired by.
By comparison, Tidal Memory Exo is a return to the essence of dance music but filtered through the lens of industrial and deconstructed club. That's one display on both the record's singles starting with opener New Species. It comes right out of the gate with these murky Drain Gang-style vocals contrasted by an absolutely dizzying instrumental. It has some jittery eruptions of synths that remind me of early Iglooghost with this anxiety-inducing fire-alarm beat weaved in underneath.
Coral Mimic is a similar highlight with pummeling industrial drums that beat you over the head in rapid-fire succession. The song also features a bit more variety in the vocals the most of the other songs here which I really appreciate. Combined with the glitchy and grinding Alloy Flea, which had a great metallic breakdown in the second half, and you've got a great start to the record. Pulse Angel achieves a very similar sound later on the record setting up even more compelling moments and interesting vocals.
Highlights on the back half of the record take an ever so slightly varied approach. The best song on the entire record is Germ Chrism which comes out fucking swinging and I'm all over it. The thumping, rapid-fire beat on the song also reminds me of some early Iglooghost stuff, only for it to be overtaken by the kind of blown-out, grinding beat that's present all over this album. It also features a performance that feels to anguished and intense, which all comes together to create a propulsion that's unmatched.
Nemat0de didn't click with me right away but the second half really just builds and builds. It introduces something new every few seconds over this rattling beat that grows on me every time I hear it. I also like the closing track Geo Sprite Exo which brings together the manic layering of vocals that has always made Iglooghost's music so irresistible. With the grinding metallic intensity that's present throughout the album it's one of the most disorienting things I've heard all year and I love it.
Sometimes the record's attempts at reinforcing its signature sound don't go quite as well as expected. Echo Lace features vocal repetition that's kind of monotonous and it all takes too long to actually get started. Dewdrop Signal is quieter than everything else on the record in a way that is genuinely distracting and the moments in its composition where nothing is going on almost don't feel intentional.
Occasionally the record also tries to further experiment with its vocals, which is admirable, but it doesn't always go perfectly. Spawn 01 is a slower cut whose breathier vocals kind of remind me of Nicole Dollanganger. They fight through the sonic haze of the song just to be heard but the serious demeanor they're performed with contrasts really strangely with one of the more tongue-in-cheek sounding instrumentals on the album. Flux Cocoon is the kind of strange distribe with these cloudy synths and chopped-up vocals that feel PC Music inspired like Hannah Diamond or GFOTY. It's a dizzying song but one that never actually reaches the same level of intensity as many other here.
Don't get me wrong, Tidal Memory Exo is mostly highlights. The album is impressively cool and the grinding metallic approach to dance music feels perfectly suited for Iglooghost. I'm positive I like it more than his last album and the return to jittery maximalism serves him well despite the huge change in sonic approach from his early days. While it's a bit unfortunate that the record's weakest moments are when it wanders from its core sonic tentpoles, that just reinforces how strong the ideas propelling this album conceptually are. 7/10
For more experimental electronica check out my review of the new Jlin album Akoma
