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Live Review: Iglooghost's sonic saga is revealed on twin EPs 'Clear Tamei' and 'Steel Mogu'

10 August 2018 | 11:56 am | Holly O'Neill

Giving us a glimpse into the producer's private otherworldy dimension is 10 tracks across two EPs that explore IGLOOGHOST's love of percussion and synths.

Completely out of our range of earthly perception is the Mamu dimension, a hypercolour world complete with floating gods, demons and witches where it rains peanuts and hovering eyeballs watch over all. And it's only accessible from IGLOOGHOST's back garden.

Since the British producer started releasing music at age 15, Iglooghost has been giving us glimpses into this world with his frenzied hybrid of club and classical, all with a warped story line connecting the tracks. Now with the release of his twin EP's Clear Tamei and Steel Mogu, we get a glimpse into the ghosts that set the dimension into motion in the first place alongside the battling creative forces that drive the producer.

With five tracks each, the two EPs explore the two sharpest contrasts in his works; the soaring otherwordly choirs and alien orchestral composition, and his violent drum patterns and hyperactive energy. Lush soundscapes are meticulously crafted on both EPs, with keen attention to detail, ever changing loops and bizzare grandious sound design.

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Half-tempo rules the Clear Tamei release, bordering on trap intensity while reigning it in enough to let the glossy layers of synth melodies really shine and overlap. Every sonic idea is toyed with an mutated, with samples and references whizzing across the track before we get a chance to even process them. Canned choirs and traditional pianos and violins meld with the spikier crystalline synth layers, to create surprising tracks that are all at once cohesive and all over the place.

From jump, Steel Mogu is menacing, idiosyncratic and absolutely gripping. Across the release huge walls of pounding kicks and dense synths are contrasted with delicate sections layering finely tuned rubbery sounds. Drum machines work overtime to create hyperspeed breakbeats and grimey syncopation, jacking up the intensity alongside the squelching synths.

These grand tracks feel more like incredibly meticulous compositions rather than club tunes, made even more confusing when you clock the influence of genres like mumble rap, baile funk, trap, math rock, dubstep and breakbeat deep within the syncopating layers of both EPs. There's so much happening across all the tracks it's like a Where's Wally for your ears trying to notice every little detail of Iglooghost's Mamu dimension.

Both the audio and visual worlds of Iglooghost exist at the point of euphoria before sensory overload, his art existing to unsettle and awe simultaneously. With this double release of Silk Tamei and Steel Mogu, the visionary producer has created two stunning all encompassing experiences and given us another cheeky look into his process and the world behind his bushes.

Photo by Daisy Emily Warne

WORDS BY Holly O'Neill

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