British producer IGLOOGHOST is the newest signing to Flying Lotus’ genre-averse imprint Brainfeeder, and his new EP is called Chinese Nü Yr. Impressively, the guy is only 18 years old, and is now sharing a label with jazz great Kamasi Washington. I first heard about this dude thanks to more local beat producers froyo ma and off.white, and I can’t overstate how excited I am to see all of these original bedroom beats getting the attention they deserve.
First, I’ll let the artist speak for himself:
The first track (“Xiangjiao,” of course) begins with a disorienting whirling sound which quickly segues into a glitchy IDM maze which recalls only slightly Venetian Snares and Arca. I’ll be careful with referencing other artists, because I don’t want to start looking like Machinedrum with the backhanded compliments about originality. IGLOOGHOST has noted that the tracks on these EP are very carefully sculpted so as to not lose the precious attention span of his potential audience (you know, us fleeting and fickle millennials), and the effort put into creating short-but-sweet compositions is incredibly apparent and appreciated by this listener. Fragments of vocal samples quite literally soar by as icy synth tones are drizzled on the sides, lending the track an overall effect that is both overwhelming and calming at once. Track #2 (not streamable here) has a feature from up-and-coming rapper Mr. Yote (who you can also hear on the new froyo ma EP), not to mention some pretty adorable-sounding pitch-shifted (?) vocal samples.
“Gold Coat” has gotten by far the most press that I’ve seen, and deservingly so – it’s perhaps the most idiosyncratic track on the release, and it at least feels like it sticks around for longer than the other tracks on this speedy EP (though it’s not actually that much longer than the second and fourth tracks at a pithy 4:20). Things get much grimier on this one, and the circling vocal melody is definitely the defining aspect of the track. I also should mention that the album artwork truly does these sounds justice; these songs manage to somehow be both scattered and coherent, a sort of schizophrenic re-imagining of sonic existence. I’m running out of words that do these sounds justice, so I’ll cut my review short here – but in case it wasn’t clear, this is a release that you need in your digital library, and fast.
You can keep up with IGLOOGHOST on twitter and buy more of his music on iTunes or bandcamp.
