The young Dorset producer expands on the sonic assault of his debut with beauty, space and actual songs
Strange energies run through rural Dorset. Picking up on their irregular frequencies is 24-year-old producer Iglooghost, AKA Seamus Malliagh, a prolific laptop jockey whose latest output sounds a little like Boards of
Canada remixed by PC Music. Ancient and hypermodern rub up against each other in his latest work, which also extends to detailed visuals; Iglooghost isn’t so much a musician as an overarching world-creator. His first album, 2017’s Neō Wax Bloom, supplied a sustained digital barrage; its ear-bleeding delights came with extensive lore whose complexity felt akin to that found in anime or gaming.
On Lei Line Eon, his second album, those shock-and-awe tendencies give way to more spaciousness and beauty – Big Protector is probably this album’s most eloquent and inviting portal. Elsewhere, keening violins lend a bittersweet timelessness to tracks that also draw heavily on trap and bass music. Iglooghost’s formerly punishing BPMs give way to atmospheres and tracks – such as Light Gutter, featuring a female vocalist called Lola – that might be mistaken for actual songs. This time around, the lore is, if anything, even more developed. There’s an entire website dedicated to the Glyph Institute, which seeks to document and “test-summon” the energy-beings – “hovering, drone-like organisms called Celles” – to which this
music is tied.