A few weeks ago, we covered Iglooghost and his collaboration with Marina Herlop here. This time, the English electronic music producer is back with a full album comprising over 13 tracks under the name of “Tidal Memory Exo”.

There is no doubt that Malliagh’s production skills are over the top, showcasing mastery across the wide electronic music spectrum. While many of the compositions are rooted in techno, melody is never neglected; quite the contrary, it is enhanced to its peak.

Each song is a huge storage of musical instruments: mallets, strings, children's voices, various singers, synths, sound designer sweeps and risers, field recordings—all woven into a multilayered, complex polyphony. Despite this complexity, he manages to maintain a sense of contrapuntal justice, ensuring the music never feels overwhelming. He also achieves this by delivering those instruments in limited blocks of 4 to 5 instruments, that from measure to measure they shifts into another. Still complex, but certainly, a way of making complexity available to the half-focused ear.

Even though the album can become somewhat repetitive, Malliagh’s technical prowess never fails to impress. Much of this repetitiveness stems from Iglooghost's tendency to recycle melodic lines, motifs, and even entire themes. Each album operates like a circular economy in this regard. Yes, it sounds a bit derivative, but perhaps this is exactly what allows Malliagh to generate such a variety of ideas and demonstrate his formidable skill, constantly bringing new shine to familiar musical concepts.

As a curious fact, some recycled melodies come from the previously reviewed single we talked about in the beginning of this article, more precisely the song “Diode Teeth”

Maybe the word “Memory” in the title in part is because of this self-consciousness over music recycling.

Techno enthusiasts will undoubtedly find much to enjoy in this album, and its nature will offer minimalism aficionados a fresh perspective on the genre.

Author: Martín Cacho

Martín is a video game composer, producer and writer from Sonora, México.