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**Iglooghost – Neō Wax Bloom**
★★★★☆

In the grand tradition of electronic music's most gloriously unhinged visionaries, Iglooghost's debut full-length "Neō Wax Bloom" stands as a testament to what happens when unbridled creativity collides with meticulous production craft. Three years after its 2017 release, this album continues to sound like it was beamed in from a parallel dimension where video game soundtracks and IDM had a beautiful, chaotic baby that was raised by a family of hyperactive anime characters.

The album's current status as a cult classic feels entirely appropriate. While it never achieved mainstream recognition – hardly surprising given its deliberately challenging nature – "Neō Wax Bloom" has become essential listening for anyone seeking the outer limits of electronic music's possibilities. Its influence can be heard rippling through the work of younger producers who've embraced its anything-goes approach to sound design and composition. The album's visual world, complete with Iglooghost's own intricate artwork depicting bizarre creatures and crystalline landscapes, has become as iconic as the music itself, spawning countless fan art tributes and cementing its place in the pantheon of truly immersive artistic statements.

The standout tracks reveal themselves differently to each listener, but certain moments demand recognition. "Xiangjiao" bursts forth like a neon-soaked fever dream, its melodic hooks somehow managing to remain catchy despite being constructed from what sounds like the digital equivalent of shattered glass and liquid mercury. "Peanut Choker" lives up to its wonderfully absurd title, offering four minutes of controlled chaos that shouldn't work but absolutely does. Meanwhile, "Gold Coat" provides something approaching a breather, though in Iglooghost's world, relaxation still involves enough sonic detail to power a small city.

Perhaps most impressively, "Bug Thief" demonstrates the project's ability to craft genuine emotion from seemingly inhuman sounds. What begins as an exercise in textural experimentation gradually reveals itself as something approaching a love song, albeit one sung by malfunctioning robots in a language that doesn't exist yet. It's this ability to find humanity within the mechanical that elevates the album beyond mere technical showboating.

Stylistically, "Neō Wax Bloom" exists in its own universe, though traces of IDM, footwork, and various strains of bass music can be detected in its DNA. Seamus Malliagh, the Irish producer behind the Iglooghost moniker, seems less interested in adhering to genre conventions than in creating his own sonic language entirely. The result is music that feels simultaneously ancient and futuristic, organic and synthetic, playful and profound.

The album's origins trace back to Malliagh's emergence from the fertile UK electronic underground, where his early EPs for Brainfeeder and other forward-thinking labels established him as a producer worth watching. His association with Flying Lotus and the broader Brainfeeder collective provided the perfect launching pad for his maximalist vision, connecting him with an audience hungry for electronic music that pushed boundaries rather than respecting them.

Those early releases hinted at the controlled madness that would define "Neō Wax Bloom," but nothing quite prepared listeners for the full-album experience. Here was a producer who had clearly spent countless hours not just learning his craft, but developing a completely personal approach to it. Every sound feels deliberately chosen, every transition carefully plotted, even as the overall effect borders on sensory overload.

The album's conceptual framework – something involving interdimensional creatures and mystical processes that frankly make more sense experienced than explained – provides just enough narrative thread to guide listeners through its 16-track journey without ever becoming overly prescriptive. This is music that rewards both casual listening and deep analysis, revealing new details with each encounter while never losing its immediate impact.

"Neō Wax Bloom" succeeds because it never forgets that experimental music, at its best, should still move people. For all its technical complexity and conceptual ambition, this remains an album that makes you want to dance, even if you're not entirely sure how. In an era of increasingly homogenized electronic music, Iglooghost's debut stands as a reminder that the genre's greatest strength lies in its infinite capacity for reinvention. This is future music that actually sounds like the future – strange, beautiful, and absolutely essential.