ᲘᲘ

Welcome to the beautifully miserable world of Iglooghost and daisy*, where garbages litters the floor of their day-to-day as parents, and a scheming rabbit antagonist attempts to shut down their band and their record deal.

It's a record that is far more withdrawn than much of either artist's recent solo work. ᲘᲘ is nothing like the feverish textures of Iglooghost's Tidal Memory Exo or daisy*'s previous alias BABii with the infernal DareDeviil2000. The sound it opts for has little of that same para-violent energy, or that otherworldly, fantastical sound-welding that made those albums so captivating.

Instead, ᲘᲘ picks up the molasses of small corners of experimental music through the ages, like scooping litter off the floor. Weirdo hip-hop. Glitch hop. Trip-hop. IDM. Wonky UK club. Like scooping bizarre, unexplainable litter off the floor.

The narrative, unlike their recent solo work that has so often been quite primal (though, yes, certainly not always), is rather comic. This is not another stylistic switch, though - not like Lei Line Eon to Tidal Memory Exo was, at least - as ᲘᲘ still maintains that rugged, vaguely post-apocalyptic landscape that has been painstakingly built across a backlog of releases over the last few years from both artists. Cyst reconstruct this landscape through a different lens, though, one that is not fueled by aggressive rhythms but rather by measured, highly technical hip-hop production. As far as beats go, ᲘᲘ is exceedingly impressive - there is very little in hip-hop that sounds like this record: a radio backlog of springy drums, wonky synth patterns, and the sustained yet quiet whirring of industrial machinery. The whimsical melody in "Rabbit" is counteracted by an ominous sub-bass, and "Dog Shit" quickly stomps it out with its slower, thumping percussion; "Needle" and "Infant" are murkier and more engaged, whilst "Keyhole" is deceptively but suddenly grand in its progression; the two pop-leaning tracks in "Ecto" and "Dolly" are spaced-out and faintly ghost-like. All throughout the production is impeccable and sharpened to a cutting edge, however abrasive, or however palatable, with the duo's expertise in sound design showing through - the intricacy of these compositions, at a finer level, is nothing short of genius, fizzling with unique illegal-lab-made sounds.

Iglooghost and daisy* both revel in their presence in the spotlight, with the former's deadpan anger dripping from his grime performances, whilst the latter exercises a dark hyperpop-esque vocal and a couple of raps of her own. Their vocals are strong on every level, but they are of particular note when it comes to rhythm - ᲘᲘ is spearheaded by these vocals, shaping the songwriting around their flows, and shaping their flows around the songwriting. This is also where the production truly shines, not as a standalone set of bells-and-whistles, but rather as a mould to fit around the duo's narrative.

Perhaps - no, certainly - the narrative is where ᲘᲘ completes itself. The album follows Iglooghost and daisy* through life as parents and their attempts to start a rap group, but the world around them is rugged and downtrodden. Trash litters the streets and the days are long and monotonous, inert, and decaying, with little to do and lots of shit to be scraped off the floor. Yet it is also undeniably infused with a tongue-in-cheek surrealism, one that adds a welcome edge to the record in a way that seems to subvert the fantastical. ᲘᲘ, prominently, features a fantastical bunny who can talk, but "who instead of boasting magical abilities is merely trying to scam them out of a publishing deal and deface their garden", and the bizarre nature of it is delivered with such earnestness - expressing genuine anger at the mere appearance of such a bunny in "Rabbit", and later actively giving both the bunny and the satirized label A&R each a caricature of a voice in "Pest" - that it could almost be ridiculous if it wasn't so uncannily charming. "Dog Shit" seems to be from the perspective of the bunny, and much of the rest of the album is highly self-deprecating and grimy, in quite a lyrically brutal way - the abject contrast with the otherwise cartoonish surrealism is, simply put, absurd. Even "Dolly", which is arguably the weak point of the production, is brilliantly done lyrically, with daisy* nailing the psychologically uncertain, quasi-paranormal sound associated with her imaginary friend 'Emily'.

Such a narrative requires a lot of skill to execute well even from a literary point of view - it is exceedingly impressive, then, that Cyst can capture it in a short, gimmicky album, with such technical precision. Even more impressive is the nicheness of the style, at some strange intersection of UK grime, IDM and dark-hyperpop-esque call-and-response, yet this is all trumped by the absurdism of the world that the two build. Inspired by their efforts of raising a baby whilst continuing to make music, ᲘᲘ is not the expansive odyssey that some of their other works may be, but it is, by all accounts, just as ingeniously crafted, and just as proficiently executed.

Listen on Spotify here.