In 2017 Igloo Magazine celebrated seventeen years of online presence covering several hundred releases from creative musicians around the globe this year alone. Our dedicated contributors continue to cull the finest musical fragments from a variety of genres, and we’ve pooled together a rather large selection of music that traversed higher ground. Here are the titles we felt unveiled consistent next-level sonic structures. As usual, there are no winners or runners-up, all the lists are alphabetized by artist, and a Soundcloud player is available to immerse yourselves even further.
Alan Lockett
EPs ::
Ametsub :: Mbira Lights 1 (nothings66)
Albums ::
Anjou :: Epithymía (Kranky)
ASC :: Trans-Neptunian Objects (Auxiliary)
Benoît Pioulard :: Lignin Poise (Beacon Sound) / Slow spark, soft spoke (Dauw)
Cloistral :: Զուգահեռներ (offworldcolonies ltd.)
Dominic Coppola :: Golden Blonde Air (Boudoir)
Endurance :: Molecular Shrine (ACR)
Eraldo Bernocchi & Netherworld :: Himuro (Glacial Movements)
Forest Management :: The Elevated Quiet (Constellation Tatsu) / Limited Confession (The Level of Vulnerability)
Hannu Karjalainen :: A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert (Karaoke Kalk)
IJO :: Melancholika Vol. 2 (ACR)
Loess :: Pocosin (n5MD)
Moon Zero :: Relationships Between Inner and Outer Space (Denovali)
Olli Aarni :: Nielu (Florabelle)
Pausal :: Avifaunal (Dronarivm)
poemme :: Soft Ice (Polar Seas) / Arboretum (Stereoscenic)
Steve Roach :: Nostalgia for the Future (Timeroom)
Svreca :: Arquitectura Del Sueño (Semantica)
the prairie lines :: eyes down slowdown (Whitelabrecs)
Velleitie :: Scheming the Afterimage with God Herself (Sounds Against Humanity)
James Knapman
EPs ::
Biosphere :: Black Mesa (Biophon)
DJ Sprinkles & SND :: My Good Friends Tell Me That (Boomkat Editions)
Pye Corner Audio :: The Spiral (Death Waltz Recording Company)
Albums ::
Aleksi Perala :: Paradox (трип)
Bola :: D.E.G. (Skam)
Artefakt :: Kinship (Delsin)
Gas :: Narkopop (Kompakt)
Geotic :: Abysma (Ghostly International)
Lav & Purl :: A State of Becoming (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri :: La Equidisancia (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement :: Ambient Black Magic (Hospital Productions)
The Belbury Circle :: Outward Journeys (Ghost Box)
The Caretaker :: Everywhere at the end of time Stages 1-3 (History Always Favours The Winners)
Vatican Shadow :: Luxor Necropolitics (Hospital Productions)
Reissues ::
Belbury Poly :: The Owl’s Map (Ghost Box)
Biosphere :: Shenzhou (Biophon)
2814 :: Birth of a New Day (Dream Catalogue)
Esem :: Enveloped (Self-Released Digital Edition)
Leyland Kirby :: Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (History Always Favours The Winners)
Mr. YT :: Brand New Day (Apollo)
Pye Corner Audio :: Sleep Games (Ghost Box)
Nocturnal Ghost
Albums ::
Andi Otto :: VIA (Pingipung)
Between Interval :: Legacy (Spotted Peccary Music)
Biosphere :: The Petrified Forest (Biophon)
Blay Ambolley :: Ketan (Agogo)
Carbon Based Lifeforms :: Derelicts (Blood Music / Leftfield)
Daigo Hanada :: Ichiru (Moderna)
Daniel Brandt :: Eternal Something (Erased Tapes)
Farbror Resande Mac :: Farbror Resande Mac LP (Horisontal Mambo)
Four Tet :: New Energy (Text)
Gaudi :: Magnetic (RareNoise)
The Great Harry Hillman :: Tilt (Cuneiform)
Hammock :: Mysterium (Hammock Music)
Hauschka :: What If (Temporary Residence)
Hidden Orchestra :: Dawn Chorus (Tru Thoughts)
Ichinen :: Dual Craters (Last Drop)
The Irresistible Force :: Kira Kira (Liquid Sound Design)
James Holden & The Animal Spirits :: The Animal Spirits (Border Community)
The Kandinsky Effect :: Pax 6 (Ropeadope)
Keosz :: AVA (Cryo Chamber)
Kryshe :: March of the Mysterious (Serein)
Martin Nonstatic :: Ligand (Ultimae)
Melanie De Biasio :: Lilies (Play It Again Sam)
Michael Vallera :: Vivid Flu (Denovali)
Mystica Tribe :: Island Oasis (Silent Season)
Nodens Ictus :: The Cozmic Key (Self-Released)
Nomade Orquestra :: EntreMundos (Far Out)
Notilus :: S/T (Denovali)
Orson Hentschel :: Electric Stutter (Denovali)
Otto A Totland :: The Lost (Sonic Pieces)
Peter Bjärgö :: Animus Retinentia (Cyclic Law)
Petre Inspirescu :: Vintul Prin Salcii (Mule Musiq)
Portico Quartet :: Art in the Age of Automation (Gondwana)
Richard Barbieri :: Planets + Persona (Kscope)
Saagara :: 2 (Instant Classic)
Schnellertollermeier :: Rights (Cuneiform)
Selffish :: He She Them Us (Serein)
Shobaleader One :: Elektrac (Warp)
Shpongle :: Codex VI (Twisted)
Silas Neptune :: The Scales of Tahuti (Self-Released)
The Spy From Cairo :: Nothing New Under the Sun (Wonderwheel)
Tatran :: No Sides (Self-Released)
Tornado Wallace :: Lonely Planet (Running Back)
Tosca :: Going Going Going (!K7)
Tuber :: Out of the Blue (NEDA)
Yazz Ahmed :: La Saboteuse (Naim)
Zara Mcfarlane :: Arise (Brownswood)
V/A ::
Greenosophy chapter II collected by Mizoo (Ultimae)
Polarity, Mixed by Focal (Ultimae)
Reissues ::
AES Dana :: Pollen (Ultimae)
Marconi Union :: Tokyo+ (Just Music)
Midori Takada :: Through The Looking Glass (Palto Flats / We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want)
Philippe Blache
EPs ::
Giuseppe Falivene :: Fragments (Shimmering Moods)
Albums ::
Altarmang :: Void (Cyclic Law)
Hecq :: Chansons de geste (Hymen)
Lawrence English :: Cruel Optimism (Room40)
Dodsmakin :: FullstendigBrent (Malignant)
Enrico Coniglio & Matteo Uggeri :: Open To The Sea (Dronarivm)
Earthen Sea :: An Act Of Love (Kranky)
Common Eider, King Eider :: Shrines For The Unwanted, Respite For The Cast Aside (Cold Spring)
Jarl :: Hypnosis Colour (Reverse Alignment)
Keith Berry :: Simulacra (Infraction)
Vladimir Hirsch :: Scripta Soli (Old Captain)
Rafael Anton Irisarri :: The Shameless Years (Umor Rex)
Pietro Da Sacco
EPs ::
Aeriae :: Peril Triage (Clan Analogue)
Cobalt Rabbit & Fox Machine Gun :: Luminance (Insight Music)
Endless Arc :: Arc Sec 01 (Endless Arc)
Esem :: || (Self-Released)
Eusebeia :: Introversion (Mindtrick)
Gary Numan :: My Name Is Ruin (Electronic Sound)
Gyrowyre :: Ornge (Enpeg)
Hijo :: A-D (Magic Square)
Ignatius :: Hudibrastic & Smug Ruins (Buried In Time)
JFrank :: Micro Life Span (Kaer’Uiks)
Lewis James :: Megacholy (Lowriders)
MacroNoise :: My Steps Lead Backwards (Kahvi)
Millip :: Talk To Me ([d]-tached)
Mikroben Krieg :: Intrascape (The Crime League)
Monoiz :: Qodkluster (Detroit Underground)
Nuanae :: Ryð (Kaer’Uiks)
Qebrus :: ᐔ ᐌ ᐂ ᐍ ᐚ (Love Love)
RX-101 :: EP4 (Suction)
Spatial :: A Music of Sound Systems Remixes (Infrasonics)
Subminimal :: Substance (Möller)
Theory :: Red Book (Mindtrick)
Valance Drakes :: An honest approach to it (Detroit Underground)
Vortex Count :: Mettadature (Detroit Underground)
Yomgaille :: Repetition and Motion (Kahvi)
Albums ::
Artefakt :: Kinship (Delsin)
Badrich :: _COMPILER LOG (Self-Released)
Belief Defect :: Decadent Yet Depraved (Raster)
Bochum Welt :: April (!K7)
Bola :: D.E.G. (Skam)
Broken Thoughts :: The Primal Forces of Nature (Self-Released)
C_C :: Impendulo (Da Heard It!)
Cathode Ray Tube :: The New Taxonomy (The Crime League)
Conrad Schnitzler & Pole :: Con-Struct (Bureau B)
Crisopa :: Transhumante (Self-Released / Sound In Silence)
Dalham :: Waves (Public House Recordings)
Dataline :: Be There (Detroit Underground)
Delete :: Muscovite (Mindtrick)
Displacer :: The Face You Deserve (Hymen)
Dissolved :: Lost In A Femtosecond (Dissolvedamberrooms)
Eff Dst :: Blackout (Hymen)
Enabl.ed :: Tipsy Haux 2.0 (Clean Error)
exm :: Modulus (Touched Music)
Fizzarum :: Frisson (Ant-Zen)
Franck Kartell :: Alaska (Bass Agenda)
Freeform :: Rewind Above/Below/Beyond (Bedroom Research)
Hatch :: Writer’s Bench (Section 27)
Hydroplane :: Panda (Schematic Music Co.)
Huron :: Inside Information (Mindtrick)
Ignatius :: Legacy Systems (Buried In Time)
Jvox :: Jvox-Funhouse (Component)
Karsten Pflum :: Love Canticles (Touched Music)
Loess :: Pocosin (n5MD)
Maps and Diagrams :: Differential Equations (Numb Capsule)
Midday Static :: Ektachrome (Self-Released)
Monoform :: Mea Culpa (Touched Music)
Mr. Projectile :: Phoenix (Self-Released)
Mtch :: Dplx Cut Optr (Kaer‘Uiks)
Nearfield :: G5 (Brainstormlab)
Noumen :: Apeiron (Central Processing Unit)
Nuanae :: Clusters And Refractions (Kaer’Uiks)
Onsy :: Freq 255 (Schematic Music Co.)
P è n i n ș o l a r :: Interrum (Clean Error)
PBS’73 :: Yesterday Network (Magic Square)
Roel Funcken :: Balaklavskiy prospex (Funckarma.com)
Semiomime :: Close Ones (Mindtrick)
Si Begg :: Blueprints (Shitkatapult)
Soletik :: Directional (Fusion)
Subskan :: Ambidextrous Asylums (Hymen)
The Tin Box :: Invisible Kin (Audiobulb)
Valesmere :: 2xc_Castle (Daddy Tank)
Vizier of Damascus :: Bukhara Kites Part One (Rednetic)
V/A ::
Covert II (De:Tuned / Touched Music)
Fifth Listen (People Can Listen)
Fusion Compilation 10 (Fusion)
Hallucino Attics (Dissolved Re-Constructed 2001-2006) (Section 27)
Snow Robots Volume 4 (Suction)
Tangents (Kahvi Collective)
Fragments (Numb Capsule)
Brainbox (De:Tuned)
Reissues ::
Autechre :: Incunabula, Amber, Tri-Repetae (Warp)
Esem :: Enveloped (Self-Released Digital Edition)
Robbie Geoghegan
EPs ::
A Bleak Reality :: Inevitable Disaster (MRT)
Bauri :: Vinkelvolten (Firescope)
Caron :: Shifted Reality (030303)
DJ Guy :: 1993/1994 Unreleased Tracks (La Beauté Du Négatif)
Frak :: Diseases (Femur)
Iteration Corporation :: Gravitropic (Pulse Drift)
Junq :: Lila Dreams (Further Electronix)
RX-101 :: EP4 (Suction)
The Resonance Committee :: Curvepusher Sessions Vol. 1 (Cultivated Electronics)
Albums ::
EOD :: EODS | TVTM :: Alphanumerix (WeMe)
Franck Kartell :: Alaska (Bass Agenda)
John Beltran :: Moth (De:Tuned)
Kunst :: Kunst (Kunst)
Kurt Y. Gödel :: Axiomatic System (YUYAY)
Oubys :: Second Planet (Testtoon)
Trenton Chase :: Deadlock (June)
V/A ::
Andreas Gehm :: The Worst Of Andreas Gehm (Solar One Music)
Covert II (De:Tuned / Touched Music)
No Return Vol.1 (Return to Disorder)
Unboxed Brain (De:Tuned)
V.A. 3 (La Beauté Du Négatif)
Reissues ::
B12 :: Electro Soma II (Warp)
Ultradyne :: Antarctica (Exterminador)
Randomly ordered Soundcloud selections ::
