After covering several hundred releases in 2023, many notables—including links to their respective Igloo reviews or release pages—are cataloged at igloomag.com/features/best-of-2023. As usual, there are no winners or runners-up as the lists are alphabetized by artist and selected tracks are featured on our Soundcloud playlist.

Igloo Magazine :: Best of 2023

Parasomnia

@caramel_chameleon
A1. Milky Mountains
A2. Sufi Like Acid
A3. Untitled 2020 [Digitone, Modular _ a 707]
B1. Verdefuoco
B2. 270562
B3. Surgery Soldier Vision

The work by Italian producer Caramel Chameleon will be released on cassette tape from Florklang Reocrds. His atmospheric sounds, built up over the last few years, has captivated many listeners and has been released on various labels. This release from Florklang Reocrds is like a collection of his everyday sketches. From the sound that emphasizes the beat, there is a non-beat experimental track, and the works collected in the last few years are put together in one cassette tape. It is finished in an EP that summarizes some of his evolving sounds.

Mixture Of Phases EP

Caramel Chameleon - Mixture Of Phases EP_Side A "Cassette Release"

Parallel Worlds Plector DiN76

Release date 9th December 2022
Limited to 300 copies Digipak CD

Greek synthesist Bakis Sirros who records under the name of Parallel Worlds has become a familiar name to followers of the DiN label. His debut release was “Obsessive Surrealism” (DiN26) back in 2007 and since then he has released a further solo album, “Shade” (DiN32), as well as several collaborative albums with different artists including DiN label boss Ian Boddy & Node guru Dave Bessell.

“Plector” (DiN76) is his third solo outing on the DiN imprint and continues the deep dive into organic, analogue modular excursions that this talented musician is so adept at. Throbbing, deep bass lines are accompanied by sparse drum patterns and beguiling melodic synth lines. The album has a beautifully cohesive, dark and brooding atmosphere. Hints of a John Carpenter like synth soundtrack lurk around every corner but the sound world that Sirros creates is very much his own. At times the raw beauty of his synth patches grab you whilst at other moments the delicate, glitch like sound design details hover just out of sight. The album is built upon two groups of three rhythmic tracks interspersed with the dark drone of “Atmoform” and the beautiful, almost Enoesque final track, “Harmonic Pathways”.

Lovers of Electronica, Dark Techno, Downtempo & IDM will find much to admire in “Plector” and this new album once again showcases the unique talent of this highly individual musician.

01 Plector   05:26
02 Shapes   05:54
03 Angles   06:34
04 Atmoform   05:09
05 Dysfunction   05:49
06 Dark Machinery   05:24
07 Intensity   05:44
08 Harmonic Pathways   04:08

Total Time :  44:21

Plector

Buy CD / download

Plector by Parallel Worlds (DiN76) Demo Mix

@Jonny3snareS - Signal Drive EP
Forthcoming - March 2023
Dynamics Of Acid Records - DO303 003

(80 limited Yellow @ Bandcamp + 200 black distributed.)

Production wiz Jonny3snareS continues Cornwall’s grand tradition of esoteric and emotive electronics with the ‘Signal Drive’ EP.

MOY steps up to give the title track a dance floor friendly, break-driven remix, with snarling electroid bass and acid lines.

Dynamics Of Acid:
https://www.instagram.com/dynamicsofacid
https://www.facebook.com/DynamicsOfAcid

Jonny3snareS:
https://www.instagram.com/jonny3snares

MOY:
https://www.facebook.com/moybassmusic
https://www.instagram.com/moybassmusic

Sounds: Jonny3snareS
Looks: https://www.manglemike.com
Levels: https://www.viceworksmastering.com

PREMIERE : Jonny3snareS - Signal Drive (MOY Remix) [Dynamics of Acid]

In March 2023, Tresor Records will release "Crash Recoil", a new album by Surgeon. It marks Anthony Child's first techno LP in five years, following a period in which he felt uncertainty in his role as a techno producer and found it tough to locate inspiration. This new album encounters him drawing on spontaneous techniques to arrive at unchartered topographies.

"Crash Recoil" originates from Surgeon's recent live sets, where he experimented with constraints in performing and embracing the twists, turns and paradoxes that arrive from this. Each fresh iteration on consistent MIDI sequences and hardware reconfigured tracks into different constellations, creating an inspiring vortex of unpredicted events where ideas could flourish. This new approach allowed him to capture the spontaneous energy of his live shows in a way he had never done before. "This is not a live album, since it has not been recorded in one go during a live performance. In the same way that bands tour songs before going into the studio to record an album, I was able to explore these songs and hone their effectiveness during my live performances before creating a studio version."

The result is eight tracks that emphasise a new techno sound for Surgeon, drawing in references from across the musical spectrum. "I can hear Coil, King Tubby, Detroit Techno and The Cure all wrapped up with 30 years of DJing," Surgeon says of the album. Melancholic hum-like ambiences smudge around unadorned, near-droning basslines, crunching rhythm and percolating arpeggiations. The tracks carry unique and potent locomotion, with a low-slung grind through toughened terrains, breathing with a free spirit, untethered by a studio-based perspective. We hear manifestations of the same raw material across the album, like a textural motif, carving new variants and creating a cohesive work full of recollection.

#surgeon #crashrecoil #tresorrecords

Crash Recoil

BANDCAMP

Surgeon - Oak Bank

taken from the latest album "Vespertine"

https://roelfuncken.bandcamp.com/album/vespertine

#idm #idmmusic #legiac #braindancemusic #leftfieldmusic #bassmusic #experimentalmusic #glitchmusic #modularmusic #roelfunckenmusic

Vespertine

Photophobia by Legiac

Chiastic Slide

Cipater

Long time collaborators Meat Beat Manifesto (Jack Dangers) & DHS (Benjamin Stokes) get together on fresh new 12” EP ‘Man From Mantis’. Both artists have rich musical histories, Dangers having released an extensive collection of music as MBM since the late 80s including pre-hardcore/jungle breakbeat touchstones (Helter Skelter/Radio Babylon) & late 90s masterpiece ‘Prime Audio Soup’, released on Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records and recognisable from its use in The Matrix. Stokes on the other hand has a smaller back catalogue but no less influential, having been responsible for all-time-classic foundational techno blueprint ‘House of God’.

Dangers & Stokes have always played around beyond the edges of the familiar and this EP is no different: 4 tracks of breakbeat techno future-sound that live in a world of their own. ‘Pandemic’ opens the EP with squeaky-clean mechanical acid, intentional and direct, tight and well-controlled, underpinned by a revolving, bubbling acid line. ‘Aggressive Mantis Squad’ comes bearing weighted breaks and hinterland bleeps, spanning the past and the future. B-Side opener ‘Automatic Mouth’ is a twisting chugger, occasionally breaking down to reveal a whirring & stuttering machine-spirit before the EP closes with the drum-fest dream sequence of ‘International Sound System’. 

These are lab-grown rhythm bombs, finely tuned off-kilter grooves, razor sharp crucial beats ready for the future, out on Love Love Records, May 2023

Meat Beat Manifesto & DHS - Aggressive Mantis Squad

The Nation's Most Central Location

Just Off The M56 (J12)

Good Lies

Feelings Plain

This Stolen Country of Mine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Ritual

Blackbox Life Recorder 21f

1. Lower The Anchor
2. Pre-Dawn Landscape
3. November Sunrise (Strings Reprise)
4. Yesterday May Be Our Future 
5. After The Storm 
6. Memory Sketch (Strings Reprise)
7. Last Day Of Taurus 
8. Mainland (Feat. David Nicholson)

Release date: 1 September 2023

Buy CD/Listen: https://reward-system.lnk.to/LowerTheAnchor

Matthew Puffett (Future Beat Alliance) announces a new album titled “Lower The Anchor” which will be released on 1st September 2023.

The album will be released on limited edition CD & Digital platforms, the CD is available to preorder on Bandcamp, & “Last Day Of Taurus” is streaming now.

“Lower The Anchor” is a collection of orchestral soundscapes, drawing inspiration from the moving picture & contemporary classical, leaning heavily on sci-fi aesthetics, the closing track “Mainland” features Berlin artist David Nicholson on acoustic guitar. 

The album was mixed & mastered by Cameron Craig

Lower The Anchor

Matthew Puffett - Lower The Anchor (Album Promo)

Phases of This and Other Moons

A Black Moon Tide

Pentagrams of Discordia Side A

Released 14. Oct 2023

The vinyl contains tracks 1-6 of the digital release. The digital release contains one bonus track (7).

Calligraphy art by Brett Tassenon
Cover artwork design by Angel Draganov

"Thanks to Ivo Petrov and the Mahorka crew"

[mhrk370]

Dawlat Lībiyyā

Dawlat Libiyya

Umm al-Maa      by Abu Ama + BedouinDrone - Dawlat Lībiyyā LP [mhrk370]

A1 Analogue Data Processing (Clip)

Track Mandarin Three by @Kokokei from new EP "Mandarin"

bandcamp and all streamings link
https://mestnostrecords.com/releases/KokokeiMandarin

Kokokei — Mandarin Three

Artist: Eoism
Title: Infinite Balance
Track Title: Direct Drive
Label: Inch By Inch records
Cat #: IBI008
Release date: 24.11.2023
Format: vinyl, digital

@eoism

Eoism are back with their fourth release. The duo produced six deep and classy electro gems for serious underground sentiments. These timeless bangers can be used both at home and at work; the DJ booth. Let the robots get up and do the electro boogie!

grab your 12"

Premiere | Eoism - Direct Drive (IBI008)

Igloo Magazine is an electronic music e’zine publishing articles about current, classic and upcoming music from around the globe. Our mission is to introduce readers to the burgeoning undergrowth of electronic musicians by covering a wide range of genre’s including ambient, experimental, dub, dubstep, shoegaze, electro, techno, drone, IDM, industrial, post-industrial, and all the debris in between. Pulling together a vast tapestry of like-minded contributors, the virtual Igloo doors officially opened December of 2000. We consistently seek to provide coverage for musicians creating left-of-center music that is not necessarily covered in general music media. Igloo Magazine publishes articles in the capacity of Newswires, Reviews, Features and Profiles for artists that wouldn’t normally receive the light of digital ink.