Cyst's Debut Is a Gleefully Grotty Masterpiece of Glitchcore Worldbuilding
Cyst are a new duo made of Iglooghost and daisy* — the artist formerly recording as BABii — and their debut, whose title is written in two Georgian characters, arrived September 4th on LuckyMe. Nine tracks. Song titles including “Dog Shit,” “Knackered,” and “Pest.” The aesthetic commitment is total, and it is also, importantly, not a joke about the music.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Jungle and drum & bass are the load-bearing rhythms, with two-step running underneath. Joe Muggs, writing Bandcamp Daily’s Album of the Day, traces the lineage to the early-2000s crossover point where experimental hip-hop and IDM were still arguing with each other. The breaks are dense; the space around them is deliberately cheap-sounding, and that contrast is the whole design.
The Spatial Dynamics: Muggs’s description is the sharpest one written: “a blunter, less poetic, more provincial version of Burial’s sad-city soundscapes, by way of Iglooghost’s hyperactive glitchcore and daisy*’s eerie hyperpop.” Stripped-down instrumentation, maximal detail work — the sound design is where the money went.
Standout Performance
daisy*, whose vocal presence keeps the record from collapsing into pure texture. Iglooghost has always been able to build a hyperactive world; what’s new here is that someone is living in it. “Rabbit,” “Needle,” and “Dolly” are where the two halves lock.
Why It’s Certified
Muggs: “If Cyst’s razor-sharp wit and bombastic party beats don’t charm you, their absurdist genius certainly will.” He also lands the fairest summary of why it works — “the production and sound design make it altogether imaginative, even as the rhythmic inspirations are old and the subject matters are quotidian.” A record about ordinary British grimness that sounds like nothing else out this month. Certified great.