Iceboy Violet's How to Glitch Under the Map is a snowstorm of uncertainty

It’s hard to describe, let alone capture, all that clutter and its threat, but experimental hip-hop artist Iceboy Violet has other ambitions on How to Glitch Under the Map, their first solo work since 2023's Not a Dream But a Controlled Explosion. Across the album's dozen fractured tracks, their signature glitched-out production reaches new heights of abstraction, melding with their flow so perfectly that, rather than their voice working in reaction to the beats, it all feels of a piece, combining in effect to build an oceanic wall of sound. Words and moments fade in and out of focus like data skating by on a screen, with mumbled speech and gang fights that give way to screams adding to its powerful drift. Iceboy’s autotuned delivery shifts through different effects and styles, creating a sound closer to a choir than an individual singer, while their lyrics are in equal weights both minimal and mythic. The focus of the album is firmly in the present day and its bizarre lucidity, turning the online world occultic with lyrics about "TikToks in my sleep like prophetic dreams" and "clickbait ads like tea leaves" rapped over bubbling synths. The industrial percussion of songs like "Dogt...