#19 - Luci4 - "ON GANG"

Sigilkore’s typical instrumentals are torn-up, desiccated wastelands of synth and bass that perfectly match the subgenre’s unearthly vocal styles: sibilating, snarling, purring demonically. But in a weird twist, Luci4’s hardest song this year may be one of his most unnervingly mellow. “ON GANG” is evil elevator music; Luci4 rewires a lethargic sample into a sleazy, smooth beat and then fiendishly hisses over it like a dementor blowing smoke in your ears.

When Luci4 started racking up hits repeatedly on TikTok in 2021, there were lots of questions: Would sigilkore reach the mainstream? Would his music change with more spotlight? For the most part, nothing has really altered; sigilkore is almost entirely underground, confined to the deep recesses of SoundCloud, and Luci4 is still experimenting, spewing uncategorizable loosies into the digital ether. Sigilkore has splintered in myriad angles—there’s the trance-inducing electronics of rachyl and kaystrueno, the dirty rawness of aghast and lungskull, the glitch-incinerated mayhem of lecie and universe. Yet even as the sound expands its boundaries, the scene continues to revolve around key innovators like Luci4, who has unleashed a torrent of wild tracks this year from seething susurrations to bitcrushed mixes. I would take an entire tape of ambient terrorscapes like “ON GANG,” but I also doubt he’s ever going to make a song like it again. Luci4 is restless and impossible to predict. There still aren’t any real interviews with him. Who knows where the hell he’s going next.

The list:

#25 - Destroy Lonely - “NOSTYLIST”

#24 - elusin - “Elksling”

#23 - skaiwater - “#miles”

#22 - Wednesday - “Bull Believer”

#21 - islurwhenitalk - “pink neon lights”

#20 - Two Shell - “home” & “Memory” (tie)