Author Archives: John Lithium

Bi Score – Out In Front (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

It’s been a couple years, but we’re back with a big album, and we’re not holding anything back!

From the late ’90s era of gaming through to today, this project highlights so many of our favorites. We hope you’ll find something that resonates with you among these 15 tracks, too.


Bi Score is:
Ian Cowell: Guitars, synths
Carrie Wood: Bass, vocals, additional guitar

Additional musicians on this album:
Kev Ragone: drums/percussion on tracks 1, 4, 8, 10
Andy Wade: drums on tracks 6, 7, 9
Kyana Sun: drums on track 11
Dom Palombi: drums on track 12
Yusef Kelliebrew: drums on track 13
Angel Hernandez: drums on track 14
Chuck Salamone: guitar on track 6
Chris “angrypolarbear” Doughty: synths/keys on track 11
Logan “Biggoron” Tucker: synths/keys on track 13
Lacey Johnson: piano on track 15
Cheryl Carr & Riley Zielinski: flutes on track 8
Jacob Deaven: saxophone on track 10

Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 arranged by Carrie Wood
Tracks 3, 12 arranged by Ian Cowell
Arrangement on track 14 based on initial 2021 arrangement by Jonathan Shaw as commissioned and directed by Carrie Wood
Additional arranging on track 13 by Yusef Kelliebrew

Mixing and mastering by Ian Cowell.

Album art by Patricio Thielemann (Pokerus Project).

Special thanks to: Kev Ragone, Andy Wade, Kyana Sun, Dom Palombi, Yusef Kelliebrew, Angel Hernandez, V-Ron Media, Chuck Salamone, Cheryl Carr, Riley Zielinski, Jacob Deaven, Xander Plute, Chris Doughty, Logan Tucker, Lacey Johnson, Patricio Thielemann, Barry “Epoch” Topping, Drew Gibson, the entire Dwelling of Duels community, the entire GameGrooves family, Mark Schimmelbusch, Jonathan Shaw, Gene Dreyband, Veronica Tyler, Phil Wood, Diane Gunther, Enzo Cowell, Elroy Cowell, Frank Cowell, Ganon & Friday


GO!GO!STYLE, written by Barry “Epoch” Topping for Paradise Killer (2020)
Moon Mountain, written by Tsuyoshi Tanaka for Harvest Moon 64(1999)
Under the Rotting Pizza, written by Nobuo Uematsu for Final Fantasy VII (1997)
Azure Blue World… For Emerald Coast, written by Jun Senoue for Sonic Adventure (1999)
Terran 1, written by Glenn Stafford for Starcraft(1998)
That’s a Big Stick, written by Chuck Salamone for Hylics 2 (2020)
Genius of PK Love, includes elements of Genius of Love by the Tom Tom Club (1981), Fantasy by Mariah Carey (1995), Eight Melodies, written by Keiichi Suzuki for EarthBound (1994) and Pollyanna, written by Keiichi Suzuki for Mother (1989)
Korok Forest, written by Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata and Hajime Wakai for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2018)
Title Theme, written by Jonathan Dunn for Robocop (1990)
Into the Valley, includes elements of Opening, Valley and Professor Oak’s Lab, written by Ikuko Mimori for Pokemon Snap (1999)
Smooooch, written by Kors K for Beatmania IIDX 16: Empress (2008)
Snake Man, written by Yasuaki Fujita for Mega Man III (1990)
Jenna’s Theme, written by Motoi Sakuraba for Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2003)
A Long Fall, written by Masayoshi Soken for Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)
Hope, written by dai for Umineko: When They Cry (2007)


Bonus tracks (exclusively on physical CD):
16. Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
17. Sultana Dreaming (from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn) – Feat. V-Ron Media
18. National Park (from Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal) – Feat. Xander Plute
19. Butter-Fly (from Digimon Adventure) – Feat. Angrypolarbear, Kyana Sun
Tracks 17, 18, 19 mastered by Drew Gibson.

Psycho Killer, written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, originally by Talking Heads (1977)
Sultana Dreaming, written by Masayoshi Soken for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2014)
National Park, written by Go Ichinose for Pokémon Gold & Silver (1999)
Butter-Fly, written by Hidenori Chiwata and Cher Watanabe for Digimon Adventure (1999)

Chloroforms – Lay Low And Be Held (Triplicate Records)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Immediately, the industrial beats of the opening track ‘Rattle Can Paint Job’ tell you all you need to know about Chloroforms’ Triplicate debut ‘Lay Low and Be Held’. 1. The beats and fire and will consistently catch you off guard. 2. You’re gonna be taking in a genre, or subgenre at least that’s not immediately clear, but you’ll notice it’s seldom heard on our label. 3. You’re about to have a good time. Time to make it happen!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
INTERVIEW
~~~~~~~~~~~~
George Ernst, Triplicate Records: OK before I ask anything else, please, can you give some context to the mysterious MC referring to you by name on ‘Sonar for Sore Eyes’?

Michael Marchant aka Chloroforms: Yes. I like to collect audio snippets of things I hear out in the world and recontextualize them to besmirch my name. Ha! This was the first time I’ve used one from my collection. I’d be super curious if someone could place where this was taken from! We’d probably have an annoying amount of things in common.

GE: What IS heat vision? Or was that a Jeopardy answer?

MM: That is MY question, sir! WHAT IS HEAT VISION?! A question that randomly popped into my head while trying to name the project file for this song. Instead of making myself a separate note so I could go look up what heat vision was later, I named the song “What is Heat Vision?” as a reminder. Which reminds me…According to Wikipedia, heat vision is ‘the fictional ability to burn objects with one’s gaze’. Perfect.

GE: Was MX-80 a reference to the noise-rock band from Indiana?

MM: You know, it wasn’t; but my noise-rock band, IfIHadAHiFi, has played quite a few shows in Bloomington. And I really like the MX-80 album Out of the Tunnel. When I was making the track “MX-80” I was trying to make it sound like the musical equivalent of an old dot matrix printer shaking itself off of a desk. I named it after the Epson MX-80 which would be an incredibly bitchin’ instrument in the hands of the right noise-rock band.

GE: Can you tell us a little about both the name of your project Chloroforms’, and the inspiration behind the album title?

MM: I’m going to show my age here, but Colorforms were a toy from my childhood that were these little vinyl clings in the shape of cartoon characters that you could stick to smooth surfaces. That was BIG entertainment to a small child at the time, but life goes on and I had fully forgotten they existed.

Then one day not too long ago I see them for sale out in the world, the first time since I was a child. I instantly recognize their iconic logo, but my brain reads it as CHLOROFORMS. Instant band name. FONT FACT, the font that I used for the free_refills_or_die EP is the closest to the Colorforms logo I could find.

As far as the album title goes, Lay Low and Be Held is two things to me. First, it’s a play on the phrase “lo and behold”. Second, it’s just a nice thing to aspire to.

GE: Your honest opinion on kangaroos: give it to me please. I’ll know if
you try to lie.

MM: I love these questions. I am strongly in favor of kangaroos. Especially YouTube videos of kangaroos who are keeping it real. One long night after a show in Louisville, Kentucky my bandmates and I watched a video titled ‘Kangaroo Shoved Through Fence During Tussle at Canberra Nature Reserve’ approximately 135 times and almost died from laughter.
Link to the good stuff:
youtu.be/N7M6lhzYOow?si=rAjq4gzSz2tsNJ6m

GE: What was your favourite track to work on? I really love Maximum
Capacity Dry Spell.

MM: Thank you! I was 100% happy with everything on this album so it’s difficult to choose a favorite. “Maximum Capacity” has a great groove and was the quickest thing I wrote for the album. Satisfying when that happens. “Cadaver Chiropractic” was written in 5/4 which is strange and proggy and took the longest to get right, so that sticks out. “Hide the Smoke” was an exercise in subtlety which is not always where my brain leads me. “The Proud Parer” might be the winner (for today) since it was my attempt to write a Chloroforms version of “I Wanna Dance
with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”. I think I nailed it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
REVIEW
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chloroforms: ‘Lay Low and Be Held’. A fascinating project from Milwaukee that we couldn’t be more excited to share with you! With dark titles like ‘Mugger’s Lullaby’, ‘Cemetery Symmetry’, and ‘Cadaver Chiropractic’, no one has tricked you. You’re going to be diving head first into some extremely danceable murk. Let’s analyze!

As soon as the industrial beats of ‘Rattle Can Paint Job’ blast out from the periphery and into the forefront, you know you’re in for something engaging, something you’ve not heard before. Hardcore, relentless pounding, interspersed with light-speed wooshing and a bassline that perfectly flirts with fuzz without leaving it feeling overbearing.

There’s also a paranoid bent to several of the songs on show here, the first bearing such baggage is the fraught yet funky ‘What is Heat Vision’. Alienated fear-beats or funk-laden bop. You be the judge. But really it’s both, and manages to pull these vibes off in a spectacularly grandiose manner. ‘Mugger’s Lullaby’ on the other hand, tricks you. You think you’re in for a straightforward stripped down macho-sounding THUNK-THUNK beat, then half way through, the gentleman responsible for this record, whose first name I know but will henceforth be referred to as ‘Mr. Chloroforms’, swipes the floor away, and you’re left in a void of ultra-fast IDM. It’s a trip that comes out of nowhere and pulls off a perfect bait and switch!

‘Lay Low’ on the other hand offers a lighter collection of melodies and textures than the opening trio. That’s not to say it’s some breezy intermission. The tambourine jangle works beautifully with a series of warbling synths, and I mean, hey! (extreme Ron Howard Voice) ‘That’s partially the name of the record!’. We segue neatly then, into the equally brief, yet decidedly more Lynchian-static-laden eccentricity of the aforementioned ‘Cadaver Chiropractic’, which to be fair does indeed give the old bones a good thorough shake. As does the similarly darkly titled ‘Cemetery Symmetry’, which offers a bag full of beat-treats, and Mr. Chloroforms’ isn’t shy about switching things up on a dime, creating a blistering, disorienting, but undeniably appealing effect. This three-minute microcosm of an industrial mixtape is done when he damn well says so, ok?

Then we have ‘MX-80’. At several points this track feels like it’s pursuing you. You know? No? Just me? Ok… moving on.
‘Hide the Smoke’ conjures the misty atmosphere in your mind that the title promises. Whirring disembodied wind-enveloped synths haunt the mix, while a stark and sparingly-riffed-on bit of percussion rumbles away in the dark. It’s effective and fun, even if it’s not meant to be. Meanwhile ‘Route Driver, Asleep at the Wheel’ feels so hyper-charged with dark static that it might combust at any second. Here the drums pound with greater grit and otherworldly malaise than ever, and coalesce to make a murky and melodically fascinating piece of music, increasingly frantic until the half-point switch up, the delightfully batshit-ramifications of which, you need to hear and draw your own conclusions. (But if they’re not positive, you’re wrong.)

‘Maximum Capacity Dry Spell’ Starts as a ultra-focused, borderline synth-wavey bop, and for the most part maintains its slick composure in the face of equally slick percussive flourishes. The rubbery, cool-as-shit bassline compliments the arrangement perfectly and cements MCDS as a highlight. Similarly fun, yet decided more off-kilter is the mysterious ‘Sonar for Sore Eyes’, a relentless slammer, soaked in spooky vibrations and prefixed by an equally unnerving recording of a woman referring to Mr. Chloroforms by his government name. What does it all mean? Well keep reading to find out, hopefully. Otherwise, it just slaps!

Equally slapworthy is the final, ‘The Proud Parer’. A fun pun, and a decidedly chill way to end a record. While ‘Lay Low and Be Held’ can at times feel like a mission statement akin to ‘make cool weird music and set yourself apart from the herd’ (stop me if I’m way off), the music is utterly unpretentious. Borrowing its studious delights from sources across the electronic spectrum, with some good industrial rock thrown in for good measure, the album ends as it started: with a fabulous piece of music that puts you in a lively mood. That was all I ever wanted. I want that for you too, dear reader. 


Written and Produced by Michael Marchant
Artwork by Michael Marchant
Mastered by Michael Southard

Jaydawn & Wukir Suryadi – Pucung, Pangkur Jeung Hujan Bedog (WV Sorcerer Productions 巫唱片)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

●●●●●●●●●●●●
Also available in Big Cartel webshop, less charges for non-EU buyers.
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▼WV121: Jaydawn & Wukir Suryadi – Pucung, Pangkur Jeung Hujan Bedog
(Songs of Death, Retreat, and Rain of Machetes)

WV Sorcerer Productions proudly presents this collaboration with Grimloc Records, Bandung’s cornerstone of underground countercultural sound, known for championing uncompromising voices across genres. This alliance bridges Indonesia’s radical industrial hip-hop with the experimental vanguard from beyond.

A collision between two uncompromising forces in Indonesia’s underground—Jaydawn’s gritty, sample-scarred beatcraft and Wukir Suryadi’s raw, hand-built sonic rituals. Recorded between Bandung and Salatiga, this genre-breaking work fuses distorted rhythm, ancestral resonance, and industrial tension into a soundtrack of resistance. A hallucinatory dispatch from a city under siege, where displacement hides behind the language of development.

▼

This collaboration was forged not in comfort, but in contradiction. Two of Indonesia’s most uncompromising underground figures—Jaydawn, Bandung’s rogue boom-bap architect, and Wukir Suryadi, the genre-eviscerating shapeshifter behind Senyawa—collide in a visceral new project that defies category and disobeys silence. Their debut collaboration is not just an album—it is a rupture, an aural pamphlet, a ghost howl from the dance hall beneath the rubble of a city being sold. Crafted in the sacred noise labs of Studio Tingkir (Salatiga) and Cutz Chamber (Bandung), this 10-track release fractures hip-hop, ambient drone, Bambu Wukir metallurgy, and industrial echoes into a palette of resistance. One war-song, “Parancah”, features a searing verse from Bandung’s own acid-spitter, Morgue Vanguard. Titled “Pucung, Pangkur Jeung Hujan Bedog” (translated as “Songs of Death, Retreat, and Rain of Machetes”), this project is both elegy and uprising.

Jaydawn’s beatwork is carved from vinyl cracks, cassette hiss, metal clank, and turntablist ruins—echoing DJ Muggs, DJ Premier, and the political edge of The Bomb Squad, while rooted deeply in Bandung’s own lineage of sonic resistance: Homicide. His textures refuse polish. They choose grit.

Wukir Suryadi, the mystical engineer of raw tradition, conjures a language of bowed bamboo, scratch-built strings, and ancestral distortion. His instrument is never the same twice. It breathes, convulses, and testifies. With Morgue Vanguard behind the producing desk, they soundtrack a Bandung under siege—where “revitalization” is code for displacement, and “development” is a velvet glove over state violence.

Accompanied by writings that channel the ghosts of the Situationist International and the militancy of urban poor struggles, this album is an act of counter-cartography—drawing lines across erased kampungs, evicted dreams, and unauthorized prayers. It is music made with the ruins, not merely about them.

▼

Wukir Suryadi
Shape-shifter of sound, half of Senyawa — drags the ghosts of gamelan and guttural metal onto the classical stage. His hands are rituals: plucking, bowing, summoning chaos and calm in a single breath. He invents instruments the way others invent excuses. Hailing from Salatiga, Indonesia, his music walks barefoot across centuries—haunting, primal, always unfinished. He brings theatrical ruckus to the classical stage, plucking, strumming, and bowing his way from peaceful meditations to rhythmical frenzies. The evolution of his music is never complete as he utilizes the agility of his instrument to collaborate with musicians and performance artists from around the world, fluently bridging musical styles and inventing new instruments as he goes.


Jaydawn
Bandung’s beat-smith from the undercurrent began in the cipher shadows of the early 2000s. From D’Army to Eyefeelsix, he’s stayed true to the dirty reel-to-reel dream: boom-bap, dusty drums, and samples scraped from rust, vinyl cracks, and cassette hiss. Alongside his mentors, DJ Evil Cutz and Morgue Vanguard, Jaydawn forms the backbone of Napalm Squad, a production unit behind numerous influential local releases—most notably Blakumuh’s debut album, Krowbar’s Galaksi Rima Sakti, and Rand Slam’s 9051. His remix credits include genre-crossing reworks for acts like Homicide and Efek Rumah Kaca.

Jaydawn’s sound is steeped in grit and groove, echoing the spirit of DJ Muggs, DJ Lethal, early Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, and the raw political energy of The Bomb Squad. Locally, his biggest influence remains Homicide, a touchstone in his sonic language. Drawing samples from funk, rock, metal, and traditional Indonesian sounds, Jaydawn crafts a broad palette—from classic, hard-hitting boombap to the eerie minimalism of contemporary drumless hip-hop. 


Produced by Morgue Vanguard
All music written by Jaydawn & Wukir Suryadi
Lyrics on Parancah written by Morgue Vanguard
Recorded at Wukir Suryadi’s studio in Tingkir, Salatiga, and at Cutz Chamber in Bandung
Mixed & mastered by Hamzah Kusbiyanto
Photography by Arif Danun
Design & layout by Herry Sutresna & Ruò Tán



LOC142 / WV121
Rights owned by the artists respectively
Grimloc Records & WV Sorcerer Productions 2025

www.facebook.com/wvsorcerer
www.youtube.com/c/wvsorcerer
Instagram: @wv_sorcerer_productions
巫唱片

www.grimlocrecords.com
www.grimlocstore.com

Hal McGee – October 2025 Report (HalTapes)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

October 2025 Report
was recorded October 1st through 31st 2025
in Gainesville, Florida
with four Sony ICD PX-470 stereo digital dictaphones
dictaphone assemblage audio folk art
with spoken words by Hal
co-starring Stanley
rain, kazoo, frog clicker, circuit bent Casio SK-1, various harmonicas,
stewed tomatoes canjo, cigar box diddley bow,crows, aircraft, two string (then one string) pink dumpster guitar, transparent plastic ukulele, in ostrich tuning, smoke alarm signal, emergency vehicles, my mom’s dog Bailey, KQ Unotone iPhone and iPad synth, Stylophone CPM DS-2 analog synthesizer, SUPERFREQ built by Ryan Stanley, miscellaneous sounds and conversations from Apartment Music 58, wooden train whistle, sounds from Mark McGee’s 2025 Halloween Extravaganza, Finley McGee’s second birthday, conversations with neighbors, gaseous emissions from my asshole
— the voices of Dylan Houser, Trevor Luke, Alex Smith, Mark McGee, Finley McGee, JoAn McGee, and Kyle McGee
— thanks to Rafael González, who contributed numerous dictaphone recordings of him speaking, singing, playing the trumpet, Casio SK-1, crickets, and sounds from his daily life.

my beloved two string pink dumpster guitar has finally attained its true potential and destiny! it is now a one string pink dumpster guitar, and is now perfect. it always had one string too many! the “bass” string broke during my performance at Apartment Music 58.

snwv – music at a distance 280 (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

One element of creativity that’s undervalued, I think, is whim. We can make plans and restrict ourselves to certain forms, but newness and variety can enter by following a thought in the moment. Right before this performance, I thought of using some clipped string ends and the violin bow as ways of exciting the strings, and adding unintentional sounds. As a result, some of these pieces have sonic profiles that are unusual for this series.

The resulting timbres have the quality of small, distant bells, or sounds from an indeterminate instrument. The conventionally played notes often resemble low brass or wind instruments. These pieces are in line with the meditative quality of the series, though the timbral variety suggests new areas to explore.

The titles of these pieces are references to the visual and performance art of Hamish Fulton. Thank you for listening!


Maurice Rickard: Guitar, programming

Signal chain: Univox Coily in Bb F Bb F Bb C tuning > Reuss Effects Understate, Reuss Effects Repeater Fuzz, Balls Effects KWB > Vox Wah > Dunlop Stereo Uni-Vibe, Hungry Robot Wardenclyffe Deluxe > Moyo Volume > Max/MSP eight-delay patch with FFT pitch shift, tremolo, convolution reverb, AudioThing Reels. Guitar played with fingers, eBow, string ends, violin bow.

Impulses: Inchindown Oil Tanks (Matt Gray mattg.co.uk ), silent5 Biamp MR/140 (Tilt Up 2), St. Paul’s Huddersfield (near), Fort Worden Cistern