Author Archives: John Lithium

Unruly Disturbance – Frisson (Not Yet Remembered Records)

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Label Description: Manchester, UK native Tom Collingburn, who records as Unruly Disturbance, has put together a varied and emotional record entitled ‘Frisson’ designed to elicit this very effect. From sweeping ambient work, dripping with gorgeous sound design to beat-driven workouts, the album delivers this physical response to music in spades.

Featuring a few tunes with poetry recitations by featured artist Mat Riches, these pieces act as an anchor on an otherwise instrumental recording that explores different facets of mood, texture, melody, groove, and the human psyche itself. Rife with a mix of analog drift paired with precise programming and sequencing, meticulous around-the-house sampling, and stellar live-take performances, this seasoned electronic music veteran has returned to the fray after a long hiatus…and the wait was worthwhile. Certainly one not to be missed…a treat for the ear-bones.

The album releases 6/12/2026. Anyone who preorders this album will also receive free codes to two of Tom’s previous Unruly Disturbance albums, ‘Music for Scenes,’ and ‘Melodic Drone.’

  • Ben @ NYR

Written & Produced by Thomas Bernard Collingburn

Peggy Lee, Julien Wilson, Theo Carbo, Dylan van der Schyff – Waiting Music (Open Thread)

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Label Description: Waiting Music unfolds as a series of evolving musical environments. The opening title track establishes the album’s tone with a haunting two-chord guitar riff that gradually mutates before returning like a ghost at the end of the piece. Elsewhere, the anarchic punk energy of God’s Little Prefect sits alongside the gentle, sunlit circularity of From the Deck. Pieces such as Pocket Rocket, Travelling Home, and Prince of Spoons move fluidly between folk-like lyricism, driving grooves and dreamlike abstraction. Other tracks, like Egg on the Escalator explore the use of rhythmic unison and polytonality inspired by the music and musings of Captain Beefheart. Elsewhere, angular unison lines dissolve into psychedelic solos, delicate miniatures nod to Erik Satie, and extended pieces like Sumud use odd-meter rhythms and electro-acoustic textures to propel the listener through shifting musical terrains. With Waiting Music, Open Thread presents a work that reflects our current moment: restless, searching, and resilient, offering space to pause, attend, and move forward together.

Julien Wilson – tenor saxophone/electronics
Peggy Lee – cello
Theo Carbo – guitars
Dylan van der Schyff – drums/percussion

Tracks 1,2,5 by Theo Carbo
Tracks 3,4,8,9 by Peggy Lee (SOCAN)
Tracks 7, 10, 11 by Julien Wilson
Track 6 by van der Schyff, Carbo, Lee, Wilson

Artwork by Leigh van der Schyff

Recorded on June 30th, 2025, at the Warehouse Studio, Vancouver.
Tracking by Sheldon Zaharko
Mixing by Theo Carbo and Dylan van der Schyff.
Mastering by Joe Talia
Design by Brodie Mcallister

The music was recorded on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people.

Thanks to Jeremy Rose at Earshift Music, The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, and The Canada Council for the Arts.

Julien Wilson is a D’Addario artist.

Dogs Versus Shadows & Nicholas Langley – 16mm (Strategic Tape Reserve)

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Label Description: Dogs Versus Shadows & Nicholas Langley return with a follow up to 2024’s ‘Salt Coast’, this time with a much deeper, double album-length dive into their sometimes unsettling brand of radiophonic acid, or “exploratory electronic music that lurks in mental doorways.”

16mm is the soundtrack to the type of dreams where you find dusty old reels of film from your past containing partially hidden memories, or long forgotten excerpts of you and your friends’ abandoned surrealist movies. Possibly you’ll remember it from a dream when you hear it for the first time.

Dog Versus Shadows has released music on Subexotic Records, Third Kind, Woodford Halse, Anticipating Nowhere, Miracle Pond, Human Geography Recordings and Flaming Pines.

Nicholas Langley has released music on Third Kind, Spun Out Of Control, Strategic Tape Reserve, Cruel Nature, Mortality Tables, Muzan Editions and Falt.

Gigi Masin – Movement (Sacred Bones Records)

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Label Description: Following the jazzy library vibes of 2023’s collaborative Dolphin LP with Greg Foat and Moses Boyd, the venetian maestro Gigi Masin returns to the ambience for which he is renowned, with Movement – his first solo full-length since 2020’s Calypso, and his Sacred Bones Records debut. Fuelled by creative reinvention and rhythmic motion, he moves seamlessly between melancholy electronic notes, technoid robotics, groovy liminal cloudscapes, and fathoms-deep ambient aquatics.

Since early beginnings in obscurity, his 1986 debut album Wind slowly built an organic following on late night radio, later bolstered when “Clouds” was sampled by artists like Björk, Post Malone, and more. He now counts Oneohtrix Point Never, Devendra Banhart, Caroline Polachek, and the late Kenny Wheeler as fans.

The new album Movement reflects on Masin’s place within the pantheon of ambient masters, his ongoing artistic ambitions, and his aspirations for a scene which he’s seen grow exponentially from humble beginnings. The LP is also an ode to literal movement, both in nature, and in human physical expressions to sound. Masin strived to make ambient music for movement, not in the standard dance music sense, but “dynamic music, with a beating heart full of love.” Reconfiguring ambient’s association with solitary listening and cold academia, Gigi went outwards, channeling something somatic that connects with the body, not just the mind.

“Bed on Mars” sets the titular tone for Masin’s renewed curiosity, with cosmic atmospherics evoking the sensation of waking up on a new planet unafraid, whilst the poignant synthesized trumpet and suspended liminal limbo of “Lost” feels like floating adrift in an unknown sea. Delving further into off-centre beats is the celestial techno funk of “Deception Dance,” which sounds like Sun Electric jamming with Carl Craig and Kraftwerk. The bright beaming light of “Golden” radiates warmth, sounding like the bossa nova brother of Göttsching’s Balearic classic E2 E4.

Despite the passing of his wife after a long illness, and losing his musical archive in a flood, Gigi remains pure-at-heart and positive, pouring his soul into the pursuit of beauty. The latest in a slow starting but steadily building career, Movement sees Masin continue to secure his seat at the table of true ambient greats.

Plastik Mystik – Plastic Mystic (Self-Released)

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Label Description: The debut release.

How do you spell the band name??

Recorded in 2025 by Torin Carmichael, Bobby Lirette and Shae Breton at CU Denver.

Mixed by Torin Carmichael and Bobby Lirette

Mastered By Carl Saff

Cover art and Liner art by SwooDiss (Lumerian Picnic) ((Kieran))
Back Cover Art by Marcelo Andres Perez (of Scorplings) and SwooDiss

S.E.T.I – Sleep Environments for Interplanetary Travel (Loki Foundation)

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Label Description: These tracks are mastered in such a way as to allow you to play through the whole set as if it was one experience. The tracks in the middle of the set are mastered quieter, so that you can sleep during your travels, if you wish.

You are on a journey to other worlds, using wormhole navigation and cosmic guidance. You’ll go through parallel universes. A lot of the time, you will need to sleep in order to maintain sanity and these sounds can accompany you if you’ll allow them in. They’ll comfort you, remind you…

There will be echoes of your past lives, encounters and tangential moments. Darkness, beauty and noise will be your companions…

A mangled communication burst…a smattering of spy transmissions…broken broadcasts and ethereal interludes from an Earth long since abandoned by a stupid and brutal race. A race only occasionally capable of connecting to the cosmic wheel that gives our souls energy.

These recordings have been composed, sequenced and mastered in such a way as to allow for periods of hazy dreams, deep sleep, time displacement and finally, awakening. Please use them as you see fit – perhaps as a toolbox for your own sleep travels and dream experimentation.

Music composition and arrangement by Andrew Lagowski 2014-2018 at Studio FWD.
Artwork by Knut Enderlein.
Mastered by Leaf Audio.

Andrew Lagowski is a British musician and producer who has been active in the electronic music scene since the 1980s. He has released a diverse range of music under various aliases, including Lagowski, Legion, S.E.T.I., Clans of the Alphane Moon and Project Ghost.
Lagowski’s early work focused on experimental and industrial music, with albums such as ‘Nadir’ and Legion’s ’Die Datenschleuder’ showcasing his interest in exploring unconventional sound sources and production techniques.
In the early 1990s, Lagowski began to move towards a more techno-oriented sound, releasing an influential series of 12” singles on the Chromium Industries label. These helped to establish Lagowski as a key figure in the techno and electronic music scenes.
His musical output has continued to evolve and expand over the years, with recent releases such as ‘Secrets of Numbers’ and S.E.T.I.’s ‘Sleep Environments for Interplanetary Travel’ showcasing his continued experimentation with sound and production techniques.
Throughout his career, Lagowski’s music has been characterised by its innovative use of electronic instrumentation, as well as his willingness to blend and cross-pollinate genres. His diverse musical catalogue of 60+ albums and 10+ 12” singles has earned him a loyal following and cemented his place as a respected and influential figure in the world of electronic music.

アンドリュー・ラゴフスキーは、1980年代初頭から電子音楽シーンで活動しているイギリスのミュージシャンおよびプロデューサーです。彼はLagowski、Legion、S.E.T.I.、Nagamatzu、Clans of the Alphane Moon、Project Ghostなど、さまざまな別名で多様な音楽をリリースしています。
彼の初期の作品は実験的でインダストリアルな音楽に焦点を当て、S.E.T.I.の『Knowledge』、Lagowskiの『Nadir』、Legionの『Die Datenschleuder』などのアルバムでは非伝統的な音源と制作技術の探求が表れています。
1990年代には、ラゴフスキーはよりテクノ志向のサウンドに移行し、Chromium Industriesレーベルでの一連の影響力ある12インチシングルをリリースしました。これらは彼をテクノおよび電子音楽シーンで重要な存在として確立するのに役立ちました。
彼の音楽は年を重ねるごとに進化し拡大し、最近のリリースである『Secrets of Numbers』やS.E.T.I.の『Sleep Environments for Interplanetary Travel』では、音と制作技術の実験を続けています。
ラゴフスキーのキャリアを通して、彼の音楽は電子楽器の革新的な使用と、ジャンルを融合・交差させる意欲によって特徴づけられています。60以上のアルバムと10以上の12インチシングルからなる多様な音楽カタログは、彼に忠実なファンを魅了し、電子音楽の世界で尊敬される影響力ある人物としての地位を確立しています。