Author Archives: John Lithium

Various Artists – Tomb Of Iconoclasts (Cryo Chamber)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

The Tombs series returns with a special roster curated by Apocryphos featuring new and familiar artists, creating atmospheres of dread and existential horror.

The knell of a distant bell fallen can be heard within the decayed houses of the gods. Once standing with grandeur and might, these temples are now their own tombs across a wasteland left by man.

Recommended for fans of oppressive dark ambient, brooding atmospheric and layered texturing


Tomb Series Discography:
Tomb of Empires – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-empires
Tomb of Seers – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-seers
Tomb of Druids – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-druids
Tomb of Ordeals – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-ordeals
Tomb of Wights – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-wights
Tomb of Primordials – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-primordials
Tomb of Iconoclasts – cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-iconoclasts

 

released October 7, 2025

Written, Produced, Performed
Apocryphos
Atrox Pestis
Dødsmaskin
Envenomist
Fractalyst
Gnawed
Infinexhuma
New Risen Throne
Plague Machinery
Pœna Sensus
Phragments

Artwork & Mastering
Simon Heath

Lila Tirando a Violeta – Dream Of Snakes (Unguarded)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Over the last half-decade, Uruguayan music producer and vocalist Lila Tirando a Violeta has distinguished herself internationally through a series of releases for Hyperdub and N.A.A.F.I and audiovisual sets for Mutek, Primavera Sound, Boiler Room TV, and Unsound Festival. Along the way, she has positioned herself on the vanguard of an aesthetic that reframes South American melodies and percussion inside avant-garde soundscapes and hard-edged machine beats equal parts IDM, industrial, techno and gabber.

Recorded during the introspective quietude that followed her relocation from the Netherlands to Ireland in 2023, Dream of Snakes is Lila’s first album for the Berlin-based record and art label Unguarded. A cycle of visceral, experimental club tracks, the album merges Lila’s memories of South America with her present-day realities, filtered through a longstanding love of sci-fi and post-punk and a desire to bring dancefloors together without letting go of her distinctive musical voice.

After falling in love with the Emerald Isle’s lush countryside, Lila began making outdoor field recordings on daily hikes. “I started to feel a strong urge to create music that would inspire me to move around or at least feel the music in my body,” she explains. Having previously created two concept albums in quick succession, Desire Path and Accela (with Sin Maldita), Lila was more than ready to put pre-existing narrative and subtext to one side during creation. “I wanted to feel the music coursing through my nervous system, that same adrenaline rush I get when watching a David Cronenberg film,” she continues.

Before moving to Ireland, Lila experienced a recurring dream about snakes. Rather than being frightening, however, it was comforting. As she began to layer up her field recordings with synthesisers, urgent rhythms, voice and studio production, she found herself researching the meaning of her dream. “During this process, I rediscovered a song from my childhood, ‘Sueño con Serpientes’ by the Cuban songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, which my grandparents often played,” she says. In the song’s eerie, leftfield folk soundworld and impressionistic lyrics, Lila found a north star to return to while completing Dream of Snakes.

Opening with the nocturnal ambience of ‘Unworthy Praise,’ Lila collapses the boundaries between field recordings, synthesis, and percussion until they become indistinguishable before taking things in a technonaturalistic direction on ‘New Flesh. ‘Created with Björk collaborators SideProject, ‘Ostrich: Ñandú’ is a flurry of ostrich calls, synth arpeggios, and fast-paced man-machine rhythms. Up next, ‘Heavy Is The Soul’ sees her keeping up the intensity while drawing from her love of Goth-rock.

From there, Lila explores a Latin American slanted rhythmic ambient soundscape on ‘Retumba En Tu Piel’, blends breakbeats with mantras via ‘Rest & Relaxation’, turns the echoes of oblivion into a new wave/synth-pop inspired dancefloor anthem called ‘Eco del Olvido’ with Lighght. Closing with the frenetic cyborg rhythms and synth-squelches of ‘Eye Slice’ featuring JQ, Dream of Snakes lands in the sweet spot between braindance and the sweaty physicality of body music. It’s ready for the dancefloor and so much more. 
 
released April 25, 2025

All tracks written and produced by Lila Tirando a Violeta, except where noted:

Additional production on tracks 2,5,6 by Pobvio and Sin Maldita
Eco del Olvido, Heavy is the Soul featuring Lighght
Eye Slice Featuring JQ
Ostrich/Ñandú featuring Sideproject

Artwork by Dario Alva
Mixing and Mastering by Sin Maldita
Text by Martyn Pepperell

Released by Unguarded, 2025

C.P. McDill & {AN} EeL – Dryads & Diodes (Pan Pan Pan Avian Distress Call)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Hot on the heels of the 4th Volume of FORMICA TRIFECTA, Two thirds of that trio ( C.P. McDill & {AN} EeL re-emerge to join forces on another duet outing –


C.P. McDill = cpmcdill.bandcamp.com


Sounds & Noises = C.P. McDill / {AN} EeL
Text & Image = {AN} EeL

JG Thirlwell – Music Of The Venture Bros Volume 3 (Ectopic Ents)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Music of The Venture Bros Volume Three is the third album of musical scores that JG Thirlwell created for the hit Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros. It is released on Thirlwell’s Ectopic Ents label , in an arrangement with Adult Swim / Watertower Records. The music is drawn from seasons 1-7. The CD contains detailed sleeve notes by Thirlwell.

Thirlwell’s unique and influential score for The Venture Bros. television series garnered widespread critical acclaim. Thirlwell was nominated for an Annie Award (the highest honor in the field of animation) for his “outstanding achievement in music” on The Venture Bros in 2016. He created the musical score for the show since its debut in 2003 until it finished its run with Season 7 in 2019. The Venture Bros returned in 2023 with a movie for HBO, which Thirlwell also scored.

The first volume of Venture Bros soundtracks was released in 2009 and the second was released in 2016. Thirlwell also scored the Emmy-winning hit FX cartoon show Archer.

The CD version of Music of The Venture Bros Volume Three contains 34 tracks and there are 21 tracks on the vinyl LP version which is pressed on “Canyon Effect“ blue colored vinyl. The vinyl also comes with a download code so the buyer can have the full album digitally.
credits
released September 5, 2025

Composed, produced, arranged and performed by JG Thirlwell.
Recorded and mixed by JG Thirlwell at Self Immolation Studios Brooklyn.
Artwork designed by JG Thirlwell.
Mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk.

Born Erased – I Am The End Of The World (BLWBCK)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

“I Am The End of The World” is the first offering of Born Erased, a new endeavor by Bulgarian musician Angel Simitchiev, who first appeared on BLWBCK in 2013 with his now-defunct alias Mytrip. As both the project name and album title suggest, the music is meant to evoke bleaker, darker, and even dystopian visions. These are parts of a narrative that is simultaneously deeply personal and universal. Muted anger, despise, and hatred for the world collide with hope for freedom, even if it comes at the cost of the total eradication of the reality we are forced to live in. “I Am The End of The World” took nearly three years to be completed. The backbone of the record was written in a breath but then slowly structured and expanded upon. In this album, Simitchiev juxtaposes his nearly two decades’ worth of ambient research with his long involvement in hardcore punk. Severely deformed guitars, cavernous synths, and drastically manipulated recordings of heavy machinery are organically intertwined to become the core of the album.

A big part of why it is so impactful is that the gates were open for several guest musicians who added even more depth and character to a record already highly dense with sound. Moss Harvest (tape manipulation and textures) and V0LAND (cello) are found on two of the more straightforward ambient tracks in the album. Shattering, almost doom-influenced live drums on three of the tracks have been performed by Boris Malevanov (Nocktern, Heptagram) which brings this otherwise fragile and drifting genre to its most extreme form.

blwbck.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-the-end-of-the-world