Author Archives: John Lithium

Backengrillen – Backengrillen (Svart Records)

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Label Description: Anti-fascist, anti-racist, free form Death Jazz – BACKENGRILLEN’s debut album out now Svart Records. LP & CD available at Svart’s webstore:

www.svartrecords.com/en/product/backengrillen-backengrillen/13936

”Music and art without definite labels is a necessity for a better living – create your own individual genres and open up for more death-jazz-core-noise-metal-poetry to enter your world of destroying the local and global stupidities around us” -Mats Gustafsson

“We really hope this slab of stupid, violent death rock will ruin someone’s day. Haha.” -David Sandström

Backengrillen is a new ensemble with their roots in HC, punk, noise and free Jazz. All members from Umeå, with roots in the original version of Refused – and one with starting points in the jazz-rock ensemble Nirvana (1980). With a solid and yet varied background in the creativities of Refused, TEXT, INVSN, Fire Orchestra, The International Noise Conspiracy, The End, Serpent, The Thing, Final Exit and other classic jazz combos we will now start our journey of 4 colliding locomotives, creating a new form of beauty and energy.

Anti-fascist, anti-racist, free form Death Jazz – in the memory of Lars Lystedt – Backengrillen arrives with new perspectives on jazz. And punk. In-your-face HC jazz inspired by The Cramps, Little Richard, Albert Ayler, Polly Bradfield, Entombed, John Zorn, Misfits, Stooges, Lars Gullin, Can and much more.

Backengrillen’s self-titled debut album is out now on vinyl, CD, and digitally only on Bandcamp.

Backengrillen
Dennis Lyxzén – vocal and effects
Mats Gustafsson – saxophones, flutes and live electronics
Magnus Flagge – bass
David Sandström – drums and electronics

“Backengrillens music is a paean to chaos and destruction. The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noiserock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart like a ravenous cat would a tiny forest mouse. It’s filled to the brim with the self-hatred endemic to the province of Västerbotten from whence the member’s hail. The record was written on a Thursday during their first ever rehearsal, performed live on a Friday and recorded on a Saturday, so what you’re hearing is raw, stupid, gut instinct music played by seasoned purveyors of hardcore punk, metal, free jazz, noise et cetera.

Record no 2 is in the making, less stupid, more ugly. Stay tuned and fuck the pigs.”

-Backengrillen, November 2025 

Council Estate Electronics – Arktika (Glacial Movements)

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Label Description:

The original concept for COUNCIL ESTATE ELECTRONICS was for Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Final, JK Flesh, Techno Aniamal, Pale Sketcher) and Diarmuid Dalton, via analog synths and electronics, to pay tribute to the synthesizer music they were influenced by in their youth : Tangerine Dream, Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Cluster, etc. Set to the imagery and geography of the council estate in Birmingham in which they were both raised; Shard End and the surrounding areas. Once the duo set to work on the music they found other influences seeping in – seventies dub like King Tubby, Scientist, etc and early dub techno founders Basic Channel, Maurizio, Chain Reaction label, etc, thus expanding the sound palette and the geographical environment that was to be the theme for the project.

The Arktika, launched in St Petersburg, is the first of a new class of ships known as Type LK-60YA, ordered by Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom (eventually there will be three vessels). Its task will be to smash a path through the ice of the Northern Sea Route. Raw power counts for a lot in icebreaking, and by bringing 80,000 hp (60 megawatts) to bear, Arktika will be able to break through floating ice almost ten feet thick. The icebreaker will lead convoys along a route that otherwise would be impassable.

Justin K Broadrick: Electronics
Diarmuid Dalton: Electronics

Produced by Justin K Broadrick
Recorded at Avalanche and Djouce
Justin K Broadrick is published by Mute Song Ltd.

Sleeve by Rutger Zuydervelt
A Glacial Movements Records Release, October 2016.
All rights reserved.

Ed Herbers – Season Cycle: Winter (Passed Recordings)

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Label Description:

It is remarkable how a small shift in the sun’s position has such a dynamic effect on the weather. The seasons are experienced differently around the world, and I am fortunate to have lived my entire life in a place that has four distinct seasons: winter, spring, summer, and autumn.

I find the seasons to be a great source of inspiration, and I set out to create a suitable soundtrack for each one. Beginning on Winter Solstice (Dec 21, 2025) and on each subsequent equinox/solstice through 2026, I will be releasing an EP of songs inspired by the corresponding season that “begins” on that date. Season Cycle: Winter is the first EP in the series.

I have mixed feelings about winter. I usually find the long, dark nights and freezing temperatures a little depressing, but I also enjoy the contrast of a warm fire and twinkling holiday lights. We tend to have at least one good snowfall each year, an element of winter that adds a little magic to the cold–there’s something difficult to explain about the way it soundlessly covers the earth, creating temporary, unfamiliar landscapes. I tried to channel the season through somber ambient drones and frozen soundscapes (while also trying to capture some of that winter magic).

I acknowledge that these songs are not representative of how everyone experiences the seasons (my Northern Hemisphere/American Midwest bias is a big factor here). Even if you live in a part of the world where your experience of the seasons is not like my own, I hope that, even if just for a moment, these songs immerse you into the cold of winter, the blooms of spring, the humidity of summer, and the blazing colors of autumn. 


All songs written, mixed, and performed by Ed Herbers. All songs produced in Renoise 3.3.2
Album art & digital booklet photos by Ed Herbers.

Mastered by Exit Chamber (exitchamber.bandcamp.com)

Full Moon’s Light on Fallen Snow first appeared on Passed Winter, from Passed Recordings (passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/passed-winter)

Nils Frahm – Wintermusik (Erased Tapes)

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Label Description: Nils Frahm, born in 1982, had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski – a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. The three instrumentals, which make up his debut ‘Wintermusik’ are piano led pieces, coloured with occasional celeste and reed organ parts. The record’s equal measures of sorrowful refrains and uplifting passages, combined with a real intimacy that makes for an album you’ll want to return to again and again. The songs were originally intended as a Christmas present for friends and family, hence its winter release.

Olhava – Frozen Bloom (Avantgarde Music)

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Label Description:

Frozen Bloom is our fourth album where we took some different routes compositionally(sic). Two of four tracks are traditionally storm-like blackgaze passages and another two are leaning towards more meditative drone experience.

It is about unfulfilled dreams. About how we sacrifice everything today for some abstract “tomorrow” which may never come. But tomorrow and yesterday don’t exist – only this very moment of static contemplation.

When winter is just starting to fade and give some space for a spring’s first steps, when first life starts to reappear and the very early flowers peek through the thawing soil a sudden shift in temperature can leave them petrified and frozen back again like being punished by the Queen of Fields. This statuesque dead beauty, being infinitely alive and dead at the same time is Frozen Bloom.

We got a chance to collaborate with A. Lunn (appearing courtesy of Bindrune records) who kindly agreed to record an electric guitar solo as well as acoustic parts and choral parts on Frozen Bloom I

Recording, mixing and mastering by Mihail Kurochkin
Cover art by Daniel Teisakowski (@daniel_tskwsk)
Guest electric guitar, acoustic guitar, square neck resonator guitar and choral vocals – A. Lunn (Appearing courtesy of Bindrune recordings)
Physical release via Avantgarde music
Cassette release by Slowsnow records

Zi iacchos – Fragments (Self-Released)

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Label Description:

Fragments is a series of short musical pieces conceived as breaths rather than songs.

After the album Ornaments, which was built around text, voice, and symbolic articulation, Fragments moves in the opposite direction:
less language, less structure, less intention.

Each piece is limited in duration (around two minutes), not by constraint, but by necessity.
They are not meant to develop or conclude — they appear, remain briefly, and dissolve.

The voice, when present, is reduced to a single word, a syllable, or a gesture.
Sound is treated as matter: grain, air, erosion, suspension.

Fragments was composed and recorded live, without overdubs, to preserve fragility and immediacy.
It is designed for saturated minds and quiet rooms — a space to breathe, not to explain.

This EP is not a continuation of Ornaments, but its decantation.

WIELORYB – Ritual (Zoharum)

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Label Description:

We are thrilled to present WIELORYB album, “Ritual” for the first time on CD. Previously available only digitally (published by Antyscena in 2021), it now materializes on silver disc, expanded with bonus tracks and featuring new artwork. It features a total of 15 tracks, built on a heavy, machine-like, and dense industrial beat, accompanied by a sultry, almost basement-like atmosphere. This over 78-minute-long record confirms that WIELORYB is in top form. Identified with the Rhythmic Noise scene and utilizing the signature aesthetics, WIELORYB didn’t stop there. Thanks to Paweł’s openness to the new and interesting, while maintaining a balance and consciously exploring genres unfamiliar to the project’s previous work, he managed to record an intriguing, somewhat monumental, even epic, yet at times uncompromising album.
“Ritual” is a prime example of skillfully crafted material, bursting with a wealth of sounds and the emotions behind them, never letting up for a moment, maintaining the listener’s suspense and attention from the first note to the last… Curious? Check it out for yourself.

WIELORYB was founded in the mid-1990s. Its history can be roughly divided into two periods. During the first, (1994-2005), it operated as a duo, and at times even a trio playing electronic music, industrial and EBM. As one of the pioneers of this genre in Poland, it co-founded the scene alongside bands such as Düsseldorf, Agressiva 69 and Nowy Horyzont.
The second period began in 2010 and continues to this day. Since then, WIELORYB has been Paweł Kmiecik, who occasionally invites others to play with him, but remains the sole constant member and creator of the project. At the same time, the project’s music has been changing; its roots remain in industrial styling, but it evolves and radicalizes towards Rhythmic Noise. He was soon invited to collaborate with the German Hands Production, which resulted in four joint releases (“Empty,” “Namaste,” “Root” and “Semantik”). As subsequent albums have been released, WIELORYB has been performing increasingly frequently across Europe, gaining a wider audience.

HAYWARDxDÄLEK – HAYWARDxDÄLEK (Relapse Records)

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Label Description: HAYWARDxDÄLEK is the brand new collaborative album from acclaimed This Heat drummer and creative force Charles Hayward and rapper/producer Will Brooks (aka MC dälek). Out on December 5 via Relapse Records, the upcoming album combines daring improvisation with hip-hop-informed sampling; it’s a thrilling tour de force journey into an uncharted new world of sound and possibility.

The collaboration came together through Samarbeta, a residency and artist development programme produced by From the Other in Salford, UK. The bulk of the music was recorded live in September 2023, Hayward improvised on drums and synthesizer, while Brooks played an SP-404 sampler and an iPad loaded with Samplr sampling software. Written over two feverish days in a studio at Islington Mill, the songs came to life in a blur of inspiration. They were recorded soon after in the New Adelphi Studios at the University of Salford before the duo spent just one day shaping a live version, which they debuted at Fat Out Fest. The entire process, from first note to live performance, unfolded in a single, whirlwind week. Brooks then took the live recording back to his Deadverse Studio headquarters in Union City, New Jersey, for mixing and adding lyrics for “Between the Word and the Drum,” “Asymmetric,” and “As Children Chant.”

The resulting body of work sees Charles Hayward and MC dälek bridge generations and continents, uniting South East London and New Jersey in a scintillating exploration of rhythm, abstraction, and sonic architecture. It’s a striking album that traverses the lines between hip-hop, noise-rock, ambient soundscapes, and free improvisation.