Tag Archives: techno

Of One – Textures (Cruel Nature Recordings)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

OF ONE is the latest vehicle for Dublin’s Alan O’Boyle, who has been prominent in electronic music since the ’90s with Decal, Decoy, Legion of Two (with David Lacey) and Legion Of One. His work in various guises has appeared on labels such as Planet Mu, Rotters Golf Club, D1 Recordings, Satamile, Leaf, Law & Auder and Sabrettes.

“Textures” is the fourth OF ONE album and the first for Cruel Nature Records.

Start with a static texture – a drone, some feedback, a noise loop – and then build. Sometimes the texture that seeded the composition survives the process intact and part of a bigger picture (“Please Answer. Please.”), sometimes it appears briefly as a reminder of the beginnings (“To Exceed On A Full Moon”) and sometimes it becomes the entire composition (“Into The Process”).

Written, recorded, compiled and edited by Alan O’Boyle from a week of experiments in July 2025.
Photos of Cruagh Woods, Dublin (2024) by Alan O’Boyle
Artwork by Barry Murphy.

Ø – Sysivalo (Sahko Recordings)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

label: Sähkö Recordings
Cat No: SAHKO-037
format: 2lp+cd in one package, download & stream
release date: 15.9.2025
Barcode: 5050580857285

Mika Vainio started making a new Ø album in 2014. He almost finalized the record before his too early passing in 2017. The album Sysivalo is the 9th out of 8 full scale albums, released under the Ø alias by Vainio. Ø was his longest running project from 1993 to 2017. Sysivalo was recorded during 2014-2017 and is 60 min long album with 20 tracks, produced by Vainio. He described the record as a distinct Ø album that was going to include several shorter tracks, etudes. The title, Sysivalo, is invented by Vainio by combining the Finnish words sysi (dark or sinister) and valo (light).

Like life itself, the album carries a quiet darkness – honest and full of hidden light. The many of the tracks are beatless subtle soundtracks of eclipsed emotions. Like an incapacitated creature waiting for something to happen.

The closing track Loputon (Endless) is maybe the most beautiful tracks Vainio has ever written, Vainio’s last word.
credits
released September 15, 2025

Written, produced and performaed by Mika Vainio (1963-2017)
in Berlin and Oslo in 2014-2017

Compiled post mortem by Rikke Lundgreen
and Tommi Grönlund according to Mika Vainio’s notes
Digital mastering by Denis Blackham
Vinyl mastering by Rashad Becker

Front photo and print by Mika Vainio
Sleeve by Tommi Grönlund

Filmmaker – Dehumanization (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: This EP is about the overwhelming exponential data, corruption fatigue, blatant govt cover-ups, the ongoing wars, the struggle as an artist dealing with shadowban, bots in platforms, AI content creators, biased algorithms in social media, being undervalued locally, and all that off-sensations in the dystopian times we’re living.

Editor’s Note: For those interested, there is also an instrumental version of this EP as well.

Voidscan – Tired Monster (SHIFT+CTRL Music)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

I didn’t set out to make an album. I set out to survive some long, stressful nights.

I tend to take on many projects at one time, often too many and this album came from a place I don’t talk about much anxiety and isolation. I made Tired Monster during a period of serious burnout, physically, creatively, and emotionally. Not the loud kind, but the slow, creeping kind that wears you down until you barely recognize yourself. In between albums, and starting a record label, the music started as a way to process that. It’s the sound of pushing forward when you’re running on fumes, of feeling heavy but still restless. The “monster” in the title isn’t a villain, it’s the tired version of yourself that refuses to give up, even when you kind of want to.

This album is my most personal work yet. It blends my love for cinematic sound design with the darker beat driven textures I’ve always gravitated toward. You’ll hear ambient decay, distorted rhythms, and moments of tension and release that mirror how I was feeling while making it.

There’s no single genre here it’s my hybrid of cinematic electronic storytelling, crafted in isolation and shaped by late nights; the need to process life without words. I hope these tracks feel like a mirror, or maybe a companion.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed but couldn’t slow down… this one’s for you.

Thanks for listening to what I couldn’t put into words. 


Music by Voidscan

Cover Art by Maria Forsberg (www.instagram.com/forsberg_drawing/)

Layout by Voidscan (voidscanmusic.com)

Mastered at Structure|Edit Studio in Wildlight, FL (structureedit.com)

Released by SHIFT+CTRL Music (shiftctrlmusic.com)

No AI was used in the production of the art or music.

The Hedonistic Imperative – Planetoid 3 (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: Planetoid 3

Decades of attempts later.
Escaping the pull of gravity.
Released into the void.
Yet another culmination.
I disappeared, intermittently.
I appear, briefly.
“Please enjoy this soundtrack to a parallel world. Creating, recreating, and fine-tuning this experience has brought me great satisfaction and much needed diversion. May listening to it provide you with something valuable as well.”

Third time’s the charm?

gribbles – githerments #02 (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Another collection of orphaned tunes lurking in the nether regions of my laptop.

These are tracks that were lined up for a bit more polish and probable release – but since then my attention has moved elsewhere as I got all excited about new shiny projects and these tracks got left at the ‘nearly there’ stage. So they’re a little rough around the edges in places, but I’m claiming that as part of their charm.

That said, when I played a couple of these to people they got broadly appreciative nods – so I thought another githerments release may be in order.

It’s a bit of a mixed bag.

ether is so old, all I have is the audio file. Which is a shame ‘cos there was a lovely long reverb tail on the end and it’s cut off in the version I found sat in a random folder.

There’s upbeat electro in Storm, Noir-esque noodling with some spoken word in Thomas, and even some guitar on Tom Five.

Streets and Blue Hills are pseudo-themes for some never made US cop dramas.

Of course there’s a tune or two with stuff from my much raided US evangelists sample folder. Will I ever grow out of that?

There’s some sort of poppy songs, some sub Daft-Punk vocoder work courtesy of a Arturia pssst I found that I meant to replace the sample in. And some things I’m not sure how to describe.

All in all – something for everyone or maybe everything for someone.

Line up, baby!

.g
July ’25

Heaven Topology – Describer (Ingrown Records)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

Review from On The Fringes of Sound!
http://www.onthefringesofsound.com/2025/08/heaven-topology-describer.html

CDs available here and from the artist in a super limited quantity!

Please follow and support the artist here:
heaventopology.bandcamp.com
heaventopology.net

Previous release on Ingrown here:
ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/worldpath-yggdrasil

ING062

If you dig this we think you’ll dig:
ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/lately-sprung-up-in-appalachia
ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/i-2
ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/aw-cute
ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/bup-land-anomaly-audio