The light sharpens the shadows, the glow permeates the murk. Featuring tracks by Roly Porter, Diamond Version, In The Mouth Of The Wolf, Karjalan Sissit, LLyn Y Cwn, Rapoon, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Wordclock, GZA, Dalek, and Svarte Greiner. This mix mostly features moody dark ambient, with some industrial/techno, rap/hip-hop, and experimental appearing as well. The next mix or two may be more thematically or genre-specific. Hope you all enjoy and have a great weekend!
Hello all. Quick update: I am on a recently released collaborative album with Oonark Klaes and {AN} EeL. Experimental, ethereal, and enigmatic electronic soundscapes and dark ambient explorations. Special thanks to Oonark Klaes and {AN} EeL for letting me be a part of this effort and z0 for releasing this.
Thanks again, take care, and stay safe out there.
Hello all. Just wanted to post a quick update. Not much news regarding personal music projects. I am SLOWLY working on new material, but currently there is no ETA on when this will arrive. When it does, it will probably be an EP worth of material. Hopefully. Meanwhile, Argali Records Netlabel continues full steam ahead, with a new compilation arriving early June.
In addition to this activity, I also recently re-activated my Mixcloud page and have released two mixes over the weekend. For these two, it is mostly industrial, with some techno, dark ambient, experimental, and synthwave as well. Check them out here:
Thank you all, take care and stay safe out there.
Hello all. I am fortunate enough to have two tracks recently show up on compilations, one on the Cousin Silas Emporium “Earth” (Volume II) and I also contributed source material to a recently released album by h{EE}l ({AN} EeL side project). The former features a track from my pre-John Lithium project “Terra Engine” (hear credited as John Lithium for clarity’s sake), and the latter features source material recorded a few years ago. Should also have some more to announce in the next two months or so, in addition to upcoming Argali Records Netlabel activity.
As always, many thanks, and stay safe out there.
Quick update, but I have a YouTube site that you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/@realjohnlithium . Note that I previously used a profile called “Lithium Industries”, but for various reasons that profile will be going away in the future. I am currently working on archiving most of my back catalogue there, which will include tracks that are not currently available on Bandcamp and/or are from older albums that were first released to the Internet Archive. In addition to this, I also upload video game footage from time to time. Quite a few albums are already on the playlist, and I tend to upload tracks every few days or so, with download, recording information, genre, notes etc on each description.
In any event, enjoy and have a great 2023!
Hello all. Been unexpectedly busy this time of year, probably in response to planned 2023 Argali Records Netlabel activities. First up, is a short EP featuring a few tracks I recorded in 2022. This is/was released a bit differently than normal as a bit of an experiment. That experiment failed, so future releases will be released in the previously set standard method. The second release is a re-master of a 2013 album I recorded under the “Nathan J Carter” moniker. This was an idea I had been considering for a while, but decided to go for it when uploading these tracks to the YouTube site, and saw that the mixes needed more work than usual for my back catalogue. So, with a bit of polish and shine, they are presented again in their newfound splendor. This remaster is, as usual, “free/pay-what-you-want” and Creative Commons Attribution licensed, so have at it.
Thank you all for your support; I am hoping to be more active in 2023 with more new John Lithium content. We will see what the new year brings. Take care, and stay safe out there.
Hello all. Apologies for the lack of updates, as I have been mainly focused on Argali Records Netlabel activity. We currently have four quarterly experimental music/noise compilations planned for the year, in addition to a number of album releases (more details TBA). If you are interested, please check out https://argalirecordsnetlabel.bandcamp.com/ and https://argalirecordsnetlabel.com (the latter site is still in the process of being brought up-to-date).
Regarding my own work, I have basically been slowly updating the “Ephemera” collection when I have the time. In addition to this, I have also recently discovered and released a long-form drone composition from 2012 that to my knowledge has not been available in any other form. Hope you enjoy them.
Hello all. Hope you are all doing well this holiday season. Here is the 2021 news wrap up with regards to my semi-infrequent musical activity.
As I refuse to use Soundcloud for a variety of reasons, the “Ephemera” album will be where singles and other non-album tracks will go. Most will have their own graphics and recording dates, when available. Check back often as I post fairly frequently. This collection was started back in July, and is different from the “Lithium Toolbox” series in that not all the tracks were designed with remixing/soundsource use in mind. Also note that, due to the ‘ephemeral’ nature of the collection, some tracks may appear and or disappear depending on my thoughts regarding them at the time, and other singles previously released by themselves may latter appear in this collection. I will attempt to keep people up to date on this via Bandcamp messages, but I have a bad habit of forgetting when busy with other endeavors.
The “Time Theories” single/EP is an experimental industrial/noise concept that I may return to later. I was hoping to do an entire LP regarding the concept and had linear notes regarding each track, but unfortunately the inspiration disappeared after the first few tracks. Might return to this in the future, but for now I hope you enjoy what was released.
Finally, the “Curse Of The Modern Error” albums were completely unexpected. During the month of November, the apartment below me had a faulty exhaust fan in their apartment which was so loud that it reverberated through the floor of my apartment and was audible in all rooms (not an amazing feat given how small my apartment is). This caused significant distress and sleeping loss due to it often running for hours on end, frequently between 12-8AM. Determined to make the best of a sub-optimal situation while waiting for the property management to fix the issue, I recorded two albums of heavily manipulated field recordings. No other synthesis was added. Pure industrial drone.
Here are the compilation and mixes I have thus far had the good fortune of being a part of. The tracks from the “Cousin Silas Emporium” are from my back catalogue, but to my knowledge have not been released on any other compilation. The track from the “Vaccine Compilation” is a recently recorded single. Finally, the “Destabalising Energies” mix features a track from my early project Terra Engine (2007-2012) in addition to a single I released a year or so ago (it’s also just a huge honor to be in a mix that also features Jarl).
As always, check out these compilations and mixes in their entirety, as there are many fantastic bands, musicians, and tracks for you to discover and listen to.
Regarding my own work, beyond these tracks, I have mainly been busy with my day job and netlabel. I will be announcing the next Argali Records Netlabel compilation in June. At some point I would like to release a full length John Lithium album that is not cobbled together of various singles, but whether or not this happens any time soon is still up in the air.
Also, a quick note: I will be doing a general overview and spring cleaning of this website. This mainly means I will be removing MOST of the archived music reviews, as many of them were written for a specific college class over a decade ago, and thus may no longer reflect my current views and/or style. Some of the later reviews MAY be kept and/or re-written, but this is a low priority unless people express interest in me keeping these online.
Thank you all very much for your continued support and encouragement. I hope you all have a great day!
-jl
As always, I am a bit behind on updates. Here are a few recent releases. The “Beginner’s Guide” collections were made for those who wanted a general overview of my music. The “Dark Matter Sessions” is a collection of late 2020 material, namely “The Dark Matter (EP)” along with a few other tracks recorded during the same time. “Alter Ego” is the first single I have released in 2021:
Site-wide updates will eventually be coming. Other than that I am currently busy with my netlabel, Argali Records Netlabel, although I am slowly working on new material off and on. Hope you are all well.
John Lithium 