Lilac Numbering System – They Sound Like They’re Dying

Lilac Numbering System returns with the lo-fi, uncanny document They Sound Like They’re Dying, a raw collection captured in Austin during the summer of 2025. Recorded entirely on a cell phone in a practice space, the album leans into immediacy and accident—built from a Telecaster and a homemade noise contraption run through an aging Orange amp.

What sets the record apart is its ghostly sense of collaboration: the bass lines weren’t planned or performed by the artist, but drift in from an unknown player in a neighboring room. At moments, the interplay feels almost intentional, as if two separate worlds briefly lock into sync.

The album’s title emerged from an offhand remark—someone noted that the tracks “sound like they’re dying.” Embracing that fragile, decaying quality, They Sound Like They’re Dying captures music at the edge of collapse, where coincidence, interference, and imperfection become the central voice.

John Wilkins is a Texas-based sound artist who has released records under various monikers, including FiRES WERE SHOT, One Far West, Many Pretty Blooms, and his own name, by various labels including Asphodel, Holodeck Records, Whitelabrecs, Puremagnetik, It’s Only Me Records, and more.