Fïx8:Sëd8 - Humanophobia (2005)

Excellent EBM from German artist Fïx8:Sëd8, with some deeply upsetting artwork to go with it. I am a complete outsider regarding 'the scene' associated with this style of music, and would not be surprised to learn that this is considered a classic.

Track listing:

1. Quiet

2. Oblivion

3. Blashpemia

4. Damien

5. Monolith

6. Dementor

7. Killing Field

8. Tranquilized

9. Ultraviolent

10. Fetishist

11. Guilty

12. Minotaurus

13. Burial Ground

Take me to the field

Head down I kneel

Blood runs off the wall

You mustn't cry at all

If you like this, listen to:

Die Sektor - To Be Fed Upon (2007)

Statiq Bloom / Zex Model - Statiq Bloom / Zex Model (2014)

Jetone - Autumnmonia (2000)

Before becoming one of the most acclaimed experimental musicians of our time, Tim Hecker made IDM under the name Jetone. Sharp beats, wandering synth lines, and some hints of the glitchy ambient scrap heaps that would become his signature.

EDIT: Wow, just noticed how similar this album cover is to the one that I posted two days ago. Completely unintentional on my part.

Track listing:

1. Sandstrings

2. Fukfunk

3. Flowers No. 4

4. Marilyn Chambers

5. Heatdeath

6. Fresh

7. Sputtertones

8. Diamonds No. 3

9. Huntington

10. Shear/Refract

11. Meltdown Skyline

A quitter

Also listen to:

Reagenz - Reagenz (1994)

Funckarma - Solid State (2001)

Mahogany - The Dream of a Modern Day (2000)

One of the great slept-on dream pop/shoegaze records. An airy wall-of-sound composed of cello, guitars, synths, miscellaneous electronics, and more, with gentle vocals that kinda remind me of Lætitia Sadier.

Track listing:

1. Movement I

2. Chance

3. Optimism

4. The Mystique of the Locomotive

5. Soleil Radieux

6. Anaïs No. 4

7. Movement II

8. Vista-Dome

9. Anaïs No. 3

10. Red Marrow, His Sorrow

11. On the Threshold of the Absolute

12. Synchromie No. 1

My bed is my castle

If you like this, listen to:

Pram - The Stars Are So Big, the Earth Is So Small... Stay as You Are (1993)

Moscow Olympics - Cut the World (2008)

Marcin Wasilewski Trio - January (2008)

As promised, here's some more ECM jazz, this time from Polish pianist Marcin Wasilewski's trio. As you might expect from an ECM record called January and led by a pianist, this is a reflective, downbeat record, ideal for cold weather and the types of emotional states that coldness tends to bring with it. Oh, and yes, that's a Prince cover.

Track listing:

1. The First Touch

2. Vignette

3. Cinema Paradiso

4. Diamonds and Pearls

5. Balladyna

6. King Korn

7. The Cat

8. January

9. The Young and Cinema

10. New York 2007

The inner story

Similar vibes:

John Taylor, Norma Winston, & Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Manfred Schoof / Rainer Brüninghaus - Shadows & Smiles (1989)

Tony Scott - Music for Voodoo Meditation (1972)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Tony Scott – Astral Meditation - Voyage into a Black Hole - Part 1 (1988)

By request: some ritualistic sounds from the great Tony Scott. Clattering percussion and sparse bass lines, often with no particular rhythm to speak of, and Scott's clarinet snaking its way through the center.

Track listing:

1. Side A - Invocation to Chango: a) Calling the Spirit; b) The Curse

2. Side B - Calling the Victim's Spirit / Blood Sacrifice / The Effigy / The Victim's Spirit Returns / Death Ritual

Flow ever red

Similar energies:

Lucifer - Black Mass (1971)

Zero Kama - The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H. (1984)

Landing - Oceanless (2001)

Heady vibes from Utah. Weightless, echoing clouds of guitar and synth hover and hum over slow, minimal drumming. Slowcore filtered through the sounds of ambient space rock.

Track listing:

1. How Did You Feel?

2. Harmonies

3. Rival Veed Fiir

4. Are You Gone to Vast Arc Hues?

5. Structure vs. Chaos

6. ...

Blue sky away

I also recommend listening to:

Jessamine - Jessamine (1994)

Jessica Bailiff - Hour of the Trace (1999)

Bill Connors - Of Mist and Melting (1978)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Bill Connors - Swimming with a Hole in My Body (1979)

Icy ECM jazz led by guitarist Bill Connors, and featuring Gary Peacock on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums (who else?), and Jan Garbarek on sax. Been on a major ECM kick the past couple of days, expect more soon.

Track listing:

1. Melting

2. Not Forgetting

3. Face in the Water

4. Aubade

5. Cafe Vue

6. Unending

Learning forgetfulness

If you like this, listen to:

Terje Rypdal - After the Rain (1976)

Steve Tibbetts - Northern Song (1982)

Lumen Drones - Lumen Drones (2014)

Droning, atmospheric sounds from a trio of Norwegian musicians -- guitar, violin, and drums. Slow-burning and often melancholic, with a sound that touches on jazz, post-rock, and psych. Fans of Dirty Three will find a lot to love here.

Track listing:

1. Dark Sea

2. Ira Furore

3. Anemone

4. Echo Plexus

5. Lux

6. Husky

7. Keelwater

8. Svartaskjaer

I remember a time when once you used to love me

You should also hear:

Pelt - Ayahuasca (2001)

Clear Horizon - Clear Horizon (2003)

The Village Orchestra - Et In Arcadia Ego (2005)

Debut album by Glaswegian producer Ruaridh Law. Lovely, contemplative, slightly glitchy ambient IDM/techno.

Track listing:

1. COSHH

2. Jacob / Bad Hand at Cards v2

3. Dawn

4. Bryan's Tricky 'Do You Like the Drummer?' Question

5. All the Little Lights Going Out

6. Love Theme from 'Two Man Rumble'

7. Sunken

8. Many Rooms in My Father's House

9. In Arcadia

I can hear the sirens singing again

You might also like:

Philip Jeck - Loopholes (1995)

Slicker - Confidence in Duber (1998)

Black Mass of Absu - Black Mass of Absu (1995)

Two demos for the price of one of raw black/doom insanity. Plodding drums, strung out guitars, psychotic vocals, droning organ, funeral bells, and a fucking Twisted Sister cover.

Track listing:

1. Your Soul Belongs to the Goat

2. Strangled by the Tail of Lucifer

3. The Bloody Feast of Our Horned Saviour

4. The Inquisition

5. Servant of the Darklord

6. Rise of the Unholy Beast

7. HIV Infected Blood of Christ

8. Urine Soaked Purity

9. Virgin Sodomy & Decapitation

10. Vile Odor of Shit

11. Scrotum Detachment by Meat Cleaver

12. Burn in Hell [Twisted Sister cover]

13. Harder Than Goat Feces in Winter

14. Dark Sword of Abaddon

15. Satan's Supper

Welcome to the abandoned land

More like this:

Absum - Eznerapsart Led Oicsnocbus Onamu (2008)

Vucub Cane - Sacrifical Hate Rituals (2012)

Hades - Alone Walkyng (1993)

Mesmerizing first demo by Norwegian black/viking metal greats Hades, aka Hades Almighty. Slow, sorrowful epics with the warm, ever-so-slightly raw sound of a demo, and the kind of compositional and technical strength that usually takes years to synthesize as a band. One of Quorthon's best pupils.

Track listing:

1. Unholy Congregation

2. Hecate (Queen of Hades)

3. Alone Walkyng

Thirsty for blood and terror of mortals

Similar listening:

Barathrum - Infernal (1996)

Mordaehoth – Bloedwraak - Verdoem Al 't Christelijk Leven (2003)

Sonny Sharrock - Black Woman (1969)

The heavenly solo debut of guitarist Sonny Sharrock. Free jazz in beautiful, expressive, often melodic form. Unfortunately, Sharrock spent a good chunk of the 70s and 80s away from the music world, and he passed away too young in 1994, so this is one of just five proper solo records he put out. Many people, myself included, first heard Sonny Sharrock without even knowing it, in the form of the theme song from Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Track listing:

1. Black Woman

2. Peanut

3. Bialero

4. Blind Willy

5. Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black

They enter the dream

If you like this, check out:

Wayne Shorter - Super Nova (1969)

Ben Monder - Oceana (2005)

Cable Regime - Kill Lies All (1993)

Second and easily best album of experimental industrial metal by the great Cable Regime. Programmed drums pound your skull, hypnotic guitars repeat endlessly into nothing, distorted vocals periodically echo, and samples peer through the murk, trying to make sense of it all. Produced by Justin Broadrick.

Track listing:

1. The Amy Fisher Hour

2. King of Beers

3. Righteous Man's End

4. Surgery

5. Novocaine Kul

Paranoia in the funhouse

Similar listening:

Scorn - Vae Solis (1992)

HALO - Subliminal Transmissions (1998)

The Dolls - The Dolls (2005)

Related:

Luomo - Vocalcity (2000)

Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower (2007)

First and only album by this trio featuring German vocalist Antye Greie, electronic musician Vladislav Delay, and composer Craig Armstrong, who I first discovered due to his considerable contributions to Protection by Massive Attack. Abstract, jazz-influenced trip-hop composed largely of piano, glitchy electronics, skittering percussion, and Greie's sparse, fragmented intonations. It's Sunday, I feel truly relaxed in a way that I haven't in, oh, about four years now, and I really hope that you feel the same.

Track listing:

1. Martini Never Dries

2. White Dove

3. Soul Skin

4. The Dolls

5. Night Active

6. Choice

7. Kukkuu

8. Collect the Blue

9. Star-Like

10. Motor City

11. Favourite Chord

12. Sunbird

Can you hear the gunshots?

If you like this, try:

A Guy Called Gerald - Essence (2001)

Alpha - The Impossible Thrill (2001)

Carsten Jost - You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows (2001)

Noisy tech-house from German producer Carsten Jost. A bit of glitch here, a bit of ominous synth there, and across-the-board topnotch production.

Track listing:

1. Make Pigs Pay

2. New Morning / Changing Weather

3. Described as White

4. Juliane

5. Hermès

6. W.U.O.

7. Krokus

8. Youth Brigade

9. Elmenreich

10. 7To5Factory

These bodies are starting to reek

If you like this, listen to:

Ricardo Villalobos - Alcachofa (2003)

Abudallah Rashim - Unanimity (2014)

Carlo Maria Cordio - Shadows and Memories (1979)

Lovely, laid-back instrumental disco/lite-funk. Cinematic orchestral melodies, space-age synths, gentle drumming, sparse piano lines, wordless choirs. Been looking for this for the past two years, and finally tracked it down last night. That's two white whales in one week, baby! Also: don't forget to breathe, we're gonna get through this, I swear.

Track listing:

1. Moon Sacrifice

2. Flying in the Sunshine

3. Seagulls Flight

4. Theme for a Dream

5. After the Dark

6. Peaceful Moment

7. Velvet Harmonies

8. Soul Vibrations

9. Wind of Summer Night

10. Shadows and Memories

Sleepwalker

You should also hear:

Shakatak - Night Birds (1982)

Seaside Lovers - Memories in Beach House (1983)

Anwech - ...Through the Fog... Behind the Trees... (2004)

Related:

Vardan - Lifeless Shadow (2013)

Italian raw black metal. Misty keyboards and echo-drenched vocals wrapped around chaotic but haunting songs. The intro to "Rise to the Sky, Flame of Desire" kinda sounds like Tom Waits black metal, and not in a good way, but still, way more interesting than the stuff vocalist/guitarist Vardan has been churning out at an alarming pace on his own since the early 2010s. 

Track listing:

1. The Untrodden, Untroubled, and Intense Wood of the Indistinct Sounds

2. Then, the First Light of Dawn, Transparents They Fade, Faint with the Death of a Dream

3. A Glance in My Self's Deeper

4. Tumulus of Fog Hide the Mysterious Summits (Anwech Bounds)

5. A Flame Wavering Through the Twilight

6. Obscured by the Supreme Night

7. Rise to the Sky, Flame of Desire

Flames of black candles

Also listen to:

Abigor - Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age (1994)

Necrofeast - Soulwinds (2000)

Hiroshi Yoshimura - Soundscape 1: Surround (1986)

Complete aural tranquility courtesy of ambient great Hiroshi Yoshimura. My views regarding the last presidential election are well-documented and unchanged, so no real need to rehash them. But everyone, especially my fellow Americans -- even the ones who embrace a kind of cruelty and willful ignorance that I still can't fully comprehend -- could probably benefit from some beautiful ambient music and, like, a few long, deep breaths.

Track listing:

1. Time After Time

2. Surround

3. Something Blue

4. Time Forest

5. Water Planet

6. Green Shower

From sky to sky

You'd also feel better if you listened to:

Michael Stearns - M'Ocean (1984)

Kenichiro Isoda (磯田健一郎) - クラムボンの瞑想 (1990)

Laughing Clowns - Ghosts of an Ideal Wife (1985)

Related:

The Saints - Prehistoric Sounds (1978)

Australian post-punk featuring Ed Kuepper, former guitarist for The Saints. There's a definite jazz influence at work, taking form in dissonant chords, busy drumming, and a whole lotta saxophone. A must-hear for any fan of Australian punk/post-punk.

Track listing:

1. Crystal Clear

2. Diabolic Creature

3. No Words of Honour

4. Winter's Way

5. Ghost of an Ideal Wife

6. The Only One That Knows

7. New Bully in the Town

8. It Gets So Sentimental

9. The Flypaper

We can do anything we want to do

Also listen to:

No Trend - A Dozen Dead Roses (1985)

Crime & the City Solution - The Bride Ship (1989)