Jon Appleton & Don Cherry - Human Music (1970)

Got a request for this deeply strange collaborative work from electro-acoustic innovator Jon Appleton and free jazz legend Don Cherry. Sparse, discordant, sonically manipulated sound pieces composed of synth, trumpet, flute, hand drums, and distinctly un-musical mouth noises.

Track listing:

1. BOA

2. OBA

3. ABO

4. BAO

This is Earth Radio, and now, here's human music.

If you like this, listen to:

Tony Scott - Music for Voodoo Meditation (1972)

Hal Russell & Mars Williams - EFTSOONS (1984)

Disclose - The Aspects of War (1997)

A chaotic, careening 4-track practice space recording from the great Disclose. As noise-fucked and raw as they ever sounded.

Track listing:

1. Volkssturm (National Storming Party)

2. Courage

3. The Cause of War

4. The Aspects of War

5. Why Isn't There War?

6. Heartless

7. In Fact

8. The Grief

9. Smell of the Rotten Corpse

10. After an Air-Attack

Futility and lawlessness

More like this:

Gloom - 撲殺精神破綻者 (2003)

D-Clone - Creation and Destroy (2013)

Forensics - On a Bridge Atop the Heap of Friends Who Jumped (2003)

Related:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Great 3-song EP from a band that, for me, never quite lived up to their potential from here. I saw them right after this came out with an old friend and bandmate (who sold me on them as a pg.99 side-project, which is kind of a stretch in retrospect -- sure, one of their guitarists is in there, but it's essentially the brainchild of Brent Eyestone, founding member of Waifle [and a bunch of other bands] as well as owner of Magic Bullet) and they blew me away. See, this was back before post-rock had been absorbed into virtually every genre of music, and it was still novel, even a bit confrontational for a hardcore band to open their set with a long, pretty, slow-building instrumental. And their style was pretty unique, taking cues from the melodic end of skramz, riff-y metalcore, and sludge/post-metal. But their full-length just didn't quite land -- the recording was awkward, the song titles were even more obnoxious -- and my interest fizzled. I still rock this one, though.

Track listing:

1. Boat Day at the Marina

2. So There's This Movie "Corvette Summer"

3. Pulling Rank

If we were raised as vultures

I'd torch my wings to light up the sky

If you like this, try:

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Envy - Insomniac Doze (2006)

Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Ghost - Ghost (1991)

You know what I absolutely love? Albums that start with their longest, least accessible track. As opposed to the prevailing idea that you have to immediately grab a listener's attention or you'll lose them, it says: "This is our house. You're absolutely welcome here, but we're not gonna put on airs." Such a baller move. Other examples that spring to mind: Get Up with It by Miles Davis, ...Is Eternal Life by William Hooker, and Northsuite by Velvet Cacoon.

Anyway, this one's another request, and as long as y'all keep asking for great shit that I'm stoked to revisit, I'm happy to deliver. Ghost truly is one of the greatest psych bands to have ever graced this wretched planet, and from its amorphous, free-jazz-leaning opener to uptempo psych rock to its haunting psych-folk closer, Hypnotic Underworld is for sure one of their best.

Track listing:

1. Hypnotic Underworld: God Took a Picture of His Illness on This Ground

2. Hypnotic Underworld: Escaped and Lost Down in Medina

3. Hypnotic Underworld: Aramaic Barbarous Dawn

4. Hypnotic Underworld: Leave the World!

5. Hazy Paradise

6. Kiseichukan Nite

7. Piper

8. Ganagmanag

9. Feed

10. Holy High

11. Dominoes - Celebration for the Gray Days

Pastures who used to be green

Perish in white seas

That even embrace

The slumbering trees like border marks

You should also listen to:

Osamu Kitajima - Benzaiten (1976)

Six Organs of Admittance - RTZ (2009)

Grimlock - Crusher (2003)

Starting my week by blasting out a bunch of pushups to some groove-heavy Boston metalcore/beatdown. If you want a record full of irresponsibly hard breakdowns precipitated by a yoaked-out Masshole saying stuff like "I'm a brand new man" or "I'm king of the fucking jungle" or "I will rise forever", you can't do much better than Crusher. But, statistically speaking, you probably don't.

Track listing:

1. Ritual of Steel

2. Mad Titan

3. Crusher

4. The Last Holy Fool

5. End of the Dream

6. Revolution (Return of the Power)

Yeah, I can feel it pumping in my veins

More like this:

Turmoil - The Process Of (1999)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Laughing Clowns - Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town (1982)

Related:

The Saints - Prehistoric Sounds (1978)

Laughing Clowns - Ghosts of an Ideal Wife (1985)

Got a request for more Laughing Clowns, and I'll take any reason to listen to this amazing band. Here's their first album. Australian experimental punk/post-punk/whatever-you-wanna-call-it with the added layer of a small but cacophonous horn section.

Track listing:

1. In Front of Your Eyes

2. Come One, Come All

3. Laughter Around the Table

4. A Knife in the Head

5. Theme From 'Mad Flies, Mad Flies'

6. A Song of Joy

7. Mr Uddich-Schmuddich Goes to Town

8. When What You See

This that put-the-kids-to-bed

You should also listen to:

Japan - Adolescent Sex (1978)

Ballet Mécanique - The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation (1981)

Hunstville - For the Middle Class (2006)

Abstract, instrumental folk-jazz/post-rock from a Norwegian trio. Dreamy, droning, but bubbling over with life, For the Middle Class sounds both improvisational and expertly composed, and is probably a mix of the two. A favorite of mine ever since the golden age of the mp3 blog.

Track listing:

1. The Appearance of a Wise Child

2. Serious Like a Pope

3. Add a Key of Humanity

4. Melon

Presence in absence

You might also like:

Masabumi Kikuchi - Poo-Sun (1970)

Gastre del Sol - Camoufleur (1998)

Wayne Shorter - Odyssey of Iska (1970)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Wayne Shorter - Super Nova (1969)

I'm a little late but: R.I.P. to one of the greatest jazz musicians to have ever lived. A brilliant piece of amorphous, simmering avant-garde jazz, Odyssey of Iska capped off a positively ridiculous 8-album run that rivals pretty much any other in music history. (Not that the albums before or after are bad by any means, but Night Music through Odyssey is, to me, just about as good as it gets.)

Track listing:

1. Wind

2. Storm

3. Calm

4. De Pois do Amor, O Vazio (After Love, Emptiness)

5. Joy

Old is magic growing

If you like this, listen to:

The Art Ensemble of Chicago - Fanfare for the Warriors (1974)

Miles Davis - Get Up with It (1974)

Scott McGill - The Hand Farm (1997)

Dissonant, noodle-y fusion/jazz-rock by American guitarist Scott McGill. The Hand Farm is all knotty, herky-jerky time signatures and manic, fluid fretwork, but there's something woozy and atmospheric at work that helps to elevate it above your standard fusion wank-fest.

Track listing:

1. The Great Unwashed

2. The Secret Linen Service

3. Pools

4. Death by D.M.V.

5. 2000 Allen Called

6. Uncle Zippy

7. Luggage

8. Ignoramus Rex

9. Calvinist Pancakes

10. Labyrinth

11. Alaskan Brick

Don't just do something, stand there

If you like this, listen to:

Percy Jones - Cape Catastrophe (1990)

Bruford Levin Upper Extremities - Bruford Levin Upper Extremities (1998)