Yume Bitsu - Yume Bitsu (1999)

Jammy space/post-rock from good ole Portland, OR. Gathering clouds of droning distortion; chiming, almost krautrock-like cleans; keyboards/samples/tape loops (I'm not really sure at times); the occasional murmur-y vocal; and the strange sense of floating in mid-air yet feeling hopelessly weighed down.

Track listing:

1. Team Yume

2. I Wait for You

3. Surface I

4. Truth

5. Surface II

6. The Frigid, Frigid Body of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg

Like amputees

We wander aimlessly

And nothing sets us free

If you like this, listen to:

Light - Turning (1996)

Landing - Oceanless (2001)

Reggie and the Full Effect - Greatest Hits '84-'87 (1999)

To start, I'd like to share the crooked path that I took last night to listening to Greatest Hits '84-'87 for the first time in a number of years: A contestant named Suzanne Goldlust, who I'm arbitrarily routing for, wins Jeopardy! (I'm a few episodes behind) → Start singing "Susanne" by Weezer → Go to the kitchen to make brownies, listen to "Susanne" → "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" → Return of the Rentals → "Holiday" by the Get Up Kids → Greatest Hits '84-'87.

I was 17, a junior in high school, and had been dating this girl for over a year -- which in high school relationship time is practically a lifetime -- when she cheated on me, then dumped me before school, in the rain, on her birthday. After a couple weeks of me crying, writing terrible poetry, and generally moping around, my Mom took me to Record and Tape Traders and told me she'd buy me a CD of my choice, hoping to cheer me up. I had heard some of Greatest Hits '84-'87, and even though my initial reaction had been to hate it, when I saw it on the shelf, it called to me.

Friends, this record completely turned me around. It didn't just speak to my broken heart, my insecurities, and my profound teenage yearning: it translated them into the biggest, brightest, catchiest hooks I'd ever heard. (Kinda like that line about cocaine in Walk Hard: "It turns all your bad feelings into good feelings!") The language, which clearly was simplistic by design -- all "girl"s and "boy"s and "you"s and "heart"s and "never"s and "run away"s -- made it even more potent, as did the rich, shimmering synths, which sounded lifted directly from "Friends of P". Plus there were a bunch of dumb, fun sketches. I became obsessed, and played it over and over at home and in my friends' cars, as we all came to memorize and sing along to every goddamn word. Thus began our emo phases.

Some less personal background info for those who don't already know: Reggie and the Full Effect is the emo-power pop solo project of James Dewees, who played in Coalesce (that's him on drums), the Get Up Kids, and a bunch of other bands. Greatest Hits '84-'87 is, obviously, a joke name, as it was recorded in 1998 with two other Get Up Kids, then released the following year. It's the project's first album. Dewees is punker, cooler, and nicer than you. This record usually sounds cloying/grating to new listeners, and I get it. It's still my heart.

P.S. Thanks everyone for all the kind words on my last post. It truly means a lot to me, even coming from (sometimes anonymous) strangers on the internet.

Track listing:

1. Drunk Guy at the Get Up Kids Show

2. Girl, Why'd You Run Away?

3. Fiona Apple Can Kiss My Black Ass

4. What's Wrong?

5. Props to the Queen of Pop A.K.A. Keep on Climbin' That Velvet Rope Baby

6. Your Girlfriends Hate Me

7. Megan Is My Friend to the Max

8. My Dad - Happy Chickens (Kirksta Party-to-Go Mix)

9. Another Runaway Song

10. Drunk Guy Talks Chemicals to Us at the Get Up Kids Show

11. Your Boyfriend Hates Me

12. Pick Up the Phone Master P

13. Where's Your Heart?

14. Get to the Choppa

15. Better for You

16. Everything's Okay

17. Just a Reminder

18. Brandi's Birthday Song

So long

I finally figured out what was wrong

You should also listen to:

that dog. - Totally Crushed Out! (1995)

Tony Molina - Dissed and Dismissed (2013)

Bruno Spoerri - Voice of Taurus (1978)

Well, I finally graduated. There's still plenty of work on the near horizon, but for now, I'm basking in the afterglow with this piece of weirdo astrological synth dorky-ness. A mountain of synths with a single bespectacled Swiss nerd on top. Plus, a bit of live drumming and saxophone. Speaking of which, "Saxelite" is an undeniable highlight here, so stick around for that.

Track listing:

1. Hymn of Taurus (Taurus Is Calling You!)

2. Galactic Acid

3. Saucers Over Montreux

4. Hallo World

5. Meditation

6. Space Cantata

7. Cosmotoxology

8. Saxelite

9. Quiet High

Moondust will cover you

You should also hear:

Roger Powell - Cosmic Furnace (1973)

Leon Lowman - Syntheseas (1980)

Manfred Schoof - Meditation (1987)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Jasper van 't Hof - Eye-Ball (1974)

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

A curious entry in Manfred Schoof's discography. Airy, synth-heavy, mid-tempo grooves and drifting, reverberating trumpet, at times receding into full, new age-y ambience. Meditation definitely veers very close to smooth jazz, especially on the pillow-y "Timecode". Elsewhere, the title track sounds like something that would have lurked on the back half of Moby's Play, and "Robot" pitches a soundtrack for a PG-13 cut of The Terminator. Strange that it was released as a Manfred Schoof solo album as it is quite clearly a collaborative effort with keyboardist Jasper van 't Hof, the only other musician credited.

Track listing:

1. Meditation

2. Clouds

3. Timecode

4. Robot

5. Silence

6. Zen

Speak to me, baby

In the middle of the night

More smooth sailing:

Carlo Maria Cordio - Shadows and Memories (1979)

Jack DeJohnette featuring Lester Bowie - Zebra (1985)

Louis de Mieulle - Defense Mechanisms (2011)

Super tasty debut solo record from French jazz bassist Louis de Mieulle. Nocturnal, woozy, groove-y jazz-rock/fusion featuring a lot of work with out-of-sync time signatures -- I'm guessing there's a more concise, nerdier way term for that but I don't know it -- and the casually virtuosic drumming of Animals as Leaders' Matt Garstka. If you're a regular reader of this blog, this should be way up your alley.

Track listing:

1. Scapegoat 1

2. Scapegoat 2

3. Electric Cell Mutations

4. Skuld

5. Soundfrieze

6. The Ladybug and the Cockchafer

7. The Taste of Filth

8. Portrait de Famille

9. Solitude

Birth of an idiot

Similar sounds:

Hermann Szobel - Szobel (1976)

Percy Jones - Cape Catastrophe (1990)

Philip Sollman - Something Is Missing (2006)

Minimal ambient drone from a Berlin-based composer/producer, with whom I became familiar via his tech-house duo Pigon. Total tonal immersion. Not for the impatient.

Track listing:

1. Room One

2. Room Two

3. Room Three

4. Room Four

5. Room Five

6. Untitled

A pill for remembering

Further immersion:

Rafael Toral - Sound Mind Sound Body (1994)

Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs (2002)

Steve Tibbetts - Exploded View (1986)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Steve Tibbetts - Steve Tibbetts (1977) + Yr (1980)

Steve Tibbetts - The Fall of Us All (1994)

Steve Tibbetts & Knut Hamre - Å (1999)

If you've noticed that I've been even less active than usual on here, it's because I'm putting the finishing touches on my degree, and have been buried alive in a digital grave of spreadsheets, financial reports, essays, and zoom meetings. And as I mentioned on last month's post about new shit I've been listening to, I listen pretty much exclusively to Steve Tibbetts while doing school work -- for real, I have a playlist titled "SCHOOL" that's just Tibbetts' discography in chronological order.

However, what's truly extraordinary about this man's music is that not only does it hold up extremely well to both casual and close listening, but I never seem to tire of it, regardless of the countless hours I've spent with it. So here's one of my favorites of his. It's second only to The Fall of Us All in his discography in terms of sheer volume levels and intensity of performance, which means you're in for propulsive tribal percussion, dramatic vocals, and Tibbett's inimitable guitar stylings/feedback manipulation.

(Pro-tip: For even more, check the comments section on the The Fall of Us All post.)

Track listing:

1. Name Everything

2. Another Year

3. A Clear Day and No Memories

4. Your Cat

5. Forget

6. Drawing Down the Moon

7. The X Festival

8. Metal Summer

9. Assembly Field

Mind dust

Somewhat similar listening:

Michael Shrieve & Steve Roach - The Leaving Time (1988)

David Torn - What Means Solid, Traveler? (1996)