Juana Molina - Segundo (2000)

Dreamy, abstract Argentinian indie-folk against a backdrop of minimal electronic textures and pulses. If you're a fan of Vespertine -- which, statistically speaking, you are -- you should find a lot to love here.

Track listing:

1. Martín Fierro

2. ¿Quién?

3. El Perro

4. ¡Que llueva!

5. La visita

6. Quiero

7. Mantra del bicho feo

8. El desconfiado

9. El zorzal

10. El pastor mentiroso

11. Misterio uruguayo

12. Vaca que cambia de querencia

13. MedDlong

14. Sonamos

15. The Wrong Song [hidden track]

I know that pain

You should also hear:

Manual - Until Tomorrow (2001)

Aspidistrafly - I Hold a Wish for You (2008)

Αρλέτα (Arleta) - 2 (1967)

Haunting, sparse folk from Greek musician Arleta. I came to Arleta in an indirect, nerdy way: namely, via the instrumental trio Dirty Three, whose "I Remember a Time When Once You Used to Love Me" is, I discovered only recently, a cover of a song written by Greek composer/lyricist Giannis Spanos and originally performed by, you guessed it, Arleta. So I've learned a bit about her, including her involvement with the Greek neo kyma scene, her longtime low-key association with gay culture, and her passing in 2017.  But I didn't know any of that when I first heard, and was utterly transfixed, by the elusive, nocturnal sounds of 2. It's just her guitar and voice, illuminated by a touch of reverb, and that's all it needs to be.

[Thanks to adgy, the helpful commenter who uploaded 2 in FLAC, the old crappy link has been replaced by a nice, clean, 320 rip. If you'd rather have it in FLAC, have at it.

Track listing:

1. Τα Μικρά Παιδιά

2. Τίποτ’ Άλλο (Τρίπτυχο)

3. Δύο Γλάροι

4. Καβαλάρης Στραφτερός

5. Έτσι Είναι

6. Νάνι Το Γαρούφαλλό Μου

7. Ήταν Καμάρι Της Αυγής

8. Ο Τρελλός Του Χωριού

9. Σαράντα Μέρες

10. Ήτανε Μόνο Ένα Παιδί

11. Οι Σαρανταπέντε

12. Φώναξέ Με

Let secrets remain hidden

You should also listen to:

Astrud Gilberto - I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do (1969)

Mossy Davidson - Northwind Calling (1977)

Aspidistrafly - I Hold a Wish for You (2008)

Beautiful, earthy, texturally rich sounds from a Singaporean duo. Angelic vocals, shimmering drones, field recordings, plaintive acoustic guitars, reverberating keys, and feather-light percussion. My birthday was on Friday so I celebrated by going to the bar and drinking way more tequila than I should have, then I spent Saturday nursing an all-day hangover and, relatedly, a sprained ankle. Then yesterday I had some friends over and was given three bottles of tequila. Needless to say, I'm nursing hangover #2 today. I Hold a Wish for You made me feel less awful for a second.

Track listing:

1. Candlescape

2. Moonlight Shadow

3. Common Colors in the Air

4. Sampling Atmosphere

5. On the Summer Solstice

6. Porcelain Sky Wink

7. Sui

8. Endless Dreamless

Language of flowers

You should also hear:

Eluvium - Lambent Material (2003)

Islaja - Palaa Aurinkoon (2005)

Robin Scott - Woman from the Warm Grass (1969)

Related:

M - The Official Secrets Act (1980)

Before he became M, new wave one-hit wonder, Robin Scott was just Robin Scott, verbose folk rock singer given to psychedelic flights of fancy. This is sadly the only record he ever did in this style, but if you're into this kinda thing, it's a real gem.

Track listing:

1. The Sailor

2. Song of the Sun

3. The Sound of Rain

4. Penelope

5. The Day Begins

6. Woman from the Warm Grass

7. I Am Your Suitcase Lover

8. Mara's Supper

9. Point of Leaving

10. The Purple Cadger

I could have been a cunning wizard with spells at my command

Or perhaps a sailor's son with tales of far-off lands

I could have been shipwrecked, broken on your sands

But no, I'm just the lucky one who's fallen in your hands

More along these lines:

Duncan Browne - Give Me Take You (1968)

Rex Holman - Here in the Land of Victory (1970)

Tape - Milieu (2003)

Sad, sweet, fragmented instrumentals from a Swedish trio. Acoustic and electric guitars, chimes, melodica, organ, piano, saxophone, and more against a backdrop of fragmented, glitchy textures and field recordings.

(As many of you pointed out, my previous post of Luminarium actually linked to Milieu. This is because I had started out making a Luminarium post, but immediately decided I'd rather do Milieu, and forgot to change the title and artwork. Thankfully, the description works, give or take the part about saxophone, for both albums. Making a new post entirely to fix the URL. Thanks for letting me know.)

Track listing:

1. Oak Player

2. Sponge Chorus

3. Crippled Tree

4. Edisto

5. Golden Twig

6. Long Bell

7. Root Tattoo

8. Switchboard Fog

Down on your back

All of your secrets collide

Similar vibes:

Pan•American - Quiet City (2004)

Tokyo Bloodworm - Tokyo Bloodworm (2007)

Nina Nastasia - The Blackened Air (2002)

Beautiful, idiosyncratic folk rock/chamber folk from the early-aughts sad bastard boom. The Blackened Air made an impact when it first came out -- the record store I used to work at had a bunch of used copies -- but I haven't heard it mentioned since way-back-when. I honestly hadn't even listened to it in like 15 years until the other day, when I put on an old-ass mix CD in my car and "Ocean" came on. Real good stuff, though. Recorded by Steve Albini.

Track listing:

1. Run, All of You...

2. I Go with Him

3. This Is What It Is

4. Oh My Stars

5. All for You

6. So Little

7. Desert Fly

8. Ugly Face

9. In the Graveyard

10. Ocean

11. Rosemary

12. The Same Day

13. Been So Long

14. The Very Next Day

15. Little Angel

16. That's All There Is

His days are long

His bones are broken

I served him right

I go to heaven

Also listen to:

Mi and L'Au - Mi and L'Au (2005)

Orion Rigel Dommisse - What I Want from You Is Sweet (2007)

Tucker Zimmerman - Ten Songs (1969)

American folk rocker Tucker Zimmerman's excellent debut LP. Surreal, psychedelic songs delivered with a fuzzy, rough-around-the-edges sound. Band includes a pre-cape Rick Wakeman on organ and the great Tony Visconti, who also produced the record.

Track listing:
1. Bird Lives
2. October Mornings
3. A Face That Hasn't Sold Out
4. The Roadrunner
5. Children of Fear
6. The Wind Returns into the Night
7. Running, Running from Moment to Moment
8. Upsidedown Circus World
9. Blue Goose
10. Alpha Centauri

And they kept on falling in
And they kept on crawling out

More along these lines:

Tim Hollier -
Tim Hollier (1970)

Andy Zwerling -
Spiders in the Night (1971)

Kay Gardner - Mooncircles (1975)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Kay Gardner - A Rainbow Path (1984)

Beautiful, nature-loving, gynocentric (I just learned that word) folk with an abstract, psychedelic bent and some lovely, baroque string-and-piano arrangements.

Track listing:
1. Prayer to Aphrodite
2. Changing
3. Beautiful Friend
4. Moon Flow
5. Wise Woman
6. Inner Mood I
7. Touching Souls
8. Inner Mood II
9. Lunamuse

There's a woman in the moon
There's a woman in the sea

If you like this, you should hear:

Bridget St. John -
Ask Me No Questions (1969)

Mossy Davidson -
Northwind Calling (1977)

Loren Auerbach & Bert Jansch - After the Long Night (1985)

Haunting folk rock from the potent duo of Loren Auerbach and Bert Jansch, who later married, and eventually died of cancer within two months of each other. Five songs and just under half an hour of breathtaking, melancholic beauty.

Track listing:
1. The Rainbow Man
2. Frozen Beauty
3. Christabel
4. So Lonely
5. Journey of the Moon Through Sorrow

They've got so many prison bars in their head

Similar sounds:

Bridget St John -
Ask Me No Questions (1969)

Mossy Davidson -
Northwind Calling (1977)

Tiny Vipers - Life on Earth (2009)

Quietly stunning, minimal folk from Seattle artist Jesy Fortino. I'm sure that the word "meditative" comes up every time someone writes about Life on Earth, but given her beautiful, abstract musings and minimal yet immersive, spacious sound -- a single acoustic guitar, Fortino's voice, and room noise account for about 98% of what you'll hear -- it really does fit. A record without clear antecedent or peer, and one of my favorites of the past 20 years.

Track listing:
1. Eyes Like Ours
2. Development
3. Slow Motion
4. Dreamer
5. Time Takes
6. Young God
7. Life on Earth
8. CM
9. Tiger Mountain
10. Twilight Property
11. Outside

The world is leaving
Where has it left you?
The world is leaving me too

Also listen to:

Six Organs of Admittance -
For Octavio Paz (2004)

Songs of Green Pheasant -
Songs of Green Pheasant (2005)

Mikko Joensuu - Amen 1 (2016)

Gorgeous heartache from Finnish songwriter Mikko Joensuu. On Amen 1, Joensuu zooms in on the often-subtle ethereality of classic country music and, with patient songwriting and spacious, string-and-reverb-heavy production, elevates it to impossibly bright, positively sublime new territory. It's a bit surreal to hear a Finn take on such an American style of music, but as far as I'm concerned, he's doing it as well as anyone's done it in years.

Track listing:
1. Enjoy It While It Lasts
2. Sometimes You Have to Go Far
3. Warning Sign
4. Closer My God
5. I'd Give You All
6. Thief and a Liar
7. Take Me Home Oh Lord
8. Valley of Gold

Shiver down my spine as I think of that place
When a wretch like me felt amazing grace

You might also like:

Mickey Newbury -
'Frisco Mabel Joy (1971)

Azure Ray -
November (2002)

Jeff Cowell - Lucky Strikes and Liquid Gold (1975)

Tear-stained, bourbon-soaked outsider country/folk rock perfection. Recorded in 1975 and left to languish unheard until 2015, when Numero did us all a huge favor by giving it a proper release. Goddamn, what a beautiful fucking record.

Track listing:
1. Jake Lake
2. Momma
3. Go Sweetly
4. And When
5. Lucky Strikes and Liquid Gold
6. We All Know
7. Bring Me Back
8. Can't Make Nothin'
9. Joanne & Jason
10. Not Down This Low

Down in the gutter where I found my true love

Also listen to:

Andy Zwerling -
Spiders in the Night (1971)

Lee Clayton -
Lee Clayton (1973)

Mossy Davidson - Northwind Calling (1977)

Stunning, nature-loving private press Alaskan folk. A double album, Northwind Calling is seemingly the only thing Davidson ever recorded, and it's an absolute gem; it's pretty much the Just Another Diamond Day that never got rediscovered. I realize that that's a tall order, but Mossy's up to the challenge. For real, any fan of Vashti Bunyan -- or 60s/70s folk, for that matter -- needs to hear this.

Track listing:
1. So Long
2. Fox Sparrow
3. Sea-Man
4. Day Dream Land
5. Northwind Calling
6. Coyote's Cry
7. Going to Blow
8. What Is That Light
9. Eagle, Goodbye
10. Little Brown Violins
11. Cloudy Day
12. It's Hard to Be Left Behind
13. Alone Too Long
14. Where Does This River Flow
15. Flag of the Green Lands
16. Rainfall
17. Mother's Song
18. Changes, Changes
19. Birds of Passage
20. Come Back, Come Back

Will you be walking where I have gone
Along this long, lonesome road someday?

If you like this, listen to:

Bridget St. John -
Ask Me No Questions (1969)

Sally Oldfield -
Water Bearer (1978)

Footpaths - Footpaths (2012)

Had to take a quick trip back east that included a funeral, a heinous upper-middle-class quasi-redneck party, drinking in a Massachusetts college town on Cinco de Mayo, then waking up at an ungodly hour to catch a plane back here. Thus I am cranky and dead to the fucking world.

On the bright side, though, I'm in the perfect state of mind for these evocative, acoustic guitar-based sounds, which I've been meaning to post about for a while now. Courtesy of American musician Jon Rosenthal, who, among other much more significant things, is a semi-regular commenter on this dumb blog. Classically-inspired guitar figures against a backdrop of harmonium, melodica, and field recordings, or, as Rosenthal puts it, "audio photographs of small and/or ghost towns strewn about the Midwest and Florida." Everything on his bandcamp is free/name your price AND great, so get at it!!

Track listing:
1. Birnamwood, WI
2. Deepwater, MO
3. Fort Lonesome, FL
4. Four Houses, KS
5. Paradise, KY
6. Sacred Heart, OK

Watching headlights disappear

You might also enjoy:

Christina Carter -
Bastard Wing (2003)

Ilyas Ahmed -
Speaking of Shadows (2006)

Mikami Kan - 三上寛の世界 (1971)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Mikami Kan - ひらく夢などあるじゃなし 三上寛怨歌集 (1972)

Sparse, goosebump-inspiring Japanese folk rock. Kan's first solo album, 三上寛の世界 (which I believe translates to "The World of Mikami Kan") consists almost entirely of Kan's remarkable, expressive singing accompanied by a lone, plaintive acoustic guitar. It's a true testament to the power of Kan's voice that someone who does not understand Japanese can find his music so emotionally compelling.

Track listing:
1. 馬鹿ぶし
2. ものな子守歌
3. カラス
4. 数珠の玉切れる日に
5. おど
6. なぜ
7. ピストル魔の少年
8. 木
9. 黒い小さな貨物列車
10. 小便だらけの湖
11. 夢は夜ひらく

I was watching on the day she died

You should also listen to:

Tim Hollier -
Tim Hollier (1970)

Loren Mazzacane & Kath Bloom -
Sing the Children Over (1982)

Songs of Green Pheasant - Songs of Green Pheasant (2005)

Gorgeous 4-track psych folk. Haunting, reverb-drenched songs recorded solo-style in a kitchen. The angelic vocal harmonies are vaguely reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel at their folkiest, but with a far darker, druggier feel.

Track listing:
1. I Am Daylights
2. Nightfall (For Boris P.)
3. The Burning Man
4. Knulp
5. The Wraith of Loving
6. Until...
7. Hey, Hey, Wilderness
8. Truth But Not Fact
9. Soldiers Kill Their Sisters
10. From Here to Somewhere Else

Oh, they can't take your soul
Oh, tell me, what is a soul?

If you like this, try:

In Gowan Ring -
Love Charms (1994)

Espers -
Espers (2003)

Tim Hollier - Tim Hollier (1970)

An obscure gem of beautiful, melancholic, psychedelic folk rock from British singer-songwriter Tim Hollier. It's my understanding that all folk albums of this era were legally required to contain at least one song dedicated to a bird, and "Seagull's Song" takes care of that obligation right off the bat.

Track listing:
1. Seagull's Song
2. Llanstephan Hill
3. And It's Happening to Her
4. Man of Gentle Sunlight
5. Evolution
6. Maybe You Will Stay
7. Would I Sing
8. Love Song
9. It's Raining and It's Cold
10. In This Room
11. Evening Song

Standing on the castle wall, he's shouting at the sea
His rage at finding nothing in the air

You should also hear:

Bridget St. John -
Ask Me No Questions (1969)

Rex Holman -
Ask Me No Questions (1970)

Mickey Newbury - 'Frisco Mabel Joy (1971)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Mickey Newbury - A Long Road Home (2002)

Probably my all-time favorite country record. Acoustic guitars, sweeping string sections, the occasional gauzy synth, and haunted, reverb-drenched vocals. It's masterful tearjerker after masterful tearjerker, reaching an apex with "Frisco Depot", whose long-way-from-home desolation could draw tears from a stone.

Track listing:
1. An American Trilogy
2. How Many Times (Must the Piper Be Paid for His Song?)
3. Interlude
4. The Future's Not What It Used to Be
5. Mobile Blue
6. Frisco Depot
7. You're Not My Same Sweet Baby
8. Interlude
9. Remember the Good
10. Swiss Cottage Place
11. How I Love Them Old Songs

Frisco's a full day from home when you can afford to fly
But it might as well be the moon when you're as broke as I

You would probably also like:

Lee Clayton -
Lee Clayton (1973)

Iris DeMent -
Infamous Angel (1992)

The National Lights - The Dead Will Walk, Dear (2007)

So if you put this on and kinda tune-in-tune-out, The Dead Will Walk, Dear comes off as a series of sweet, homespun indie folk love songs, with fingerpicked guitars, pedal steel, and lovely vocal harmonies. But lines like "I was eating your body and bones" may start jumping out at you, and you'll realize that it's actually a collection of often quite grisly, occasionally heartbreaking (see "Riverbed") murder ballads, sung and performed with a perverse preciousness and wistfulness.

Track listing:
1. Better for It, Kid
2. Mess Around
3. The Dead Will Walk
4. O, Ohio
5. Riverbed
6. Buried Treasure
7. Midwest Town
8. The Water Is Wide
9. Swimming in the the Swamp
10. Killing Swallows

Let me cover you up
In my buttoned flannel shirt
Your skin's so cold without a skirt on
Let my tongue cut your cheek
And catch the blood before it falls
Cause it'll dirty up your feet

You should also hear:

Mojave 3 -
Ask Me Tomorrow (1995)

The Black Heart Procession -
1 (1998)

Six Organs of Admittance - For Octavio Paz (2004)

Related:
Badgerlore - Of Things Too Sorrowful to Be Reminded of, and Things Too Beautiful to Possess (2003)
Six Organs of Admittance - RTZ (2009)

Still my favorite Six Organs record. A deeply meditative sequence of sparse, deftly picked pieces for solo acoustic guitar, with little-to-no accoutrements.

Track listing:
1. Fire on Rain
2. When You Finally Return
3. Memory, Memory, Memory
4. The Night Knows Nothing at All
5. Elk River
6. They Fixed the Broken Windmill Today
7. Rain on Fire
8. The Acceptance of Absolute Negation

Hum a silent prayer

You should also listen to:

Sandy Bull -
Inventions (1965)

Jim O'Rourke -
Bad Timing (1997)