Loop - Heaven's End (1987)

Droning, kaleidoscopic, narcotized psych rock. Sounds like a whole bunch of psychedelics and a handful of downers. Fans of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized: get in the fucking van.

Track listing:
1. Soundhead
2. Straight to Your Heart
3. Forever
4. Heaven's End
5. Too Real to Feel
6. Fix to Fall
7. Head On
8. Carry Me

Breathe into me

Miles Davis - Get Up with It (1974)

A personal favorite of mine from Miles Davis' discography, Get Up with It is a double album of material recorded at various points from 1970 to '74. Even within the context of a career as challenging and game-changing as Davis', opening an album with the 32-minute, mind dissolving, slow burning "He Loved Him Madly" was a pretty confrontational move. Wah-wah guitars, hand percussion, dissonant organ-led freakouts, half-hour-long jams -- I can practically see weed smoke pouring out of my speakers. If you don't think that Miles Davis created some of the raddest sounds in the history of life on this planet, you're wrong.

Track listing:
-Disc One-
1. He Loved Him Madly
2. Maiysha
3. Honky Tonk
4. Rated X
-Disc Two-
1. Calypso Frelimo
2. Red China Blues
3. Mtume
4. Billy Preston

Voodoo

Benoît Pioulard - Hymnal (2013)

Acoustic indie folk rock as filtered through grainy, electronic ambience. Everything that Benoît Pioulard (aka Seattle-based musician Thomas Meluch) has put out has been phenomenal, and this album is no exception.

Track listing:
1. Mercy
2. Hawkeye
3. Reliquary
4. Homily
5. Excave
6. Gospel
7. Florid
8. Margin
9. Censer
10. Litiya
11. Knell
12. Foxtail

Moth wings

Summoning - Nightshade Forests (1997)

In case any of you are young or unfortunate enough to have slept on the epic, fantastical, Tolkien-obsessed sounds of Summoning, here's an early EP consisting of songs recorded during the same sessions that yielded their classic third album, Dol Guldur. Each of these four songs, driven by glacial guitars, semi-cheesy synths, rasping vocals, and tom-heavy drum machines, drives forward at a slow but determined pace, slowly forming enthralling, mysterious, oddly beautiful musical landscapes. Highly recommended for anyone who's nerdy enough to get down.

Track listing:
1. Mirkwood
2. Kortirion Among the Trees
3. Flesh and Blood
4. Habbanan Beneath the Stars

The echoes of his harp
have poisoned the air
The horizons of the earth
have drowned

Kataxu - Hunger of Elements (2005)

Elite-tier Polish symphonic black metal. Three sprawling, keyboard-driven songs and three keyboard interludes. I haven't really looked into it, but a quick glance at Kataxu's page on the Metal Archives leaves little doubt as to whether this project is sketchy, so if that kind of thing is a dealbreaker for you, move along.

Track listing:
1. In My Dungeon
2. In Arms of the Astral World
3. Below the Tree of Life
4. Nightsky
5. The Manifesto of the Unity
6. The Breath of Atlantis

Here is my homage to the mountainous blossoms
The ancient earth remembers
Here is the rocky beginning
In the hands of the elements
The hidden word - "keys" - within the human psyche.

The Shitlickers - The Shitlickers (1982)

Raw, blown-out, caveman-simple, Swedish d-beat. You haven't heard thought-provoking political commentary until you've heard the Shitlickers' seminal "The Leader (of the Fuckin' Assholes)". For those who find Discharge to be too cerebral.

Track listing:
1. Warsystem
2. Armed Revolution
3. Sprackta Snutskallar
4. The Leader (of the Fuckin' Assholes)
5. Silence
6. Desperate Scream from the Heat
7. The Night of the Holocaust
8. No System Works

Cracked cop skulls

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Killer screamo/ hardcore power trio with psychedelic leanings (read: the guitarist had a delay pedal and switched to the clean channel sometimes,) Pretty sure I went to the record release show for this album in DC. Also pretty sure that Antiproduct played, but my friends and I had just realized how fucking terrible that band was, so we left early and listened to this on the drive back instead.

Track listing:
1. The Sin in Grey
2. At 3 A.M.
3. Burial Suit
4. Xoxo
5. Progress of Elimination
6. Endings
7. Kill the Cheat

Burned himself for you
Burned for your lies
From now on, it'll be different

Therapy? - Babyteeth (1991) + Pleasure Death (1992)

Two mini-albums of dark, experimental noise rock from this longstanding project. Although they were most prominent throughout the mid-90s, I've always felt that Therapy? are at their best when they're at their noisiest and most inscrutable, so these, their first two releases, represent some of my favorite material of theirs.

Track listing:
-Babyteeth-
1. Meat Abstract
2. Skyward
3. Punishment Kiss
4. Animal Bones
5. Loser Cop
6. Innocent X
7. Dancin' with Manson
-Pleasure Death-
1. Skinning Pit
2. Fantasy Bag
3. Shitkicker
4. Prison Breaker
5. D.L.C.
6. Potato Junkie

God kicks with both feet

Freddie Hubbard - First Light (1971)

A masterpiece of cushiony, lush, ornate, spaced-out jazz fusion. Of the many, many great records Hubbard put out, First Light might be the most satisfying.  Virtually any and every music nerd needs to know about this album.

Track listing:
1. First Light
2. Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey
3. Moment to Moment
4. Yesterday's Dreams
5. Lonely Town

True colors

Glitterbug - Privilege (2010)

A sprawling double album of minimal, narcotized but propulsive ambient techno from this Cologne-based producer. Twenty abstract, repetitive compositions consisting of simple beats, pulsing synths, and atmospheric washes. I recommend headphones and a drug of your choice.

Track listing:
-Disc One-
1. Lionheart
2. Swirl
3. Blue Rifts
4. Wide and Near
5. Calcutta
6. After All
7. Blast
8. Confront
9. Pink Sparks (Cave Edit)
10. Vertical Extent
-Disc Two-
1. Waves
2. Float
3. Cornered
4. Slurred Thinking
5. Shake and Tumble
6. Parted
7. So Could We
8. Transitions
9. Over Water (Dub Edit)
10. Walk Me

We'll still be here tomorrow

The Slow Death - The Slow Death (2008)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Slow Death - II (2012)

First album from this phenomenal death/doom trio. Beauty and the beast vocals, strings pads, harmonized leads, and five very long songs. Lyrically, The Slow Death appears to be a concept album about a traveller who, upon returning home, mistakenly infects literally everyone in town with the Black Plague. Overall, it's about as good as this subgenre gets, so fans of My Dying Bride, early Theatre of Tragedy, Shape of Despair, etc. -- get on it.

Track listing:
1. The Prodigal Son
2. Sickness
3. The Slow Death
4. Grave
5. Dark Days

And all who live are soon to die
The doctors of black shroud and beaked face
Soldiers and servants, the sinners and chaste
The miasma lingers, the evil air
Permeates every alley, every house, every room

Robert Rich - A Troubled Resting Place (1996)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Robert Rich - Calling Down the Sky (2004)

Deep, haunting drones, formless percussion, and echoing samples. Although A Troubled Resting Place is a compilation album, you'd never know it, as the sound is highly consistent throughout. Don't let the "new age" tag fool you -- this is evocative, often unsettling music. Play this the next time you're alone in the desert at night and the moon is bleeding.

Track listing:
1. The Simorgh Sleeps on Velvet Tongues
2. Calling by Stormlight
3. Buoyant on Motionless Deluge
4. Bioelectric Plasma
5. Black Skies
6. Night Sky Replies

Temple of the invisible

The Touchers - Pretty Baby (2005)

The Touchers were probably my favorite band for whom I ran sound during my short, drunk stint at the Sidebar in B-more. They played for something like two hours, drank a bunch, sang a lil' ditty about how important it is to stay hydrated while boozing (which I remember thinking was so great for some reason) and were all-around hilarious, smart, and everything you could want out of what, in the end, pretty much amounts to a Pixies- and cowpunk-influenced bar punk band. In the years since then, no one for whom I've played this record has seemed all that impressed, and in all likelihood, you'll have a similar experience. That's fine, maybe you 'had to be there'. Just make sure you hear "Ghost Dance".

Track listing:
1. Always Know Your Dealer
2. Servant of the Evil One
3. Apes in Hell
4. Ghetto
5. Pig Has Gone Away
6. Ugly Daughter
7. Pleasure of Friends
8. Vacant Lot
9. Number of the Beast
10. Left Hand Is Unclean
11. Dead Are Alone
12. Ghost Dance
13. Shaking Her Ass
14. Regret
15. Death Taxes
16. You Want It You Got It
17. Everybody Loves a Funeral
18. Angry Woman
19. Calling It Quits
20. Can't Go Back
21. Wake Down
22. Spirit of Poverty
23. Children Will Buy It
24. Middle of Nowhere
25. They're Coming for You
26. Untitled

They're brilliant and happy
They're laughing
They're used to seeing violence

Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes - Astral Traveling (1973)

Hazy, lush, mind-expanding jazz-funk from one of the greats.

Track listing:
1. Astral Traveling
2. Let Us Go into the House of the Lord
3. Rejuvenation
4. I Mani (Faith)
5. In Search of Truth
6. Aspirations
7. Astral Traveling (Alternate Take)
8. Rejuvenation (Alternate Take)
9. I Mani (Faith) (Alternate Take)
10. In Search of Truth (Alternate Take)

Reflections of a golden dream

Magic Dirt - Friends in Danger (1996)

Australian grunge. Friends in Danger is Magic Dirt's first and, from what I've heard, still their best album. It's angsty and imperfect, but really, it couldn't be any other way, and for fans of 90s-style alt rock, it's a goddamn treasure. The album-opening title track alone makes it worth a spin. Love the thick, no high-end guitar tone, too - kinda like Siamese Dream but, obviously, not as layered.

Track listing:
1. Friends in Danger
2. Heavy Business
3. Pristine Christine
4. Bodysnatcher
5. Dylan's Lullaby
6. Sparrow
7. Shovel
8. Fear
9. Befriended Fallen Angel
10. I Was Cruel

At the start
I can do it
Everything