Tír na nÓg - Tír na nÓg (1971)

Great first LP from this Irish folk rock duo. Delicately picked acoustic guitars and gentle harmonized vocals, with hints of psychedelia dancing in the periphery. Lyrical concerns include seagulls, flowers, fairies, elves, cows, and milk.

Track listing:
1. Time Is Like a Promise
2. Mariner Blues
3. Daisy Lady
4. Tír na nÓg
5. Aberdeen Angus
6. Looking Up
7. Boat Song
8. Our Love Will Not Decay
9. Hey Friend
10. Dance of Years
11. Live a Day
12. Piccadilly
13. Dante

When you're looking up
I see the sun's reflection in your dark blue eyes

Kitaro - Oasis (1979)

Synth-y new age bliss. Managed to pick myself up a nice case of acute bronchitis in Minneapolis, and am now attempting to simulate happiness using music and codeine cough syrup. Good night, sweet blogosphere.

Track listing:
1. Morning Prayer (Asa No Inori, Rising Sun)
2. Moro-Rism
3. New Wave (Aratanaru Tabiji)
4. Cosmic Energy (Uchu Enerugii)
5. Eternal Spring (Inochi No Izumi, Aqua)
6. Moonlight
7. Shimmering Horizon (Hikari To Kage)
8. Fragrance of Nature (Shizen No Kaori)
9. Innocent People (Mujaki)
10. Oasis

Dawn of the astral

Heldon - Electronic Guerilla (1974)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Richard Pinhas - Rhizosphere (1977)

Debut album from this stellar French electro-prog outfit. Warm, fuzzy synthesizers, oscillations, and grainy, lush guitars. I've been stuck in a Minneapolis airport for the past 10 hours -- it's -9 degrees out BTW -- and this is helping me to stave off total physical and mental collapse.

Track listing:
1. Zind
2. Back to Heldon
3. Northernland Lady
4. Ouais, Marchais, Mieux Qu'en 68 (Ex : Le Voyageur)
5. Circulus Vitiosus
6. Ballade Pour Puig Antich, Révolutionnaire Assassiné En Espagne

Cries of the electronic baby

Trauma - Imperfect Like a God (2003)

Impeccably performed and produced Polish death metal. Precise, punishing riffs and drumming, with some tech-y, almost prog-y flourishes and atmospheric elements -- a clean guitar over a blast beat here, a dissonant, reverb-soaked lead there -- that, like a nice rug, really tie the room together.

Track listing:
1. Blade Under Your Throat
2. The Hidden Seed
3. The Madness Here
4. Beyond the Perception
5. Imperfect Like a God
6. Make Me Blind
7. Spiritual Disorder
8. Perplexity of Truths
9. Outrage to Fools

Planes like missiles in the name of God

Black Wreath - A Pyre of Lost Dreams (2009)

If you, like me, think that Of the Wand and the Moon's The Lone Descent set a new, as of yet unmatched standard for neofolk, you'll probably be pretty stoked to hear that Kim Larsen, that project's mastermind, has a funeral doom band. Yup. A Pyre of Lost Dreams is the band's only release so far, and it is mesmerizing, achingly beautiful, and crushingly heavy, even in the sections lead by clean guitars. Larsen's neofolk tendencies pop up here and there -- most noticeably, in the strings that creep in during the latter half of "The Black Holes of Your Mind" -- but the real ace in the hole is Larsen's gift for composition and melody, which allow these songs to unfold slowly and carefully, but with a sense of clarity and direction.

Track listing:
1. The Black Holes of Your Mind
2. Nocturnal Dominion
3. Solitude Rising (Missing All Exits)
4. Nidstong

Behold the nightsky of a thousand stars
Falling to earth in dark procession,
Infinite solitude rising in all its splendor

Harold Budd - The Serpent (In Quicksilver) / Abandoned Cities (1989)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and Melodies (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

Issued in 1989, this record collects two of Budd's early albums: The Serpent (In Quicksilver),  originally recorded in '81 (on a 4-track, no less) and Abandoned Cities, which consists of two long pieces composed in '84 for an art installation. The Serpent is very much in line with the piano-driven, synth-saturated ambient music for which he'd eventually become known, while Abandoned Cities offers an enticing glimpse at a darker, more experimental approach at which he proved quite proficient.

Track listing:
1. Afar
2. Wanderer
3. Rub with Ashes
4. Children on the Hill
5. Widows Charm
6. The Serpent (In Quicksilver)
7. Dark Star
8. Abandoned Cities

Totems of the red-sleeved warrior

Lambert & Nuttycombe - At Home (1970)

Contemplative acoustic folk rock from an exceptionally talented duo who somehow never quite made it. At Home is a beautifully sparse, appropriately homemade-sounding record, consisting entirely of the two men's guitars and voices, and songs that are alternately breezy, melancholy, playful, wistful, and peaceful.

Track listing:
1. Morning
2. Time
3. Bird Song
4. My Own Beat
5. Something on My Mind
6. Mouse
7. Ode to Drugan
8. Putting Myself Together Again
9. Mr. Bojangles
10. Country Song
11. Heaven Knows (Where I've Been)
12. Clover

Make a dive towards what you want
Fill your throat with laughter
If it's sorrow that you want
Save the laugh for after

Amon Düül - Psychedelic Underground (1968)

Well, I'm on winter break, and my girl's out of town, so you know what that means: it's 5:16 AM and I'm about to get higher while the pounding, trance-inducing drums, ramshackle guitar grooves, and unintelligible vocals of Amon Düül's debut melt my brain into a pile of warm, multi-colored goo.

Track listing:
1. Ein Wunderhubsches Madchen Traumt Von Sandosa
2. Kaskados Minnelied
3. Mama Duul Und Ihre Sauerkrautband Spielt Auf
4. Im Garten Sandosa
5. Der Garten Sandosa Im Morgentau
6. Bitterlings Verwandlung

Toxicological whispering

Roy Harper - HQ (1975)

Roy Harper has put out many, many great albums, of which HQ is one of the very best. Although previous records such as Stormcock (another full-fledged masterpiece) had explored innovative, prog-like strong structures, HQ is the closest he'd come to full-on prog rock, a move Harper emphasizes with the roaring guitar solo that closes out multi-suite album opener, "The Game, Pts. 1-5". The rest of the album maintains a sharp sonic cohesion while covering an impressive amount of stylistic ground. There's spaced-out boogie rock, throwback 50s rock, Zeppelin-esque drama, and lysergic acoustic folk, all bolstered by Harper's reliably evocative, heady lyrics.

Track listing:
1. The Game, Pts. 1-5
2. The Spirit Lives
3. Grown Ups Are Just Silly Children
4. Referendum (Legend)
5. Forget Me Not
6. Hallucinating Light
7. When an Old Cricketeer Leaves the Crease

The minds of the tortured perpetuated patron saints of crime

Mistress of the Dead - I Know Her Face from the Tombstone (2006)

Mistress of the Dead is a one-man funeral doom project from the Czech Republic. If you're familiar with the subgenre, you know exactly what to expect -- extremely slow tempos, sparse drumming, drawn-out guitar chords, clean guitar leads, ghostly keyboards, and guttural growls -- as MOTD adheres strictly to the guidelines set years ago by Skepticism and Thergothon. But c'mon, when it comes to metal, innovation is overrated. Everyone knows that 99% of the best metal bands work well within the established limits of a chosen subgenre (Incantation didn't invent death metal, y'all.) And MOTD's stubborn refusal to innovate is precisely what makes I Know Her Face from the Tombstone so great: it's the ugly, desolated face of funeral doom, completely unadorned.

If you dig this, you should go to the Lost Soul blog, where you can score the entire MOTD discography.

Track listing:
1. I Know Her Face from the Tombstone
2. Embracing Silent Death
3. Only Ashes and Remembrance
4. Tragical Smell of Grave Flowers (... Is Weeping for Your Death)

Rounded
In the emptiness
Rushing collapsed surreality
Falling through

Necromantia - Scarlet Evil Witching Black (1995)

Killer Greek black metal. To me, Scarlet Evil Witching Black feels a bit more connected to traditional heavy metal than most black metal; it's all about the riffs, the recording has a raw but warm quality, and, at certain points, it's almost... fun. If you're wondering how it sounds so fuckin' gnarly, it's because instead of rhythm guitars, Necromantia goes with a dual 8-string bass attack, using guitars only for solos and embellishments. Also, in addition to some symphonic elements (read: keyboard strings/choir/piano/etc., and one extended sample from "Ride of the Valkyries") Necromantia incorporated a saxophone solo into a black metal recording ("The Arcane Light of Hecate") almost fifteen years before Nachtmystium. In conclusion: if you claim to like black metal, this record will be on the exam.

Track listing:
1. Devilskin
2. Black Mirror
3. Pretender to the Throne (Opus I: The Usurpers's Spawn)
4. The Arcane Light of Hecate
5. Scarlet Witching Dreams
6. The Serpent and the Pentagram
7. Pretender to the Throne (Opus II: Battle at the Netherworld)
8. Spiritdance

We embrace thy shining light tonight

Tones on Tail - Pop (1984)

First and only album from this Daniel Ash (Bauhaus) side-project. Shades-on cool and pitch-black, but with a sense of musical adventurousness and diversity that keeps things interesting and, dare I say it, fun. And if you can think of a more goth song title than "The Never Never (Is Forever)", I'd like to hear it.

Track listing:
1. Lions
2. War
3. Happiness
4. The Never Never (Is Forever)
5. Performance
6. Slender Fungus
7. Movement of Fear
8. Real Life
9. Rain

A flash of white light
a thrilling hope, some pure surprise
but it's always smashed in two

The Fall of Every Season - Amends (2013)

The Fall of Every Season is a one-man, Norwegian melodic doom project that is responsible for some of the most engaging sounds I've heard from this often tired-sounding subgenre in quite a while. Where so many bands seem to plod along through a dismal, gray rain, The Fall of Every Season grow wings and soar over snow-capped mountains and across fitful oceans. Fans of (early) Katatonia, Rapture, October Tide, Forest of Shadows: you will probably love this. And if you're saying to yourself, "I am so fucking over post-y doom," let me assure you, I am too.

Track listing:
1. Sole Passenger
2. The Mammoth
3. A Portrayal
4. Aurelia
5. Come, Waves

In a land of plundering ghouls, its promises solely held me onto the crooked branches of life

Constance Demby - Skies Above Skies (1978)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Constance Demby - Sunborne (1980)
Constance Demby - Sacred Space Music (1982)

Constance Demby's early works are among the most stately, transcendent music to come out of the New Age movement. Maybe it's her classical training, maybe it's her powerful but restrained vocals, maybe it's her instrument of choice -- hammered dulcimer -- but it feels as though these records actually reached the heavenly heights that so many of her peers merely invoked. Demby's debut album, Skies Above Skies, is, of course, built around her virtuosic hammered dulcimer-playing, and a bit of synthesizer, but features a stronger emphasis on her vocals than would be heard on her next few records.

Track listing:
1. Om Mani Padme Hum
2. Endless
3. Peace of God
4. El Mie
5. St. Francis Prayer
6. Sant Ji
7. God Is

Hidden light shining in every creature

Collin Walcott - Cloud Dance (1976)

Sitarist Collin Walcott's (also of Oregon fame) first solo album. Yes, he studied under Ravi Shankar. What's really interesting about this record is how, instead of creating some kind of whitewashed version of Indian music, the sitar and tabla are often simply folded into the pillowy, gently propulsive sounds of ECM jazz.

Track listing:
1. Margheritte
2. Prancing
3. Night Glider
4. Scimitar
5. Vadana
6. Eastern Song
7. Padma
8. Cloud Dance

Get to the moon lake