Can - Soon Over Babaluma (1974)

A band as exciting, inventive, and all-in-all awe-inspiring as Can deserves better than some rando blog bro trying to assert his ideas about which of their albums is "best." As far as I'm concerned, their first six albums -- of which Soon Over Babaluma is the last -- all should be considered as some of the greatest experimental rock records ever made, and trying to figure out how they stack up against each other is asinine (don't tell Pitchfork that, though, cause they're pretty sure that Soon Over is 0.1 better than Future Days.) BUT I will say that I listen to this one the most.

In the first three tracks, there are quasi-Latin grooves, something resembling early ska or reggae, some odd, distorted violin, and countless other ideas and sounds, all crammed into a remarkably cohesive yet scatterbrained sound. The final two tracks, "Chain Reaction" and "Quantum Physics", find the band joyfully riding propulsive, percussive musical mantras into previously uncharted territory somewhere in the stratosphere, leaving pretty much every other band ever far, far behind.

Track listing:
1. Dizzy Dizzy
2. Come Sta, La Luna
3. Splash
4. Chain Reaction
5. Quantum Physics

Sunshine day and night

Forest - Forest (1996)

Related:
Walknut - Graveforests and Their Shadows (2007)

Hypnotic, raw black metal at its finest. Forest's association with Blazebirth Hall undoubtedly means that they were NS, but given the innocent album cover and the fact that they sing in a language that I don't understand, I get to pretend that they're just singing about how the woods get them in touch with their lupine spirits or whatever. (For my policy regarding racist black metal, see this post.) So if this upsets you, steer clear. If this really upsets you, please feel free to never visit my dumb, offensive blog ever again, or leave a comment telling me all about it. Just don't expect me to get into it with you, as this is an argument that I have had, online and IRL, about 4000 times.

Track listing:
1. Тенью над землёй
2. Тлен и огонь пред далью открытой
3. ...Багряный в утопании...
4. Enburnst the Christian
5. Winterhowl

In the middle of death, in the face of life

Al Gromer Khan & Amelia Cuni - Monsoon Point (1995)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Al Gromer Khan - Divan I Khas (Visions of a Mogul Prince) (1987)
Al Gromer Khan - Utopia (1993) + Attar (1996)

Gently drifting synths make a soft, soothing musical bed for Amelia Cuni's "Ancient Dhrupad singing." A single 55-minute composition. Also, if you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out the other Al Gromer Khan albums that I've posted, as they're easily some of my favorite new age albums, and they're pretty hard to find.

We take rose

If you're into this, I'd be surprised if you didn't also like:
Robert Rich & Lisa Moskow - Yearning (1995)

Rachel's - Selenography (1999)

Dark, low-key, instrumental post-rock. Piano, guitars, strings, and sparse percussion painting abstract, mysterious landscapes.

Track listing:
1. A French Galleasse
2. On Demeter
3. The Last Night
4. Kentucky Nocturne
5. Honeysuckle Suite (Sugar Maple -- Elm -- Sweetgum)
6. Artemisia
7. Old Road
8. An Evening of Long Goodbyes
9. Cuts the Metal Cold
10. The Mysterious Disappearance of Louis LePrince
11. Forgiveness
12. Hearts and Drums

You will be safe
You will be asleep

David Holland Quartet - Conference of the Birds (1973)

An avant-garde jazz classic. I was gonna post a different Holland record, cause this is the one that everyone knows, but what if you've never heard it? I couldn't live with myself.

Track listing:
1. Four Winds
2. Q & A
3. Conference of the Birds
4. Interception
5. Now Here (Nowhere)
6. See-Saw

Deluge

Boduf Songs - How Shadows Chase the Balance (2008)

Get Boduf Songs' new album, Stench of Exist, on digital, CD, or vinyl, right here. Do it, you'll love it.
...

"All of my heroes died the same day/All of them fallen away/Swinging from nooses, wrists opened wide/Arteries spilt at their sides."

So begins How Shadows Chase the Balance, an album of stark, devastating folk that's effective enough to make me question my choice to listen to it. Over acoustic guitars, mandolin, sparse drums, and faint atmospheric elements, Matthew Sweet (nope, not this guy) whisper-sings poetically about death, suicide, longing, and existential crises, channeling a pitch-black atmosphere usually reserved for black or doom metal. (Speaking of which, here's my post about his sludge band, Ringing Bell.) If this record had existed in '06 or '07, back when my depression was winning, it would probably be one of my all-time favorites.

Track listing:
1. Mission Creep
2. Things Not to Be Done on the Sabbath
3. I Can't See a Thing in Here
4. Quite When Group
5. Pitiful Shadow Engulfed in Darkness
6. A Spirit Harness
7. Found on the Bodies of Fallen Whales
8. Last Glimmer on a Hill at Dusk

There is blood on the breeze

Secret Shine - Untouched (1993)

A nice lil' obscure gem of 90s UK shoegaze. The more uptempo songs remind me of a less polished Lush, while the slower ones invoke Slowdive at their most serene. Though, obviously, one can easily find reference points for this sound -- Untouched is not the most original record, OK -- it's nonetheless a treat for anyone who, like me, can't get enough of this stuff.

Track listing:
1. Suck Me Down
2. Temporal
3. Spellbound
4. So Close I Come
5. Into the Ether
6. Toward the Sky
7. Underworld
8. Sun Warmed Water

All that I say
It's never true

Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Geisterfaust (2005)

Related:
The Nest - Music for Drivers (2012)

Bohren and Der Club of Gore make slow, dark jazz that's (probably intentionally) quite similar to the music to which you'd see Audrey Horne seductively swaying on Twin Peaks. Despite the instrumentation, which includes vibraphone, saxophone, and Rhodes piano, and their complete lack of guitar distortion, I'd argue that they have more in common with drone doom and funeral doom than they do with any given jazz artist.

Geisterfaust is, with the possible exception of Midnight Radio, their most challenging release. Each of these five long compositions seems to exist in a sort of slo-mo free-fall of drawn-out chords, simple vibe/sax melodies, and extremely sparse percussion; either there's no steady rhythm present, or the tempos are too slow for it to be readily discernible.

Track listing:
1. Zeigefinger
2. Daumen
3. Ringfinger
4. Mittelfinger
5. Kleinerfinger

Black city skyline

Joe Henderson - Multiple (1973)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Joe Henderson - Black Is the Color (1972) + Black Narcissus (1976)

Phenomenal, funky, groove-based jazz fusion from a band led by Joe Henderson, one of jazz's all-time great saxophonists. Though it's plenty far-out, Multiple is one of Henderson's more accessible ventures -- in addition to continuing his exploration of the world of studio overdubs, it features a bit of vocals from the man himself!

Track listing:
1. Tress-Cun-Deo-La
2. Bwaata
3. Song for Sinners
4. Turned Around
5. Me, Among Others

In pursuit of blackness

Verdunkeln - Verdunkeln (2005)

From Germany, Verdunkeln make cult, mid-paced, ritualistic black metal that doesn't sound quite like anything else I've heard. The drums plod along, the riffs repeat in elongated cycles, and the vocals hang overhead, saturated with delay, like a black cloud; once in a while, an echoing clean guitar melody pierces through the haze. I found Verdunkeln through their association with Ruins of Beverast mastermind Alexander von Meilenwald, who plays live guitars for them, and if there's anything certain in this world, it's that people who read blogs like this one love Ruins of Beverast.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Wechselbalg
3. Blutrunst
4. Einst War Es Mal...
5. Erlkoenigs Tochter
6. Schwarze Fährte
7. Trümmer
8. Trolltraum

White abyss

Luomo - Vocalcity (2000)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower (2007)

Luomo's debut is a classic of abstract, hypnotic deep house. Six songs, only one of which is under 12 minutes. I wish I was cool enough to actually dance to music like this, as people somehow do, but it takes duuumb, mainstream shit to make me awkwardly shuffle around a dance floor.

Track listing:
1. Market
2. Class
3. Synkro
4. The Right Wing
5. Tessio
6. She-Center

I want everything from you
I take everything from you

Ascend - Ample Fire Within (2008)

Was working on a requested Sunn O))) post (I'll get there) when I got distracted by this one. Ascend is a duo consisting of Greg Anderson, whose projects have included Sunn O))), Goatsnake, Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine, and many others, and Gentry Densley, best known as one half of Eagle Twin. Their music is densely layered, highly dynamic, and has a disjointed, deconstructed feel that reminds me a bit of Khanate, but retains a sense of subtle beauty, even as feedback and demonic choirs threaten to decimate your speakers.

Track listing:
1. The Obelisk of Kolob
2. Ample Fire Within
3. Divine
4. V.O.G.
5. Her Horse Is Thunder
6. Dark Matter

These dreams I dream of lions
And with alarming frequency

Acrimonious - Sunyata (2012)

Majestic Greek black metal. More traditional than that strangely amateurish, yet badass album art might have you expect, but plenty mesmerizing nonetheless. The double-kick and tremolo picking are more or less relentless, keeping the intensity ramped up even throughout the numerous, extended midtempo sections, while the vocals trade off between the expected rasps and a dramatic, hoarse shout. Really, though, the fluid interplay between the two guitars is the main attraction here.

Track listing:
1. Nexus Aosoth
2. Lykania Hekate
3. Adharma
4. Glory Crowned Son of the Thousand Petalled Lotus
5. The Hollow Wedjat
6. The Sloughed Scales of Separation
7. Vitalizing the Red-Purple in Ishet-Zunumium
8. Black Kundalini

Thine twisted shape bewilders, in constant flux and swirls
And the endlessness of the ocean conceals an unseen pearl
That shall engulf the seeker, like the moth within the flame
For the caller and the called was all but the same

Boredoms - Super Roots 7 (1998)

Just a reminder that Boredoms are one of the greatest bands of all time. Super Roots 7 finds Boredoms at their most ecstatic, and was inspired by/includes musical elements of "Where Were You" by the Mekons. Joyful repetition of musical phrases as piercing feedback, digital oscillations, and other bizarre sonics come and go.

Track listing:
1. 7~ (Ewe Remix)
2. 7--> (Boriginal)
3. 7+ (Eye Remix)

Your name is limitless

George Russell - Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature (1969)

Two extended avant-garde jazz workouts led by American pianist George Russell, and recorded in concert in 1969 (the "1968" on the cover refers to when the pieces were written.) Anxious and dynamic, with darkly psychedelic undertones. When my brain is overworked and full of numbers, this is how I relax. Includes early performances from future ECM heavyweights Terje Rypdal, Jan Garbarek and Jon Christensen.

Track listing:
1. Events 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
2. Events 7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14

Honesty