Richard Barbieri / Tim Bowness - Flame (1994)

Related:

Tim Bowness / Samuel Smiles - World of Bright Futures (1999)

No-Man - Together We're Stranger (2003)

Artful, nocturnal melancholy featuring the vocal stylings of Tim Bowness, who as far as I know hasn't stopped being sad since at least the early 90s. If you had told a 16-year-old me that I'd end up liking the same kind of sleekly produced, middle-aged sad sack music that my dad forced me to listen to in the car on the way to school, I probably would've quoted "Life Sentence" at you and skulked away to smoke cigarettes with my faux-hippie girlfriend and assure myself that I would never, ever be like my dad -- who, it turns out, was right all along.

Track listing:

1. A Night in Heaven

2. Song of Love and Everything Part I and II

3. Brightest Blue

4. Flame

5. Trash Talk

6. Time Flown

7. Torch Dance

8. Feel

See me

Also listen to:

Rain Tree Crow - Rain Tree Crow (1991)

Alesini & Andreoni - Marco Polo (1995)

Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook - Sleeps with the Fishes (1987)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Michael Brook - Cobalt Blue (1992)

Excellent one-off collaboration between Pieter Nooten (of Clan of Xymox) and ambient composer/guitarist Michael Brook. Drifting synths, mournful strings, murmured singing, heartbreaking songs. Very 4AD.

Track listing:

1. Several Times I

2. Searching

3. The Choice

4. After the Call

5. Finally II

6. Instrumental

7. Suddenly II

8. Suddenly I

9. Clouds

10. Finally I

11. Several Times II

12. Equal Ways

13. These Waves

14. Time

15. Several Times III

Colors above me

Arise high above despair

Also listen to:

Trance to the Sun - Ghost Forest (1984)

The Hope Blister - ...Smile's OK (1998)

Fetisch Park - Alluvial (1997)

Driving, techno/industrial-leaning electronic abstractions partially built around the singing of Thai prostitutes, recorded by the band while staying at a hotel in Bangkok. In the hands of a lesser artist, this could have been a disastrous exercise in exoticization à la Enigma, but Fetisch Park imbues these recordings with genuine, even frightening power, making for a work of art that's utterly fascinating -- both conceptually and sonically.

Track listing:

1. Malaysia Hotel

2. Blow

3. Gradation d'humour

4. Reiz

5. Off Line

6. Pongh

7. Ball-Room

8. Cargo

9. Kadse

10. Suktion

Uncover our heads and reveal our souls

We were hungry before we were born

If you like this, try:

Ancient Methods - First Method (2007) + Second Method (2008)

Demdike Stare - Voices of Dust (2010)

Light - Turning (1996)

Ambient, shoegaze-informed space rock. Echoing, shimmering clouds of guitars, droning feedback, minimal drums, and distorted vocals. Definitely FFO Flying Saucer Attack.

Track listing:

1. Trailer

2. Tale of White Passage

3. Nature Man

4. Bird

5. Passing

6. Unknown Song

7. Mind Crossing

8. End of the River

Lightdripglow

Similar listening:

Landing - Oceanless (2001)

Clear Horizon - Clear Horizon (2003)

The Consumers - All My Friends Are Dead (1995)

18 minutes of killer raw garage punk. All My Friends Are Dead was supposedly recorded in 1977 -- the author of this article claims to have seen the receipts -- and if that's the case, this was some seriously ahead of its time, proto-hardcore shit. Any doubt that I have is completely unfounded and surely just a testament to how great this record is.

Track listing:

1. Teen Love Song

2. Anti, Anti, Anti

3. Consumers

4. Concerned Citizen

5. Your Problem

6. Ballad to the Son of Sam

7. My Type

8. Dream Hits

9. Get Out

10. Media Ogre

11. Punk Church

Mr. President, you are not my friend

You'd also like:

The Lewd - American Wino (1982)

Charm City Suicides - Charm City Suicides (2000)

dälek - Absence (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

dälek - Deadverse Massive Vol. 1: dälek Rarities 1999-2006 (2007)

My favorite dälek record, and definitely in my hip-hop top 10. Impenetrably dense, shoegaze-like walls of noise, monstrous beats, and bleak, extremely pissed-off flows. One of the only rap records that's made me do the invisible pineapple. 

Track listing:

1. Distorted Prose

2. Asylum (Permanent Underclass)

3. Culture for Dollars

4. Absence

5. A Beast Caged

6. Koner

7. In Midst of Struggle

8. Eyes to Form Shadows

9. Ever Somber

10. Opiate the Masses

Makes our leaders play minstrel, left with none to lead our people

How the fuck am I gonna shake your hand when we never been seen as equals?

You might also like:
Gravediggaz - Nightmare in A-Minor (2001)

Blue Sky Black Death & Nacho Picasso - Exalted (2012)

The New Birth - Comin' from All Ends (1974)

Soul/funk perfection from the great New Birth, a band formed via the fusion of multiple instrumental and vocal groups. Equal parts party-starters, baby-makers, and reflective space-out sessions.

Track listing:

1. End to End

2. Take This Train to Freedom

3. I Wash My Hands of the Whole Damn Deal

4. Lady Love

5. Pretty Music

6. Patiently

7. Echoes of My Mind

8. Do It Again

9. Comin' from All Ends

10. Epilog

Please don't stand still

If you like this, listen to:

Graham Central Station - Ain't No 'Bout-A-Doubt It (1975)

Mandrill - Solid (1975)

Abbey Lincoln - Abbey Is Blue (1959)

One of my absolute favorite vocal jazz records. Slow-burning, ethereal sounds for the late-night hours, addressing heartache and racial injustice in powerful, sorrowful terms.

Track listing:

1. Afro-Blue

2. Lonely House

3. Let Up

4. Thursday's Child

5. Brother, Where Are You?

6. Laugh, Clown, Laugh

7. Come Sunday

8. Softly, as a Morning Sunrise

9. Lost in the Stars

10. Long as You're Living

Sometimes I think maybe God's gone away

Forgetting his promise and the word he'd say

And we're lost out here in the stars

You'll probably also wanna hear:

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

Kimiko Kasai - Butterfly (1979)

Pablo's Eye - Pablo's Eye (1989)

First album by this under-appreciated project, a musical collective centered on Brussels-based artist Axel Libeert. Glistening guitars, sharp synths, Marie Mandi's understated, expressive vocals (which often remind me of 90s Joni Mitchell), a bit of viola, and very little percussion of which to speak. Not particularly representative of the group's definitive sound, but a great record nonetheless.

Track listing:

1. The Lord's My Shepherd

2. Mysteries Due To...

3. Winter

4. Burning Passion

5. Possession

6. Helen's Nose

7. A Duel

8. The Salmon Sings

9. Lullabye

We're often close to disaster

If you like this, check out:

Dip in the Pool - Silence (1986)

Nona Hendryx - SkinDiver (1989)

Sink - Ark of Contempt and Anger (2016)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Sink - The Process (2008)

In which Sink leave behind blackened drone-doom for a strange, unsettling concoction of avant-garde, neofolk-infused darkwave and vintage Goblin-esque psychedelia. It's starting to look like this might be Sink's last record, and if so, it's a fucking bummer that we'll never get to know where they might've gone from here.

Track listing:

1. Hunger

2. Pilgrimage

3. Dream Map

4. Consolation

5. Crystal Ship

6. Enchant

7. Terminal

8. World Asthma

9. So We'll Go No More A-Roving

GHGHGH

Also listen to:

Ordo Equilibrio - The Triumph of Light... and Thy Thirteen Shadows of Love (1997)

Snowman - Absence (2011)

Masabumi Kikuchi - Poo-Sun (1970)

First solo outing by Japanese jazz pianist Masabumi Kikuchi. Mesmerizing pieces that generally feature two pianists (both usually on electric), two drummers, a saxophonist, and a bassist. You're welcome.

Track listing:

1. Dancing Mist

2. Thanatos

3. E.J.

4. Yellow Carcass in the Blue

5. Puzzle Ring

6. My Companion

Get magic again

Similar listening:

Elvin Jones - Genesis (1971)

Bennie Maupin - The Jewel in the Lotus (1974)

Elm - Bxogonoas (2008)

Ritualistic drone from Jon Porras, who is probably known best as a member of Barn Owl (along with Evan Caminiti.) Dark and psychedelic, with acoustic instrumentation and an organic approach that points towards the more abstract realms of psych folk.

Track listing:

1. Dawn Unveils the Golden Thread

2. Offerings

3. Arboreal Lace

4. Blackened Horizon

5. Trails Lined with Turquoise and Silk

6. Guaquy

7. Warm and Still the Ground Keeps Our Frozen Hands

8. The Desert Speaks at Sundown

9. Lift Our Eyes to the Swelling Tides

Waves break into beams of light

If you like this, listen to:

Ben Reynolds - Earth and Space Magics (2005)

Steven R. Smith - Owl (2008)

Escape the Day - Ghostless (2005)

Get the party started with some crushingly sad German slowcore/post-rock. Simple guitar and piano figures and barely-there, whispery vocals, and the occasional cathartic crescendo. Ghostless is devastating on its own terms, and even more so given that one of the project's two main members, Chrisoph Florian Rehse, committed suicide before it could be released.

Track listing:

1. Hallways

2. Ghostless

3. Days

4. The Hour Undone

5. If I Told You

6. Still

7. This Wave's Length

8. Last Words

I feel I might be home

Bark Psychosis - Hex (1994)

Low - The Curtain Hits the Cast (1996)

Charalambides - Market Square (1995)

Related:

Christina Carter - Bastard Wing (2003)

Heavily sedated drone/psych/folk. Consists almost entirely of warped, at times out-of-tune guitars and lonely, drifting vocals. Seemingly largely improvised. The sound of nodding off. (Not making any assumptions about the musicians involved, just a description of the sounds they made.)

Track listing:

 -Disc One-

1. Think About

2. Those Who Walk

3. We Live Like Pigs

4. Namaste / Lightning Walk / Hours / And So Danced the River

5. Bankrupt

 -Disc Two-

1. House with Three Sides

2. Silvatica

3. Saratoga Reel

4. Indianola

5. Magnolia at Last

6. Someday You'll Get Yours

It's too late to think about this

Similar listening:

Jessamine - Jessamine (1994)

Badgerlore - Of Things Too Sorrowful to Be Reminded of, and Things Too Beautiful to Possess (2003)

Bann - Æschatologia (2009)

Epic, symphonic German black metal with strong doom overtones. A beautiful, keyboard-heavy ode to medieval times (the era, not the dinner theater chain) colored by whispery-rasps that sound more like Golem than any other vocalist I've heard.

Track listing:

1. Der Geiger

2. Schwarze Bulle

3. Narrenschyff

4. Carmina Necrologia

5. Fraß der Flammen: I Póli

6. Die letzten Dinge (Æschatolog)

Eat the flame

For fans of:

Asgaroth - Trapped in the Depths of Eve (1997)

Summoning - Oath Bound (2006)

Gimmik - ?!Load-Error E.P. (1997)

First record by Gimmik, a project of Toytronic label founder Martin Haidinger. Distorted breakbeats and toy sound effects juxtaposed against texturally rich, often quite lovely synths, all tied up with a glitchy bow.

Track listing:

1. Little Computer People

2. Sister Moon

3. Soft Drink

4. Floppy Disk

5. Thing on a Spring

6. Floppy Disk (Load Error Mix)

A buzzing refrigerator

Also listen to:

Funckarma - Solid State (2001)

The Tuss - Rushup Edge (2007)

The Smoking Popes - Get Fired (1993)

Brilliant first album by one of the most distinctive pop punk bands to ever grace our dumb world. The Smoking Popes never really fit the pop punk label, as their vocalist has a somewhat arch, sarcastic croon akin to that of Morrissey, and their dynamic, rough-around-the-edges songs have more in common with bands like Dinosaur Jr. than Green Day. This is probably why I never dug them back in the day, and have only learned to love them over the past few years as a jaded middle-aged crank.

Track listing:

1. Let's Hear It for Love

2. That's Where I Come In

3. Let Them Die

4. Double Fisted Love

5. Don't Be Afraid

6. Can't Find It

7. Off My Mind

8. Not That Kind of Girlfriend

9. Days Just Wave Goodbye

Let's hear it for letting someone totally ruin your life

You'd probably also enjoy:

Sloan - Smeared (1993)

The Muffs - Alert Today Alive Tomorrow (1999)

Gorch Fock - Lying and Manipulating (2005)

Texan noise rock. Barely-controlled chaos with blaring horns, unhinged vocals, and the occasional synth dropping in like a goddamn U.F.O. 

Track listing:

1. Prologue: Mexia Creek Crossover

2. Scott Jernigan

3. Bono

4. (Untitled)

5. Tap Is Crack

6. Message of Counter-Cultural...

7. Brazilian Whack Job

8. Penance / Giant Mast

9. Operational Thetan

10. Tampa Pentagram

11. Michael Kolhaas

12. Jefferson Davis Pinkus

13. Ohio

14. (Untitled)

Come on, baby, shake that ass

More insanity:

Milk Cult- Burn or Bury (1994)

The Armed - Only Love (2018)

Lip Cream - Lip Cream (1989)

By request, here's a lil' Lip Cream. Classic, fist-pumping Japanese hardcore. Sometimes it feels like I've posted everything there is to post, and then someone requests something like this and I realize how wrong I was.

Track listing:

1. 罪 –Sin–

2. カモフラージュ

3. Fresh

4. Bloodsucking to Death

5. Into the Confusion

6. Fight Alone

7. F・C・D

8. From My Soul

9. Never

10. 紅蓮（光る風）

11. Trap of War

12. 無 –Nothing–

Punk is not about fashion

But punk is about fashion also

If you like this, listen to:

Chaos U.K. - Chaos U.K. (1983)

Born Against - Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children (1991)

Skuggeheim - Vinterrikets konge (2007)

Norwegian raw black metal. A solo project of the main dude from Throne of Katarsis. All the incomprehensibility of a very lo-fi recording, but funneled through what sounds like a warped tape. Buried somewhere in all that, there's a really great, relatively traditional black metal album. Like a lost Blazebirth Hall project, but without the racism.

Track listing:

1. Med slipte oekser

2. Vinterrikets konge

3. Symboler i snoe

4. Avgrunnen

5. Ulvene drar

6. Doedens mellomakt

In between the trees

There's a body covered in snow

A vague memory

From a distant path

More like this:

Forest - Foredooming the Hope for Eternity (1998)

Saatkrähe - Of Ravens and Graves... (2009)

Ophiolatry - Anti-Evangelistic Process (2002)

Killer slept-on Brazilian death metal. Knotty, occult brutality that's more than a bit reminiscent of Morbid Angel, which is definitely not a bad thing. 

Track listing:

1. Intro

2. Psychodemoniac Mentalities

3. Messiah of Deformity

4. Entombed

5. Havoc

6. Opposite Monarchy

7. Anti-Evangelistic Process

8. Asmodeus - The Destroyer

9. Breaking the Bones of Jesus

10. Chaos Domination

11. Vexation

Jesus is a piece of shit

More like this:

Ignivomous - Path of Attrition (2007) + Eroded Void of Salvation (2008) 

Beyond Mortal Dreams - From Hell (2008)

Blood of the Black Owl - A Banishing Ritual (2010)

A heady fusion of dark psych, Pagan neofolk and blackened drone-doom. Dissonant monoliths of sound worthy of latter-day Swans broken up by flashes of crushing, pitch-black caveman sludge. It's borderline criminal that it took me so long to post this.

Track listing:

1. Intent

2. The Statement of Will

3. Chant of the Captured Spirit

4. The Final Banishing

I will stab and cut

Also check out:

Matt Howden & Tony Wakeford - Three Nine (2000)

Amestigon - Thier (2015)

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)

Jane - Fire, Water, Earth & Air (1975)

Excellent German prog/space rock. Three sprawling, interwoven suites contemplating love and human inter-connection through the lens of the classical elements. The Floyd influence is certainly there, as is the utopian rush of krautrock. I've known this band for years, but for some reason slept on this record until recently. Highly recommended for any prog fan.

The track listing's kinda confusing and overly long to write out, so I'm actually not gonna try to suss it out here, but it essentially amounts to: Track 1 has the Fire and Water bits, Track 2 is Earth, and Track 3 is Air.

See the light

You should also hear:

Earth and Fire - Atlantis (1973)

Eloy - Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes (1979)

Nebula - Genesis (2002)

Related:

Klaus Weise - Baraka (1982)

Mathias Grassow - At the Gates of Dawn (1986)

Amir Baghiri & Mathias Grassow - True North (1998)

Oöphoi - Night Currents (1998)

A phenomenal collaborative project from a group of ambient greats put together by Oöphoi. A massive, ever-expanding void of subtly layered ambient drone in which to float around until the end of infinity.

Track listing:

1. OM Creation: Breaking the Cosmic Egg

2. Let There Be Light

3. Floating Galaxies

4. Time Vessel at the Gates of Forever

5. Pulves et Umbra (Dust and Shadows)

6. The Sacred Pool of Tepeu and Gucumatz

7. The Dawn of Man

I need another world

You'd also like:

Robert Rich - Sunyata (1982)

Vidna Obmana - Echoing Delight (1993)

Es - Kaikkeuden kauneus ja käsittämättömyys (2004)

Related:

Kemialliset Ystävät - Kellari Juniversumi (2002)

Finnish experimental sounds that touch predominantly on drone, neoclassical, and musique concrète. Mysterious, beautiful, and often much darker than that relatively whimsical album cover might suggest.

Track listing:

1. Surullisille, onnettomille...

2. Hamuavia

3. Pehmeä iho

4. Huumaava ikuisuus

5. Puutarhaan lasketuu höyhen

6. Juhlat

7. Sädekellot

8. Sadepäivät

9. Aavehuminaa (katjalle)

10. Kaikkeuden kauneus ja käsittämättömyys

Don't die yet

You should also hear:

Coil - Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) (2002)

Islaja - Palaa Aurinkoon (2005)

Jeniger - Jeniger (2002)

One of the first and best melodic d-beat/crust records; it's maybe worth noting that Jeniger was recorded before the first Tragedy LP came out. This record changed the way I thought about punk, and was one of my old band's biggest influences during our formative years.

Track listing:

1. Point of No Return

2. Wasted

3. Lethargie

4. Paradise

5. For This Time

6. For No-One

7. Go Off

Welcome to paradise

Welcome to hell

More melodic d-beat:

Ambulance - The End of Our Time (2004)

Schifosi - Absentium Existence (2006)

MMOTHS - Luneworks (2016)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

MMOTHS - EP (2012)

Woozy, abstract, downtempo electro-dream pop. Distorted washes, glimmering synths, odd time signatures, pulsing rhythms, murmured vocals, late-night vibes.

Track listing:

1. You

2. Deu

3. Phase In

4. Para Polaris

5. Verbena

6. Scent

7. Eva

8. Lucid

9. Body Studies

10. 1709

11. Phase Out

12. Ohm

13. Naoko Pt. 1

14. Naoko Pt. 2

Eternal present

You should also listen to:
The Third Eye Foundation - Semtex (1996)

Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains Passing By (2001)

Skumring - Der glemte tider (2005)

Related:

Omit - Repose (2011)

Melodic funeral doom featuring two future members of Omit, including their incomparable vocalist, Cecilie Langlie. Drawn-out chords, delicate acoustic guitars, and that crestfallen voice.

Track listing:

1. Sovn

2. De glemte tider

3. Forførelse i natten

A penny's worth of bleeding

A fortune spent in healing

Further down the spiral:

Funeral - Tragedies (1995)

Forest of Shadows - Where Dreams Turn to Dust (2000)

Gastr del Sol - Camoufleur (1998)

Related:

Oval - Systemisch (1994)

Jim O'Rourke - Bad Timing (1997)

Final and IMO best album from this stellar experimental indie/post-rock outfit of David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke, featuring (on this record) Markus Popp of Oval. Acoustic guitars, horns, strings, understated vocals, keyboards, piano, and electronic textures form a beautiful, elusive sound. As a go-to early morning listen, Camofleur provided the soundtrack to many opening shifts at my old record store job.

Track listing:

1. The Seasons Reverse

2. Blues Subtitled No Sense of Wonder

3. Black Horse

4. Each Dream Is an Example

5. Mouth Canyon

6. A Puff of Dew

7. Bauchredner

Our exquisite replica of eternity

If you like this, check out:

This Kind of Punishment - A Beard of Bees (1984)

The Clean - Unknown Country (1996)

Latitude - Latitude (1986)

Debut LP from this new age duo. Synth voices of every kind, programmed drums, and 'real' guitar courtesy of legit virtuoso Ben Verdery.

Track listing:

1. At a Heart's Glance

2. Wing and a Prayer

3. A Boy's Fortune

4. Spring Training

5. Open Water

6. Private Island

7. Rock Pool Dreams

8. Cloud Dancing

Ozone

More like this:

Al Gromer Khan - Divan I Khas (Visions of a Mogul Prince) (1984)

Peter Seiler - Flying Frames (1986)

Venus Star - Son of Venus the Destroyer (2010)

Related:

Prevalent Resistance - Eternal Return (2008)

Circle of Ouroboros - Abrahadabra (2012)

Rahu - The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows (2012)

Finnish raw, punk-and-doom-infused black metal. Compilation of three cassette demos. An endless parade of largely mid-paced riff-fests with psychotic, almost screamo-y vocals. Some of the most mosh-worthy raw black metal I've heard.

Track listing:

1. Venus-Lucifer I

2. Venus-Lucifer II

3. Venus-Lucifer III

4. Venus-Lucifer IV

5. Venus-Lucifer V

6. Venus-Lucifer VI

7. Destroyer Sonata I

8. Destroyer Sonata II

9. Destroyer Sonata III

10. Son of Ishtar I

11. Son of Ishtar II

12. Son of Ishtar III

13. Son of Ishtar IV

The abyssic energy

Leaks in from the outside

From the uneven world

Similar listening:

Sortsind - Sår (1999)

Black Stench - Black Stench (2009)

Gaussian Curve - The Distance (2017)

One of the great modern ambient records. Simple, programmed beats coast through a shimmering expanse of rich, chiming guitars and synths. At times, there's a slo-mo smoothness that suggests 80s soft rock played at 33 instead of 45; elsewhere, it's more of a tasteful take on classic new age. Speaking of classic new age, some of you nerds might be interested to learn that Gigi Masin is involved.

Track listing:

1. Breathe

2. The Distance

3. Dancing Rain

4. Suspended Motion

5. Ceremony

6. T.O.R.

7. Four for You

8. Another Place

The sea of sands

If you like this, try:

Richard Burmer - Bhakti Point (1987)

Walls - Walls (2010)

Hilton Valentine - All in Your Head (1969)

2021 is off to a predictably bleak, anxiety-ridden start, huh? Here's a bit of late-60s psychedelic folk rock to help us escape to a world of sunshine, soft green hilltops, and weed smoke.

Track listing:

1. Listen

2. Everything Returns to Me

3. It's All in Your Head

4. Little Soldiers

5. Eyes of a Child

6. Sitting in the Sun

7. Is There Anything But Love

8. Land of Children

9. Run, Run, Run

10. Peace

11. Girl from Allemagne

The world's not all bad

Similar vibes:

Gary Lewis - Listen! (1967)

Paper Garden - Paper Garden (1969)

Clogs - Lantern (2006)

Folk-and-classical-leaning, instrumental post-rock from a NYC 4-piece that includes The National's Bryce Dessner. Tastefully understated arrangements made up of guitar, melodica, viola, violin, mandolin, bassoon, and percussion, among others. Lantern has been a go-to wintertime listen for me since pretty much the day it came out, so maybe it can help get some of you through the cold months as well.

Track listing:

1. Kapsburger

2. Canon

3. 5/4

4. 2:3:5

5. Death and the Maiden

6. Lantern

7. Tides of Washington Bridge

8. The Song of the Cricket

9. Fiddlegree

10. Compass

11. Voisins

12. Tides (Piano)

Light me a lantern

For to get back home

Also listen to:

David Darling - Cello (1992)

Laurie Mayer - Black Lining (2006)

Dissonant Winds - Forestial Transcendence (2017)

Australian atmospheric black metal. A beautifully bleak blur of tremolo picking, lo-fi drums, and ghostly howls, broken up by dark expanses of icy, minimal synth drone.

Track listing:

1. Lo the Forest

2. Upon the Pessimist Throne

3. Echoes of Silence

4. Forestial Transcendence

Lurking in profound obscurity

More like this:

Saatkrähe - Of Ravens and Graves... (2009)

Ehecatl - Rites of Ascension Phase II (2017)

Deadbeat - Primordia (2001)

Engrossing, narcotized dub techno from French-Canadian producer Scott Monteith. Grainy, echoing atmospherics, minimal melodic loops, and dark, subterranean pulses.

[EDIT: I just realized that I made the framework for this post before blogger updated and made it impossible (as far as my skills are concerned anyway) to imbed and align images as they are below. Look how much better that looks! Sad.]

Track listing:
1. Public Inspiration
2. Jaffa Dub (Queen B)
3. Peripheral Artifacts
4. Elder Drum
5. Minus Forty Madness
6. As We Conquer
7. Sunday Morning

Let it rain

More along these lines:

The Sight Below -
Glider (2008)

Donato Dozzy -
K (2010)

Belzebuth - Belzebuth (2007)

Australian atmospheric/depressive black metal. Dissonant guitars, funereal drums, droning keyboards, and a howling goblin lead you through the forest of tortured spirits to your final resting place.

7 untitled tracks

The call of black magic

You should also listen to:

Drakonhail - L'Ombre du Néant (2004)

Moon - Clavicula Nox (2014)

Dip in the Pool - Silence (1986)

Heaven-sent Japanese ambient synth pop. Understated, deceptively complex, and way ahead of its time. Little bits here and there remind me of some of the greats, but Dip in the Pool never really sound like anyone but themselves. 10/10.

Track listing:

1. Rabo del sol

2. Facing the Sea

3. はすのえにし

4. Sur le pois

5. Silence

6. ひなまり

7. View

8. Again

9. Spring from the Surface

10. Dormir

It's so different here

You might also enjoy:

Akira Inoue - Splash (1983)

Jan Bang - Frozen Feelings (1989)

Stu Goldberg - Fancy Glance (1979)

Related:

Jasper van 't Hof - Eye-Ball (1974)
John Lee & Gerry Brown - Infinite Jones (1974)

Funky, synth-heavy fusion led by keyboardist/pianist Stu Goldberg. It's really good. Would have been posted years ago but I couldn't find a clean rip until today.

Track listing:

1. That's the Joint

2. Night of the King

3. The Mypsy

4. Tears (Bass Solo)

5. Pokhara

6. What Is It

7. Sangre Caliente

8. Organism

Oh, what a time we had

You'd also like:

Oliver Nelson - Skull Session (1975)

Stone Alliance - Stone Alliance (1976)