Miss Dinky - Melodìas Venenosas (2001)

Woozy, ambient synth abstractions from Chilean-born, NYC-residing producer Alejandra Iglesias, aka Dinky/Miss Dinky. Melodìas Venenosas is her first album, and it's a definite outlier in her discography, as from here she went in a generally more danceable/techno direction, which I admittedly haven’t really explored, as I just keep coming back to this record.

Track listing:

1. Spring Rolls

2. Perpetuidad

3. Cilantro

4. Sapos

5. Broken Dream

6. Bahia Azul

7. Chili Drama

8. Chinatown Rape

9. Nora

10. Clare de Sangre

11. Sto Domingo Dub

12. Neruda

13. Agualuz

14. Capoeira

Milk

Similar listening:

Hex - Digital Love (1993)

Locust - Weathered Well (1994)

Morgion - Cloaked by Ages, Crowned in Earth (2004)

At the beginning of the pandemic, I set aside maybe 300 records to sell, figuring it'd be a soothing house project that could end up netting me a few thousand dollars. They've been sitting in my office for almost two years now, and tomorrow I'm finally gonna take a crate down to the ol' punk/metal record store and see what's what. So I've been sorting out some of the more desirable but not particularly valuable ones -- those I'll probably sell on Discogs -- and came across this LP.

Now, I hadn't listened to this album on any format for maybe a decade, and that alone was why it got set aside, but something compelled me to give it one last spin while I folded some laundry, and fuck that, this one stays. Epic, melodic death/doom with a slightly crusty, earthy feel, a spacious, clean-guitar-heavy atmosphere, and beautiful, meditative vocals, all put together as one continuous piece. Goddamn, what other phenomenal LPs am I about to sell?

Track listing:

1. Cloaked by Ages

2. A Slow Succumbing

3. Ebb Tide

4. Trillium Rune

5. The Mourner's Oak

6. Cairn

7. She the Master Covets

8. Crowned in Earth

They are the sentient circle

The meeting point to the end

If you like this, try:

Abandon - The Dead End (2009)

Akelei - De Zwaarte van het Doorstane (2010)

Bardspec - Hydrogen (2017)

Related:

Today Is the Day - Willpower (1994)

Today Is the Day - Today Is the Day (1996)

Today Is the Day - Sadness Will Prevail (2002)

Trinacria - Travel Now Journey Infinitely (2008)

Abstract, ambient psych from this project of the great Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved, featuring Steve Austin of Today Is the Day. Churning oceans of crystalline guitars, synth, and trance-inducing percussion for temporary removal from whatever hell you're being dragged through currently.

Track listing:

1. Deposition

2. Bone

3. Fire Tongue

4. Gamma

If you came upon a door

If you came to push it open

Also listen to:

Karl Sanders - Saurian Meditation (2004)

Sink - Ark of Contempt and Anger (2016)

Festung - Der Turm (2022)

2022 is still young, but it's already seen the release of a nice grip of great black metal records, and Der Turm is one of my favorites of that crop. Following an excellent demo, it's the first album from this German trio, and it's a near-perfect piece of epic atmospheric black metal, somewhere in the same windswept, blast-heavy vein as Paysage d'Hiver, complete with excursions into the desolate lands of dungeon synth and neofolk.

Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:

1. Mauer

2. Jericho

3. Fallt!

4. Trümmer

5. Lanze

6. Ewig

7. Wahrheit

8. Wehe uns

To forget death

You should also hear:

Svart - Våran tid är förbi (2009)

Dissonant Winds - Forestrial Transcendence (2017)

Rob Essers - Raincolors (1994)

Related:

Ron Boots, Eric van der Heijden & Friends - By Popular Demand (1993)

Synth time! Rob Essers is from Holland, and in the 90s, he had a big ol' pile of synths, and he used them to make a pair of nerdy-ass Berlin-school records, then he spontaneously combusted, I think.

Track listing:

1. The Ability to Dream

2. A Walk Through...

3. Truceless

4. Sparkles

5. Square One

6. Luscious Feelings

7. Monochromatic

8. Colors of Rain

9. Loosing Chains

10. Electrons

11. The Trivial Round of Life

Some velcro and an order of fries

More like this:

Mario Schönwälder - The Eye of the Chameleon (1989)

Redshift - Down Time (1999)

Jerry Butler - The Spice of Life (1972)

Soul singer/Impressions founder Jerry Butler's unsung magnum opus. A double album of big-hearted symphonic soul that somehow has yet to be reissued or offered on streaming services. There's no big, overarching theme at work here -- obviously, love comes up a lot, but that's pretty much par for the course for a soul record -- it's just a collection of great songs that wouldn't fit on one LP.

Track listing:

-Disc One-

1. What's So Good About It (You're My Baby)

2. If I Could Remember (Not Ever Having You)

3. I Only Have Eyes for You

4. That's the Way It Is (That's the Way It Was)

5. One Night Affair

6. A Prayer

7. Get on the Case

8. So Far Away

-Disc Two-

1. I Need You

2. You Can't Always Tell

3. Stop Steppin' on My Dreams

4. Baby I'ma Want You

5. (They Long to Be) Close to You

6. Don't Rip Me Off

7. The Masquerade Is Over / Since I Fell for You

8. All Kinds of People

You know, most folks are scared of dying

So the fear brings it near

And I see them buying books to get heaven

But they fight real hard to stay right here

You should also hear:

Jerry Peters - Blueprint for Discovery (1972)

Angelo Bond - Bondage (1975)

Dragobrath - Fra Myrer Taake (2010)

Related:

Kroda - Fimbulvinter (2007)

Coping with my weltschmerz by listening to Ukrainian black metal, including this slice of excellence from a solo project of Yulian Mytsyk, better known as a principle founding member of Kroda. Like so much great Ukrainian black metal, Fra Myrer Taake simultaneously embodies both the majestic beauty and the icy brutality of nature, never letting the listener get too comfortable with either one.

Track listing:

1. Intro

2. Inhaling the Distant Open Far...

3. Nightwings

4. Fra Myrer Taake...

5. Blazes of Starlit Firmament

6. Crimson Leaves Dance

7. Ravenclouds

8. Walk the Path of Sorrow [Satyricon cover]

By pack, they soared into night and away

More from the Ukraine:

Astrofaes - Those Whose Past Is Immortal (2006)

Ulvegr - Arctogaia (2012)