SOM - The Shape of Everything (2022)

Absolutely beautiful doom-gaze. While so many of their shoegaze-infused post-metal peers still lean heavily on the drawn-out crescendos of mid-aughts post-rock, SOM keeps their songwriting concise while allowing their sound to remain proudly, passionately outsized. Like a more muscular, reinvigorated Jesu, or Deftones if they allowed their dreamiest impulses to reign. (I know there are a lot of Deftones haters out there, so please don't let that last part stop you from checking this out.) Free/name your price via the SOM bandcamp.

Track listing:

1. Moment

2. Animals

3. Center

4. Shape

5. Clocks

6. Wrong

7. Heart Attack

8. Son of Winter

Nothing can stop me now

You're right, you're right

You should also hear:

Year of the Rabbit - Year of the Rabbit (2003)

Coaltar of the Deepers - Yukari Telepath (2007)

Telefilme - Pocket Horror Symphony (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Telefilme - Fade In, Fade Out (1995)

By request, here's the second and final album by this truly phenomenal duo. Somewhere between the electronic sounds of the mid 90s, the romantic depression of 80s new wave/pop, and the cluttered aesthetic of a burgeoning indie/post-rock scene, Telefilme struck a magic kind of musical alchemy on two 10/10 albums, then broke up because they were too good for this world.

Track listing:

1. Electric Farm

2. Hi-Fi Ghost

3. Shopping List Blues

4. Da Haus

5. California Punch

6. Jeremy

7. Catastrophe Baby

8. Fahrenheit

9. I Will Follow the Leader

10. Doll-House

11. Peter Pain

12. Ballad of the Droog

Life's like a big supermarket

You should also hear:

Mark Renner - All Walks of This Life (1986)

Jack Frost - Jack Frost (1991)

Jega - Spectrum (1998)

Expansive, genre-omnivorous electronic music from UK producer Jega. Breakbeat, IDM, drum n bass, instrumental hip-hop, and downtempo all pop up throughout, but warm, crystalline synths secure a certain level of sonic cohesion through the chaos.

Track listing:

1. Phalanx

2. Kid Sista

3. Muzical Chairz

4. Red Mullet

5. NIA

6. DMC

7. Brad's Garden Maintenance

8. German

9. Intron.ix

10. Mai

11. Pitbull

12. Gemini

13. Ephem

14. Bikini Ski Boat

15. Manic Minor

Super, modern, intelligent

You might also enjoy:

Alec Empire - Generation Star Wars (1994)

Nobukazu Takemura - Child's View (1994)

Imperial Teen - What Is Not to Love (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Imperial Teen - Seasick (1996)

This band's first record, which is linked above, is very special to me. I don't have the same kind of personal connection to their second record, What Is Not to Love, but I did listen to it a ton while I was living in my first apartment, which was also the setting for what turned into a pretty toxic relationship, so it does carry a certain amount of nostalgic significance. It's more focused than Seasick, which kinda plays more like a singles collection than a cohesive record -- but this is a reflection of a band that has learned to play to its own strengths: scruffy, guitar-driven power pop balanced by a few wistful, strung-out ballads, all from a decidedly queer POV. One of the ballads, "Crucible", is one of my favorite songs ever recorded. And the only song that doesn't really fit either camp, "Alone in the Grass", finds them in hypno-motorik territory, and it's one of the best songs on here.

Track listing:

1. Open Season

2. Birthday Girl

3. Yoo Hoo

4. Lipstick

5. Alone in the Grass

6. Crucible

7. The Beginning

8. Year of the Tan

9. Seven

10. Hooray (Live)

11. Beauty

A cold charisma

Shotgun wedding

And I'm familar

With the Kama Sutra

Also listen to:

Popsicle - Lacquer (1993)

The Apples in Stereo - Velocity of Sound (2002)

John Zorn - The Goddess: Music for the Ancient of Days (2010)

Related:

Painkiller - Execution Ground (1994)

The final installment of a trilogy of albums that found John Zorn at his most accessible by a very wide margin. (Actually, this man has about 4 thousand albums, of which I've heard maybe 20-25, so for all I know, he might have an album of vocal jazz standards sung by Norah Jones.) Ethereal but propulsive jazz fusion powered by a glimmering cloud of vibraphone, harp, piano, guitar, and more. Borders on easy listening at times. If, when you think John Zorn, you think chaotic jazz-grind or discordant avant-garde, this record might blow your mind a bit.

Track listing:

1. Enchantress

2. Ishtar

3. Heptameron

4. White Magick

5. Drawing Down the Moon

6. Beyond the Infinite

7. Ode to Delphi

The center has moved on and all that's left is free

You should also listen to:

Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (1978)

Midori Takada & Masahiko Satoh - Lunar Cruise (1990)

Eric Holm - Andøya (2014)

Massive, reverberating sounds from UK producer Eric Holm. Thunderous rhythms and static-ridden drones echoing through a vast, lightless expanse. From Holm's bandcamp: "Andoya [...] was made from contact mic recordings of pylons carrying communications cables that connected listening stations on an Arctic Norwegian island."

Track listing:

1. Måtinden

2. Stave

3. Åse

4. Kvastinden

5. Høyvika

6. Andøya

I know it's taking pictures from another plane

You should also hear:

All Sides - Dedalus (2007)

M.E.S.H. - Piteous Gate (2015)

Adversam - Animadverte (1999)

Italian black metal. Choral keyboards and dramatic, symphonic-inspired songwriting in the classic In the Nightside Eclipse tradition.

Track listing:

1. Miasma Demou

2. Monument of a Legend

3. Awaiting

4. The Path

5. N.O.D.

6. Geisterfalle

7. Hypertemple

8. Lucifer, Crowned, Avenger and Conqueror

I'll wake for my blood feud

The obscure powers sleeping in the earth

If you like this, listen to:

Tunrida - Heirarchy (1998)

Fog - Through the Eyes of Night... Winged They Come (2000)

School of Emotional Engineering - School of Emotional Engineering (2004)

The only album by this short-lived project, which mostly served as a live vehicle for experimental composer Ben Frost's solo material. An evocative, textural collision of classical minimalism, drone, and abstract post-rock. It's kinda fucked up that this is the first Ben Frost record I've posted.

Track listing:

1. To Be Continued...

2. ... Refrain

3. Falling for Sylvia

4. Of Angel Dust...

5. ... Refrain (Bloodline)

6. Redline

7. She Dreams in Car Crashes

8. Slicing the Skin Between My Toes

Living is a horizontal fall

Also listen to:

Labradford - Prazision LP (1993)

Locrian & Mamiffer - Bless Them That Curse You (2011)

The Resonars - Bright and Dark (1999)

Pitch-perfect Nuggets-style garage/psych pop worship, with a twist of Byrds worship. If my friend who hipped me to this had told me that it came out in 1969, I would have 100% believed him. They even have the severe stereo panning. Great cover of "I'll Keep It with Mine", too. This album and band are both completely new to me -- as I write this, I first heard it less than 24 hours ago -- so I can't really provide any context or information. But I very rarely rush to post something like this, so I obviously really like it.

Track listing:

1. The Golden Age

2. Bathyscope

3. Marina

4. Goodbye Melanie

5. Carrie Don't Care

6. Gina

7. Too Much Girl

8. Eden in Transition

9. I'll Keep It with Mine

10. If He's So Great

11. Under the Blazing Stars

12. Spider West

I can't help it if you might think I'm odd

If I say I'm not loving you for what you are

But what you're not

If you like this, listen to:

Gary Lewis - Listen! (1967)

The Misunderstood - Before the Dream Faded (1982)

Shara Nelson - What Silence Knows (1993)

Shara Nelson came up with Massive Attack, singing and/or cowriting almost half of Blue Lines, including "Safe from Harm" and "Unfinished Sympathy", their first two hits. Aside from one non-album track, that's where her involvement with The Wild Bunch ends, and I'm guessing it's because she started pursuing a solo career. What Silence Knows, her first solo record, is built on the same kind of danceable, soulful trip-hop that she made with Massive Attack, but skew more pop/R&B/soul. It's a great record, and I think it sold moderately well in England, but it didn't make much of an impression anywhere else, and seems to have largely fallen from pop cultural memory.

Track listing:

1. Nobody

2. Pain Revisited

3. One Goodbye in 10

4. Inside Out

5. Uptight

6. Down That Road

7. Chance

8. Thoughts of You

9. How Close

10. What Silence Knows

But if you hurt what's mine

I'll sure as hell retaliate

If you like this, listen to:

A Guy Called Gerald - Essence (2000)

HÆLOS - Full Circle (2016)

Arild Andersen - Sagn (1990)

Norwegian bassist/composer Arild Andersen's folk-jazz opus. Buoyed by an excellent band that includes the beautiful, dynamic vocals of Kirsten Bråten Berg and rock-leaning guitars of Frode Alnæs, Sagn succeeds where many others have failed: getting me to enjoy a fusion of jazz and Scandinavian folk.

Track listing:

1. Sagn

2. Gardsjenta

3. Eisemo

4. Toll

5. Draum

6. Laurdagskveld

7. Tjovane

8. Sorgmild

9. Svarm

10. Gamlestev

11. Reven

12. Nystev

13. Lussi

14. Rysen

15. Belare

16. Sagn

I want to see your face in every kind of light

In fields of gold and forests of the night

You might also like:

Bill Connors - Of Mist and Melting (1978)

Bill Frisell - In Line (1983)