Tricky - Nearly God (1996)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Tricky & Gravediggaz - The Hell E.P. (1995)

Dark, impressionistic, trip-hop-adjacent magic from one of the true geniuses of the genre. The strangest and most abstract entry in Tricky's discography, Nearly God has been relegated to relative obscurity, due in part to the aforementioned strangeness, and because as far as I can tell it hasn't been reissued in any form, including on digital/streaming platforms. It also probably didn't help that he chose to release it under the moniker Nearly God instead of Tricky. I'm hoping that its lack of commercial availability means that no one's gonna bother lodging a copyright complaint because no one's actively making money off of it. Guest collaborators/vocalists include Björk, Neneh Cherry, Terry Hall, and, as always, Martina Topley-Bird.

Track listing:

1. Tattoo

2. Poems

3. Together Now

4. Keep Your Mouth Shut

5. I Be the Prophet

6. Make a Change

7. Black Coffee

8. Bubbles

9. I Sing for You

10. Yoga

11. Judas [bonus]

11. Children's Story [bonus]

I can vibe to anything

So I have to hide from everything

More along these lines:

Laika - Sounds of the Satellites (1997)

Anja Garbarek - Smiling & Waving (2002)

Joel Andrews - The Violet Flame (1977)

Two extended spiritual meditations for solo harp. Mr. Andrews is also a new age author and "music healer" who purports to psychically communicate with celestial beings whose wisdom he spontaneously translates into music, which is fun. Found this LP, along with another Andrews record, in a box of easy listening LPs at my old job, and probably paid around 50 cents for it. Man, I miss working at a record store.

Upon enchanted ground

Other LPs I found through similar circumstances:

Nik Pascal - Magnetic Web (1973)

William Hoskins - Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections (1979)

Centerfold - Man's Ruin (1986)

[Due to Apple's Music app being an unwieldy, glitch-ridden load of shit, and my school term really ramping up here at the end, I am unable and unwilling to spend a lot of time on this dumb blog. So until something gives, I'll be going through my draft archives, looking for posts that I already prepped but, for whatever reason, never posted. Enjoy.]

First and only LP by this weird confluence of commercialism, horniness, and pop chops. Centerfold were a Dutch trio of vocalists/models whose songs dealt primarily in sexual innuendo via a Madonna-esque mix of synthpop and pop rock, and who promoted their first single with a spread in Dutch Playboy and a nude performance on TopPop. So yes, obviously, it's a big, sweaty product of 80s coke culture, and if you, say, commented "God I hate the eighties" on my Dolphin Brothers post, this ain't gonna change your mind. But if you like trashy 80s pop/rock: I swear, Man's Ruin is a non-stop parade of bangers. And there's not a slow jam in the bunch; the closest they come is the shimmering, pulsing "Intimate Climate".

Track listing:

1. Up and Coming

2. Note After Note

3. Dictator

4. Rough

5. Come Get My Love

6. Radar Love

7. Sweetness

8. Dirty Mind

9. Intimate Climate

10. Dancing in Your Arms

She's tight inside, if you know what I mean

She's got places in there no man's ever been

If you like this, check out:

The Flaming Hands - The Flaming Hands (1984)

Teena Marie - Starchild (1984)

Alkerdeel - De Speenzalvinge (2010)

Sludgy black metal/blackened sludge from Belgium. Dry, thudding drums encased in a thick coat of murky guitars shot through with strung-out screams and moans. "Luizig" is almost half an hour long but it really ties the room together so stick around.

Track listing:

1. Verdesteleween

2. De Bollaf!

3. Luizig

In the coffin of eternal life

My floating self

If you like this, listen to:

Vrolok - Resurgence III: Order of the Sphere (2007)

Brulvahnatu - Menstrual Extraction Ceremony (2011)

Darkified - A Dance on the Grave (1995)

Swedish blackened death metal with horror movie keyboards. Darkified were only active from '91-92, and A Dance on the Grave compiles the entirety of their recorded output: a demo and an EP. There's always something so funny to me about the image of a gnarly Swedish hesher dude sitting down at a keyboard and composing cheesy-ass stuff like "Outro: Out from the Darkness".

Track listing:

1. Intro

2. Howlings from the Darkness

3. A Summon for the Nameless Horrors

4. The Forgotten City

5. Outro - Out from the Darkness

6. Sleep Forever...

7. The Forgotten City (1992 Version)

8. The Whisperer in the Darkness

Prepare for a night of one thousand horrors

Also listen to:

Afterlife - Surreality (1992)

Mythos - Pain Amplifier (1995)

Burnt Skull - Sewer Birth (2014)

Nasty noise-sludge coated in industrial waste. Detuned caveman riffs, pummeling drums, black metal howls, and dark, distorted ambience.

Track listing:

1. Harm

2. No Eyes

3. Chain Mask

4. God Hole

5. Lords Prayer Underwater

6. Sewer Birth

7. Abduction (Lost Underground)

8. No Cross

9. Infinite Flesh

10. House of Suffering

Now I know there's something down there

You should also listen to:

Pain Teens - Pain Teens (1988)

HALO - Subliminal Transmissions (1998)

Gigi Masin & Alessandro Monti - The Wind Collector (1991)

Related:

Gaussian Curve - The Distance (2017)

Gigi Masin is not the most prolific artist, but he makes quite a strong argument for quality over quantity, as his relatively small discography contains at least three of what I consider among my all-time favorite ambient records. Obviously, The Wind Collector is one of them. A one-off collaboration with Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Monti, it's almost all synth and piano, with a couple of absolutely crucial vocals from Mr. Masin. It's just achingly beautiful to take in, and if you're a fan of ambient music who hasn't heard this record yet, I can practically guarantee that you will love it.

Track listing:

1. Satellite

2. Stella Maris

3. She Wears Shades

4. Snake Theory

5. Swallow' Tempest

6. O.A.L.

7. Blue Weaver

8. Random Security

9. La Luna (Demo)

I was blinded by a thousand lies

Other all-timers:

David Darling - Journal October (1979)

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd - Through the Hill (1994)

Blue Foundation - Blue Foundation (2001)

Trip-hop of the dark, sexy variety, which is, ultimately, probably my favorite kind. Generic Ultra Chilled artwork aside, Blue Foundation is one of the best lesser-known trip-hop records that I'm aware of. It's the project's debut full-length, and sure, they might not yet have fully developed a sound that's significantly distinguishable from the heavyweights of the genre (i.e. Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead.) "Jabber" in particular directly jacks both Tricky's foreboding flow and his signature move of interspersing it with whispery female vocals. Counterpoint: who fucking cares? It's dope.

Track listing:

1. Wiseguy

2. Grand

3. Witch of Trouble

4. Crushed

5. Jabber

6. Hollywood

7. Burgeon

8. Black S

9. Mazda

10. Hide

11. Cutting Me Up

12. J. Hurt

13. Evo

Slowly my awakening

My breathing in haze

If you like this, listen to:

Red Snapper - Prince Blimey (1996)

Alpha - The Impossible Thrill (2001)

dEUS - The Ideal Crash (1999)

Dark, claustrophobic Belgian indie rock. Pre-millennium tension of the highest order. Practically every song is a slow-burner in one way or another, built on knotty, interwoven guitars and layered densely with synths, pianos, and cinematic strings that amplify the haunting, druggy, noir lyrical themes. The first time I heard this record was about two weeks into Covid: I had put it on to go for a walk around the neighborhood just to get out of the house -- masked up the entire time, as was the custom -- and ended up completely drawn-in, taking all these weird side streets to prolong the walk and finish the record. "Instant Street" in particular is god-tier.

Track listing:

1. Put the Freaks Up Front

2. Sister Dew

3. One Advice, Space

4. The Magic Hour

5. The Ideal Crash

6. Instant Street

7. Magdalena

8. Everybody's Weird

9. Let's See Who Goes Down First

10. Dream Sequence No. 1

This time I go for Instant Street

This life's a soulless excuse for all abuse and parentheses

The flyspecked windows and the stinking lobbies, they'll remain

All the same, all the same

You should also hear:

Strangelove - Love and Other Demons (1996)

Juno - A Future Lived in Past Tense (2001)

Asura - Asura (2010)

Ambient IDM from an LA artist who seemingly hasn't recorded anything under this alias since. Downtempo beats and bright melodic elements (synths, guitar, vocals, horns) partially obscured, and at times completely subsumed in a warm, vinyl-crackling-like haze.

(Not to be confused with the French ambient trance project.)

Track listing:

1. Asura I

2. Peptine

3. I Saw You in Vice (Anenon Birthday Remix)

4. Orrorin

5. Asura II

6. From the Beach

7. Manzanita

8. Voxels

9. Asura III

10. Her Tearing

11. Timber

12. The Eleventh

13. Feathers

This night comes out of both of us

You should also be listening to:

Saule - Saule (2002)

The Village Orchestra - Et in Arcadia Ego (2005)

Cyrille Verdeaux and Bernard Xolotl - Prophecy (1981)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Bernard Xolotl - Return of the Golden Mean (1980)

Excellent collaborative album between new age great Bernard Xolotl and Cyrille Verdeaux, who's best known as the central member of Clearlight. Crystalline guitar-synths, regular ol' synths, and a bit of cello, all intertwined in a beautiful, shimmering expanse of sound. This was supposed to be my lazy, relaxing Sunday post but it was pre-empted due to the news about Mimi Parker.

Track listing:

1. Star Gulls

2. Future Seas

3. Drifting Tides

4. Indian Loop

5. Prophecy

Distant, alone, beneath the platinum stars

You should also hear:

Barry Cleveland - Mythos (1984)

Karl Schaffner & Lothar Grimm - Birds of Passage (1984)

Low - Trust (2002)

Related:

Low - The Curtain Hits the Cast (1996)

Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot (1997)

Low & Spring Heel Jack - Bombscare EP (2000)

Alan Sparhawk - Solo Guitar (2006)

Low - Murderer EP (2003)

I am absolutely gutted to learn that Mimi Parker has died. I knew that she had been battling ovarian cancer, and that the outlook wasn't great, but I guess I was just hoping for the best. Low completely changed the way I thought about music, and Mimi's contributions to the band were a huge part of that. She doesn't just have one of the most emotive, pure voices I've ever heard -- her songs are works of angelic yet cryptic beauty, and she was an absolute master of minimal drumming. My heart goes out to Alan and the rest of her family and friends.

The first time I saw Low, they were touring for Trust. It is still the best show I have ever seen. I had only recently gotten into them when my sister bought me their then-newest CD, Things We Lost in the Fire, for Christmas, and it quickly became my favorite album -- I was seriously spreading the word of Low like it was the fucking gospel. I hadn't heard Trust yet when I saw them, but I was utterly transfixed from the moment they opened with "(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace". And I will never forget how completely silent the crowd was when they played "Laser Beam", one of Mimi's best and most beloved songs. It's a strangely comforting feeling to be in a club full of people, none of whom are saying a word, and it takes a truly special artist to command that kind of attention.

Obviously, I bought Trust at the show, and proceeded to listen to it while getting high about 50 times over the course of the next 6 months or so, getting to know its every tiny detail. I love that the first sounds you hear aren't the instruments, but the space -- it's like they have you step into the cathedral where the album was recorded before they start playing. Mimi's two solo songs, "Tonight" and "Point of Disgust", are flickering candles on an album full of oppressively dark, crawling dirges. A lot of critics didn't like those dirges too much, but as a doom metal fan (particularly when the record came out), tracks like "Time Is the Diamond", "The Lamb", "John Prine", and "Shots & Ladders" were like answered prayers to me. Elsewhere, they flirt with uptempo rock ("Canada") and sing-song-y folk rock ("Last Snowstorm of the Year", "La La La Song"). The album's kinda all over the place, and that's why I love it.

And then there's the aforementioned "(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace". There are countless songs about death, dying, and mourning, and many of them are very good. But Low has a way of tapping into otherwise rarely explored emotional territory, and on this song, they do so masterfully. To me, it's cut of the same cloth as "Murderer", a song that they wrote right around the same time. Both songs deal with mortality, and the anger that we can feel when someone is taken away from us too soon. In "(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace", the titular song, once sweet and uplifting, becomes an instrument of torture and submission: a reminder of both the unfairness of our world and the brutal indifference of mortality.

I feel like I'm supposed to end this on a positive note, but I don't know how. Thank you, Mimi, for helping me to understand life a little better. Rest In Peace.

Track listing:

1. (That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace

2. Canada

3. Candy Girl

4. Time Is the Diamond

5. Tonight

6. The Lamb

7. In the Drugs

8. The Last Snowstorm of the Year

9. John Prine

10. Little Argument with Myself

11. La La La Song

12. Point of Disgust

13. Shots & Ladders

Then in the dust

All the things we discussed

Are thrown to the wind

So at last we begin

Cause we fall hard

We fall fast

Mercy me

It'll never last

Also listen to:

Ida - The Braille Night (2001)

Portrait of David - These Days Are Hard to Ignore (2001)

Helium - The Magic City (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Helium - Pirate Prude (1994)

One of the best 90s indie rock records, and arguably Mary Timony's magnum opus. Catchy, fantastical, guitar-driven, and elevated by a colorful cast of keyboards. This album is a certified classic in my mind, but after seeing a comment on a post I made a few weeks ago (which I could've sworn I responded to, sorry Mathias, I agree 100%) I've decided that not enough people know this band, and I have a responsibility to ensure that everyone hears them and The Magic City at least once.

Track listing:

1. Vibrations

2. Leon's Space Song

3. Ocean of Wine

4. Aging Astronauts

5. Medieval People

6. Lady of the Fire

7. Lullaby of the Moths

8. The Revolution of Hearts Pts. I & II

9. Ancient Cryme

10. Cosmic Rays

11. Devil's Tear

12. Clementine

13. Blue Rain Soda

14. Walk Away

Tell me why the sky is filled with birds

What is coming? Have you heard?

Also listen to:

Royal Trux - Twin Infinitives (1990)

Magic Dirt - Friends in Danger (1996)

Hal Russell & Mars Williams - EFTSOONS (1984)

Abrasive, sparse free jazz from two American saxophonists/multi-instrumentalists. Between the sax parts often sounding more like guitar feedback than saxophones and the whimsically unsettling atmosphere, much of EFTSOONS plays like a lost Nurse with Wound record.

Track listing:

1. Carnal Concupiscence

2. Is This Virginia?

3. A SYNC/SYNC STAT MUX PROLIXTHUX

4. Odoriferous Flambeaus of the Paranymphs

5. N, SSS, EEE <RETURN>

6. Eftsoons

7. Noise Command: Blast 1

I didn't know anybody, and there was a funny smell

If you like this, listen to:

Anthony Braxton - 3 Compositions of New Jazz (1968)

William Hooker - ... Is Eternal Life (1977)