Tucker Zimmerman - Tucker Zimmerman (1972)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Tucker Zimmerman - Ten Songs (1969)

Another one from the old (and I do mean old) request pile. Second album, right on par with the first. Warm, homespun, stoned outsider folk.

Track listing:

1. Another Normal Day

2. Freeway

3. A Friend Like You

4. Left Hand of Moses

5. No Love Lost

6. She's an Easy Rider

7. Amusement Park

8. Back on the Road Again

9. Canary Island Rain

10. Keep That Fire Burning

It's just another normal day

The madman's on the town and it looks like rain

There's a movie goin' down

And all but one of us is goin' insane

You should also check out:

Andy Zwerling - Spiders in the Night (1971)

Loren Auerbach & Bert Jansch - After the Long Night (1985)

Miroslav Vitous - Purple (1970)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Miroslav Vitous - Infinite Search (1969)

Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous, & Jack DeJohnette - S/T (1979)

Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous, & Jack DeJohnette - To Be Continued (1981)

Low-key, simmering fusion helmed by bassist Miroslav Vitous. I had a truly massive buildup of spam comments that I never deleted, and lo and behold, on the other side of that pile were a grip of comments from almost 4 years ago. One of them was a request for a post on this album from July 7, 2019. Better late than never?

Track listing:

1. Purple

2. Mood

3. Water Lilie

4. Dolores

5. It Came from Knowhere

Emphatic period

Also listen to:

Jasper van t' Hoff - Eye-Ball (1974)

Karin Krog, Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow, & Jon Christensen - We Could Be Flying (1975)

Tears ov Blood - Infinite Winter (1994)

Lo-fi ethereal darkwave/dungeon synth from Matthew Davis, who I believe is best known/remembered for his work as Secret Stairways. I am still new to Davis' music, but to my ears, these are some of the most haunting, compelling recordings of their kind.

Track listing:

1. Into Glamis Castle

2. Serenade

3. Our Winter Infinite

4. So Far Away

5. Falling

6. Something Scary

7. Reprise

Distant screams in fading dreams

Also listen to:

Trance to the Sun - Ghost Forest (1984)

Psychosis - Death in Utero (1992)

Medusa - En Raga Sül (2008)

Raw sludge/noise metal from Bloomington, IL. A potent mix of punishing locked grooves and dissonant yet weirdly catchy riffs that I'm guessing won over every crowd this band ever played for. Somewhere between early Melvins and early Today Is the Day. Members of Racebannon.

Track listing:

1. Rain un Thunder

2. Mediatrix

3. En Raga Sül

4. Back to Dust

5. Transform

6. Destructor

7. Bruier

8. Throne of God

9. Inflict the Venom

10. Snakebite

11. Soldiers of Death

12. Body Count

13. Alucarda

14. Fresh Fly

15. Wicked Father

My burning mind

Also listen to:

Gorch Fock - Lying and Manipulating (2005)

The Catalyst - Voyager (2012)

Titonton Duvanté - Voyeurism (1999)

A bit of funky, acid-warped bedroom techno from producer/DJ Titonton Duvanté. Great mix of punchy, 808-driven, low-key bangers and downtempo cool-downs. In making this post, I discovered that he's doing a set tomorrow in Portland, but if you think I'm going to a DJ set that starts at 10 (at night?!), at which I am meant to dance, you're out your gotdamn mind. You kids have fun.

[This is the 2002 CD reissue with additional tracks and reworked sequencing.]

Track listing:

1. Foreplay

2. Taste Test

3. Bedpost

4. Favorite Position

5. Innuendo

6. Double Entendre

7. Remember

8. When We Used To.....

9. Boudoir

10. Novice with No Vices

11. Rugburn

12. Afterglow

I wanna say all those things

That would be better unsaid

You should also listen to:

Mr. Oizo - Analogue Worms Attack (2000)

Luke Vibert - Lover's Acid (2005)

Industries of the Blind - Chapter 1: Had We Known Better (2011)

Melancholic, heartstrings-tugging post-rock to play loud while ruminating on regrets, dead friends, and the overwhelming sadness of our world. Crystalline guitars, shivering strings, slow builds, cathartic peaks, and dejected valleys. Everyone's too cool for this stuff 'til depression comes back around.

Track listing:

1. I Just Wanted to Make You Something Beautiful

2. Waiting and Waltzing in Airport Terminals

3. The Lights Weren't That Bright, but Our Eyes Were So Tired

I can almost see you

More along these lines:

Escape the Day - Ghostless (2005)

Mono - You Are There (2006)

Dante Augustus Scarlatti - Demises of the Dynamic Microphone (in Monodelity) (2009)

A few months back, I found a crate in my garage full of old CDs of friends' projects and random shit that I accumulated while on tour back in the day. There's a lot of mid-tier punk and metal, but there are a few gems in there, like this one, which I got in Bloomington, IN, where, in 2009, there was a surprisingly rich scene for experimental, often black metal-adjacent sounds. Demises of the Dynamic Microphone (in Monodelity) presents a series of grainy, analogue synth and/or guitar abstractions against a backdrop of tape hiss and muffled field recordings. While there, I also picked up this tape, as well as this LP by the band OS, who we played with and whose house we stayed at -- neither of which I have the capability to rip, unfortunately.

Track listing:

1. Prologue

2. Re:verses of Decay in 1939's Kodascope Mass for Arachnid

3. Transcriptions of Subterranean Meteorological Phenomena in the Galaxie Deluxe

4. Vinyl Etchings Containing Hymns of the Sacred Greek Orthodox Funeral

5. Electro-Syncing Static Keys in the City of Dead Sound

6. Recitations of the Reel Rhythm in a Stern Seasonal Stereophonic Headphone Set

7.  Epilogue

The weaver's fulfillment does not come from disparity and shame, but from courage and consistency.

You should also hear:

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

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

Black Priest of Satan - Element of Destruction (2016)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Black Priest of Satan - We, as Shadows of Satan (2010)

Just got a re-up request on the above post, felt like a good time to revisit this piece of mid-paced, doom-laden German black metal. Gnarly guitar tone, ritualistic atmosphere, riffs, and a touch of slop to let you know that practice comes second, Satanic Chaos comes first.

Track listing:

1. The Element of Destruction

2. Prophet of Fire

3. Blazing Fires in the Night

4. Unheard Prayer

5. Ritual of Three Candles

6. Guided by Two Moons

Bleeding worship

Also listen to:

Törr - Armageddon (1990)

Barathrum - Infernal (1996)

Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave (2009)

The crowning achievement of a decade spent getting back to what Napalm Death does best: punishing, riff-y death-grind. My introduction to the Napalm Death fold was via the soundtrack to the first Mortal Kombat movie, and that song still fucking crushes, so even after discovering the classic material, I've always been a steadfast 90s Napalm Death apologist. One of the few, the proud 80s metal bands who made it through the 90s with their dignity fully intact, they spent the decade pushing towards both more accessible and more experimental sounds that nonetheless maintained a solid through-line to their earlier material, and avoided sudden leaps into goth-rock*, nu metal, alt-metal, or whatever the fuck this was. And, questionable album art aside, they kinda just stayed cool.

That being said, all their 90s albums sag a bit. As strong as the songwriting was, and as interesting as it could be to hear them playing these unorthodox, angular guitar lines, the weaker stretches ended up feeling like a whole lot of ducking and weaving without a solid knockout punch. So Napalm Death's turn-of-the-millennium return to 'straightforward' death-grind was welcomed by all, myself included. The sixth album to spring from this resurgence, Time Waits for No Slave capped off a decade spent making some of the strongest, tightest, most effective mosh-bait ever produced, and it's my favorite of the lot. Anyone who doesn't fuck with this band is a stupid dumbass.

*Not gonna front, I like this one.

Track listing:

1. Strong-Arm

2. Diktat

3. Work to Rule

4. On the Brink of Extinction

5. Time Waits for No Slave

6. Life and Limb

7. Downbeat Clique

8. Fallacy Dominion

9. Passive Tense

10. Larceny of the Heart

11. Procrastination on the Empty Vessel

12. Feeling Redundant

13. A No-Sided Argument

14. De-Evolution Ad Nauseam

Permanent daze

Disassociate

Synthesized grace

Life in a cage

More beefy grind:

Brujeria - Raza Odiada (1995)

Internal Rot - Mental Hygiene (2014)