Badgerlore - We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits (2007)

Related:

Charalambides - Market Square (1995)

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

Six Organs of Admittance - For Octavio Paz (2004)

Six Organs of Admittance - RTZ (2009)

Got a request for more Badgerlore, so here's their final full-length. At this point, the former duo had ballooned to a six-member quasi-supergroup encompassing the original two plus Liz Harris of Grouper, Tom Carter of Charalambides, and more. All things considered, We Are All Hopeful Farmers... really isn't all that different from the Badgerlore that had come before -- skeletal guitar figures, shimmering drones, and a spectral vocal here and there -- but it does feel like the most fully realized version of the project's vision.

Track listing:

1. Furbearer

2. Goodnight, Sweet Rabbits

3. The Crops That You Tend

4. Whichever

5. We Are All Hopeful Farmers

6. Mountain Wine

7. Snowballs for Reuven

8. Grow Your Hair

9. Duet

10. When I Look at Your Face, I See Timothy

Find the ones you hate and hold them tight

You should also hear:

Es - Kaikkeuden kauneus ja käsittämättömyys (2004)

Fursaxa - Alone in the Dark Wood (2007)

Ralph Towner - Blue Sun (1983)

 

Related:

Oregon - Music of Another Present Era (1972)

Ralph Towner - Diary (1973)

Ralph Towner - Solstice (1974)

Still can't prioritize this blog at the moment, but I wanted to quickly drop some Sunday listening on you. Like Towner's Diary, Blue Sun is a completely solo endeavor, which means that he wrote and performed every piece of it -- guitars, piano, cornet, synthesizers, some light percussion. Very easy on the ears kinda stuff.

Track listing:

1. Blue Sun

2. The Prince and the Sage

3. C.T. Kangaroo

4. Mevlana Etude

5. Wedding of the Streams

6. Shadow Fountain

7. Rumours of Rain

Over and gone

Also listen to:

Terje Rypdal - After the Rain (1976)

Bill Frisell - In Line (1983)

Steve Kuhn - Steve Kuhn (1971)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Steve Kuhn Trio - Three Waves (1966)

Steve Kun - Trance (1975)

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

By request, here's pianist/keyboardist Steve Kuhn's 1971 self-titled solo outing. Simmering, lightly funky vocal-jazz fleshed out by a super solid band (Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Airto Moreira), lovely string arrangements, and understated vocals by Kuhn himself. It's played mostly straight, but Kuhn throws down the weirdo gauntlet with "Pearlie's Swine", which blazes through over four minutes of clattering instrumental jazz-funk before he comes in with lines like "Ham / How I love to eat ham / Vultures don't give a damn" and "Meat / Monkeys eat with their feet."

Track listing:

1. Pearlie's Swine

2. Silver

3. Time to Go

4. The Heat of the Moment

5. The Baby

6. Hold Out Your Hand

7. The Meaning of Love

8. Ulla

So when I'm alone

Left with only a bone

On top of the sky

Birds are wondering why

You should also hear:

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

Michel Herr, Bill Frisell, Vinton Johnson, Kermit Driscoll - Good Buddies (1978)

Mastery - Valis (2015)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Mastery - Barbaric Usurpation of the Hypereonic Black Metal Throne (2011)

Easily some of the most relentlessly chaotic black metal in existence. An impenetrable mass that achieves transcendence through sheer, writhing, breakneck cacophony. As inaccessible as Valis is, I honestly feel like it might be a good gateway for people who like experimental music but not black metal, as, despite consisting largely of the most basic components of the genre -- tremolo picked guitars, distorted screams, blasting drums -- its disorienting overall impact is just as akin to that of harsh noise or experimental psych.

Track listing:

1. V.A.L.I.S.V.E.S.S.E.L.

2. A.S.H.V.E.S.S.E.L.

3. L.O.R.E.S.E.E.K.E.R.

4. I.L.K.S.E.E.K.E.R.

5. S.T.A.R.S.E.E.K.E.R.

The men in Mylex suits are still in the area, yellow-snouted, gathering their terrible data, aiming their infrared devices at the earth and sky.

You should also hear:

De Magia Veterum - The Divine Antithesis (2011)

Plebeian Granstand - False Highs, True Lows (2016)

Philip Samartzis - Mort aux Vaches (2003)

Related:

Troum - Mort Aux Vaches: SEN (2000)

I'm back from a long trip that was just a little too emotionally and physically demanding to call a "vacation." Looking for a job and studying for the CPA exam are gonna be occupying much of my free time in the coming weeks and months, so expect even more sporadic posting. But in the here and now, enjoy these engrossing experimental sound pieces by Australian composer Philip Samartzis. Describing them would sorta take away from the fun of hearing their sound pallets expand and explode, so I'm not going to.

Track listing:

1. Variable Resistance

2. Deconstructed Windmills

3. Soft and Loud

In another time zone, tarantulas are climbing red rocks, and on top of those rocks are churches. Days go by, first and last, always the same stone. Go down, dematerialized like the last one, cast into loneliness. The data cloud is crestfallen. All thoughts of men are sinking like a stone. It's not the first slip, but it's the right time to fall. I want to go now, in the same way, go right away.

You should also listen to:

Michael Prime - Fructification (1989)

John Wiese - Collected Tracks (2000)