Sean Deason - Allegory & Metaphor (2000)

Detroit ambient techno bliss. I got a bunch of shit done earlier, had a workout, then met my buddy for a couple beers, and now I am laying on my couch, petting my cat, and listening to this record. At some point, this became my idea of a perfect Saturday.

Track listing:

1. Creation

2. Phunk

3. Allegory & Metaphor

4. 2030 AD

5. Ambience

6. Interlude

7. Zig

8. Psybadek One

9. My World

10. Hiphoptrak

11. Another Interlude

12. Allegory & Metaphor (Revisited)

Every now and then there comes a time you must defend

Your right to die and live again

Also listen to:

Ro70 - Ro70 (1995)

Miss Dinky - Melodìas Venenosas (2001) 

Honey Is Cool - Early Morning Are You Working? (1999)

The second and final full-length from Honey Is Cool, a Gothenburg indie rock band that ultimately served as a springboard for the career of Karin Dreijer, aka Fever Ray. Dreijer's powerful, distinctive vocals are very much the focal point here, but here it's in service of dark-tinted, dynamic, muscular indie rock. I forget how I first found this band but I know it was via some ass-backwards-internet-music-nerd means, as I had no idea Dreijer was in the band when I first put them on, and it slowly dawned on me as her voice soared over the opening whirlwind of the title track.

Track listing:

1. Early Morning Are You Working?

2. Bolero

3. Great and Smaller Things

4. There's No Difference

5. Summer of Men

6. I Surprise

7. Waiting for a Friend

8. My Love Is a Bell

9. Lead but Low

10. Something Above the Mountains

11. The Giraffe

I'm head over heels but I'm not around

You should also hear:

Come - Eleven:Eleven (1992)

dEUS - The Ideal Crash (1999)

Percy Jones Ensemble - Propeller Music (1990)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Percy Jones - Cape Catastrophe (1990)

Percy Jones with Tunnels - Percy Jones with Tunnels (1993)

Vic Stevens' Mistaken Identities - No Curb Ahead (1997)

Tunnels - Painted Rock (1999)

Drum machine, noodling fretless bass, synthetic-ass-all-hell keyboards, fragmented guitars -- generally woozy, slightly unsettling, 100% nerdy fusion. Midway through, vocals enter the mix, and the album morphs into a mid-era Gary Numan record. I listen to this by myself on headphones, and I think, "damn, this is so fucking rad, I wish all music was this weird;" I put this on a stereo with someone else in the room, I feel like a degenerate and a pervert.

Track listing:

1. $10,000 Bookshelf

2. Heidelberg Switch

3. Barrio

4. Panic - Disorder

5. Count the Ways

6. Turn Around

7. Slick

8. Slack

9. All for a Better Way

10. Looking for a Sign of New Life

11. Razorville

12. K2

Soon you're looking down at creatures in the dark

If you like this, you should hear:

Scott McGill - The Hand Farm (1977)

Louis de Mieulle - Defense Mechanisms (2011)

Todtgelichter - Schemen (2007)

 

Epic German black metal with an expansive, organic, Pagan-esque sound and a tendency towards the melodic and the sorrowful. The occasional appearances of unorthodox instrumentation -- the saxophone on "Aschentraum", the didgeridoo drone lurking throughout "Segen", the clean vocals on "Beginn des Endes" -- are both inspired and surprisingly tasteful in their delivery. 

Track listing:

1. Impuls

2. Larva

3. Segen

4. Blutstern

5. Für Immer Schweigen

6. Aschentraum

7. Hammer

8. Beginn des Endes

Ein Punkt nur ist es, kaum ein Schmerz,

Nur ein Gefühl, empfunden eben;

Und dennoch spricht es stets darein,

Und dennoch stört es dich zu leben.

More German greatness:

Lunar Aurora - Of Stargates and Bloodstained Celestial Spheres (1999)

Odal - Zornes Heimat (2008)

Griftegård - Solemn • Sacred • Severe (2009)

Swedish epic doom exploring the holy horror of Christian dogma. FFO: Candlemass, Warning, and Mansion. Thanks to everyone for sticking around, and sorry to the many, many people with re-up requests that I haven't gotten to.

Track listing:

1. Charles Taze Russell

2. Punishment & Ordeal

3. I Refuse These Ashes!

4. Noah's Hands

5. The Mire

6. Drunk with Wormwood

Man cannot suffer enough for his sins

Also listen to:

Count Raven - High on Infinity (1993)

Procession - Destroyers of the Faith (2010)