Mandré - Mandré Two (1978)

Related:
Maxayn - Maxayn (1972)

Phenomenal, synth-tastic funk excellence from Andre Lewis, who's known more for his work as a Motown producer than for the two amazing albums he made under the Mandré pseudonym. The A side is all bangers, then the B side drifts into the outer reaches of the cosmos. Yet another record that I saved from possible burial in an unmarked grave (i.e. getting put in a box in a dusty warehouse) then selflessly brought home. I'm a model human being. But who the fuck would box up an LP that looks like that?? Raises serious concerns about my coworkers' taste levels.

Track listing:
1. Love Comes Rushin' In
2. I Like Your Freaky Ways
3. Fair Game
4. Code Name: MM3
5. Maxymus Lyte (Opus III)
6. Iles dans l'Espace
7. Light Years (Opus IV)
8. Doing Nothing, Nothing Doing

Just relax
Enjoy the ride

More along these lines:

T-Connection -
Totally Connected (1979)

Don Blackman -
Don Blackman (1982)

Black Wood - Religious (2003)

Russian raw black metal. Keyboards, drum machines, killer riffs, disgusted vocals, and a 19-minute epic called "Darkness" that belongs in the hall of fame. If you need a buncha fancy shit with your black metal, look elsewhere, but it you like a nice, perfectly-cooked black metal steak, this album's for you.

Track listing:
1. Fratres Militae Satanae
2. When Coldness Wraps This Suffering Clay
3. Winged by Autumn Lake
4. Their Sun Is Set
5. Through the Storms of the Last Winter
6. Darkness
7. Cosmic Keys to My Creation and Times [Emperor cover]

The world is a Christian funeral pyre
Corded by our blackest will and desire

More like this:

Blackdeath -
Saturn Sector (2001)

Nehëmah -
Requiem Tenebrae (2004)

Osamu Kitajima - Benzaiten (1976)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Osamu - Passages (1987)

Glorious psych from Japanese multi-instrumentalist Osamu Kitajima. A dynamic, expansive instrumental palette whirling up a colorful, hypnotic haze. I discovered Kitajima through his later new age work, then worked my way back to his smooth jazz stuff, then finally had my mind blown by this stuff.

Track listing:
1. Benzaiten - The God of Music and Water
2. Taiyo - The Sun
3. Tengu - A Long Nosed Goblin
4. Benzaiten - The God of Music and Water (Reprise)
5. Whoma - Immortality

Turning to stone

You'd also enjoy:

Älgarnas Trädgård - Framtiden Är Ett
Svävande Skepp, Förankrat I Forntiden (1972)

Ghost -
Ghost (1991)

Naked Whipper - Pain Streaks (1995)

Siiiiiiick German grind-y black/death metal. There's a single, physical AND mental illness-ridden branch of my family that's Catholic, headed by an uncle who once, in front of my gay brother, said he "despise[d]" gay people, and every time I post something like this, I get a glimmer of hope that ol' Uncle Hatemonger somehow becomes aware of this blog -- through Facebook, maybe -- and dies a little inside when he discovers my love for songs like "Whore of Damnation" and "Nunrider". It's the little things that get us by.

Track listing:
1. Pagan Pussy Gore Intruder
2. The Ultimate Molestator
3. Whore of Damnation
4. Perverse Delight
5. Nunrider
6. Impure
7. Anal Queen
8. Painstreaks
9. Naked Whipper
10. Hyperincest
11. Nuclear Solutions - Creation of a New Demonic Age
12. Nunrider (Live)
13. The Ultimate Molestator (Live)
14. Whore of Damnation (Live)
15. Perverse Delight (Live)
16. Pagan Pussy Gore Intruder (Live)
17. Impure (Live)
18. Hyperincest (Live)
19. Naked Whipper (Live)
20. Painstreaks (Live)
21. Anal Queen (Live)
22. Nuclear Solutions - Creation of a New Demonic Age (Live)

Experience in excrements

If you like this, listen to:

Abhorer -
Zygotical Sabbatory Anabapt (1996)

Black Devotion -
Ceremonial Rituals of Demonic Chaos (2013)

George Howard - Asphalt Gardens (1982)

Smooth AF debut LP from soprano saxophonist George Howard. Laid-back, smoky nocturnes and funky, uptempo grooves, with some vocals from the man himself.

Track listing:
1. Asphalt Gardens
2. Brand New (And All Made Over)
3. Rocket Love
4. Bright Eyes
5. The Preacher
6. Is This Commercial Enough for You?
7. As We Grow

I bet you won't sleep tonight
'Cause you're way too busy riding clouds of white

You'll also enjoy:

Caldera -
Time and Chance (1978)

Bernard Wright -
'Nard (1981)

Disgorge - Forensick (2000)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Disgorge - Chronic Corpora Infest (1997)

Utter, chaotic brutality from the Mexican (not to be confused with the American) Disgorge. Some of the sickest shit ever. Had a few stragglers left in the record store around closing time tonight, so we decided to help them make up their minds by blaring this little slice of heaven. One of them, a really nice regular, said that it made him feel like jamming an icepick through his eye. And what a beautiful album cover, you're welcome.

Track listing:
1. Jism Adipose Carbonization
2. Spasmobliterance Filtrates Scabs
3. Scid
4. Urethrive-Decortico-Xanthomatose Muco Gestated Scaffolds
5. Jaundice of Hookworm
6. Haemorph Endarteriectomized Punzed Eozinophile
7. Purpuric Cytoskeletal Glucid Oxidase
8. Crevice Flux Warts
9. Depths Carmesi
10. Silks Sphincter Anal Lumen

Regressed in the obliterance of your lumen

You'd also enjoy:

Sarcastic -
Macabre Human Mutilation (2000)

Pulmonary Fibrosis -
Organ Maggots (2007)

Threshold - Wounded Land (1993)

Excellent English prog metal. Though the songs are long and structurally complex, the playing is generally mid-paced and comparatively pared-down -- borderline doom-esque at times -- and the noodling is almost entirely confined to solos. Throw in dated production, as well as an overwhelming sense of discontent for modern life and loads of future-anxiety, and we're looking at what's easily one of my favorite prog metal albums. Found this years ago on some awesome blog that posted almost nothing but neo-prog and smooth jazz; anyone remember what I'm talking about?

Track listing:
1. Consume to Live
2. Days of Dearth
3. Sanity's End
4. Paradox
5. Surface to Air
6. Mother Earth
7. Siege of Baghdad
8. Keep It with Mine
9. Intervention

Just another victim of the system's bloody knife

More along these lines:

Pendragon -
Fly High Fall Far (1985)

Riverside -
Anno Domini High Definition (2009)

Rival Schools - United by Fate (2001)

Melodic post-hardcore led by Walter Schriefels (of Quicksand and Gorilla Biscuits, among others.) Why do people jock Quicksand so hard but this band -- one that I mistook for Quicksand when my friend played it for me -- gets practically no love? Great question. One possible explanation is because people are dumb and the world is shit. Another might be because the listener has to really pay attention to these songs to notice how great they are -- a surface listen might reveal competent but faceless indie rock. No matter the reason, I expect more from you.

Track listing:
1. Travel by Telephone
2. Everything Has Its Point
3. High Acetate
4. Undercovers On
5. Good Things
6. Used for Glue
7. World Invitational
8. The Switch
9. Holding Sand
10. My Echo
11. Favorite Star
12. So Down On
13. Hooligans for Life

Good things are coming our way
I know they always have

If you like this, you should hear:

Shudder to Think -
Get Your Goat (1992)

U.S. Maple -
Purple on Time (2003)

Laurie Mayer - Black Lining (2006)

First and, thus far, only solo album from British musician Laurie Mayer, who's perhaps best known as vocalist for the great dance/synthpop group Torch Song. Black Lining is a collection of nocturnal, mostly instrumental, low-key stunners colored by ambient-electronic synths and textures, and put together with the help of ex-bandmate (and extremely successful producer) William Orbit. I'm currently going through some pretty severe withdrawal from an anti-anxiety med that I've been taking for the past three years, and these haunting, damaged pieces sound very much the way my brain feels in its half-stoned, half-sleep-and-medication-deprived state.

Track listing:
1. Flung
2. Low Floating Territory
3. Breathe, You Theomorph
4. Black Lining
5. Thundercloud
6. Jagged Rain
7. Never Will I Leave You
8. Leviticus
9. Low Floating Variation
10. Flung Variation

You know too much about flying saucers

Similar vibes:

Alog -
Red Shift Swing (1999)

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

Aus-Rotten - The System Works... for Them (1996)

A bunch of white nationalists just invaded my city, and with the aid of local cops, paraded around downtown, wearing "Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong" shirts and peddling fear and hatred to anyone who'd listen. What a fucking waste. Here's a stone classic of heavy, raw anarcho-crust that sounds as relevant now as it ever has.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. The System Works for Them
3. The Battlefield's Still Red
4. When You Support These Fucking Bastards
5. American Ethic
6. No Justice, No Peace
7. Too Little, Too Late
8. Poison Corporations
9. Tedium
10. B.A.T.F.
11. The Crucifix and the Flag
12. The Flags Will Cover Coffins

Take your fucking race war and shove it up your ass

Also listen to:

Toxic Waste -
Belfast (1987)

Decrepit - Tired of Licking
Blood from a Spoon (1999)

Cerrone - Love in C Minor (1976)

God-tier, moderately pornographic French disco. For getting high in the bathroom, getting horny on the dance floor, and getting busy back at the pad.

Track listing:
1. Love in C Minor
2. Black Is Black
3. Midnite Lady

Love me

You'd also enjoy:

THP -
THP #2: Tender Is the Night (1978)

Change -
The Glow of Love (1980)

Land of the Loops - Bundle of Joy (1996)

Sample-happy instrumental hip-hop/trip-hop. Though it doesn't sound futuristic like it used to, Bundle of Joy remains as delightfully scattered, stoned, and vibrant as ever.

Track listing:
1. Welcome
2. Sound System
3. Multi-Family Garage Sale (Bargain-Bin Mix)
4. Growing Concern
5. Day Late & a Dollar Short
6. I Dream of Ghosts
7. I Confess
8. Help for Your Aching Back
9. Burning Clutch (Five-Speed Dub)
10. Cruisin' for Sentient Beings
11. Mass. Ave. and Beyond
12. Mathematical Park
13. Heidi Cakes
14. Crash Landing on Planet Brooklyn
15. My Head (Leaks)
16. Good-bye

Oooh, that's gonna be nice

You'd probably also like:

Depth Charge -
Nine Deadly Venoms (1994)

Cornelius -
Sensuous (2006)

Eoront - Neverending Journey (2013)

Excellent Russian atmospheric black metal. Beautiful and epic, with a lush, keyboard-heavy sound, and enough aggression and momentum to avoid getting syrupy.

Track listing:
1. Passing the Gates
2. The Coasts Conequest
3. Through the Wheatears Gold
4. Celestial Whirlpool
5. Downwind to the North
6. Neilainne I (First Dawn)

Boundless coast. Snow. Ice. Black waters.

Also listen to:

Àrsaidh -
Roots (2013)

Vallendusk -
Black Clouds Gathering (2013)

Wilt - Wilt (2017)

Crusty, Bolt Thrower-worshipping Seattle death metal. Impenetrably thick and punishingly heavy. Played a show with Wilt and Swordwielder a few years back, and my band at the time's vocalist disappeared right when we were supposed to go on, fucking up the order of the whole show and pissing off everyone, Wilt included. Good times. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Not to be confused with the dark ambient project.

Track listing:
1. Cold Road of Despair
2. Sermon for the Bootlickers
3. Punisher of Faith
4. Fertile
5. Territory
6. Initiations Rites
7. Sterile
8. Scarecrow
9. Salt Mine
10. Isolation

We all suffer

More crusty metal:

Asschapel -
Fire and Destruction (2003)

Stormcrow -
Enslaved in Darkness (2005)

Katastrophy Wife - Amusia (2001)

Though Babes in Toyland have enjoyed a bit of a well-earned rediscovery over the past few years, I still don't hear anyone talking about Katastrophy Wife, Kat Bjelland's criminally under-appreciated post-BIT project. So here's their excellent first album, on which Bjelland continues to explore her pissed-off, emotionally raw, against-all-odds-catchy muse, with a haunting, subtly atmospheric undercurrent.

Track listing:
1. Gone Away
2. Boomerang Doll
3. Git Go
4. Rosacea
5. Pretty Car
6. Anathema
7. Knife Fight
8. Haunted
9. Window
10. Widdershins

Like a dagger through your heart

You might also like:

Alice Donut - The Untidy Suicides
of Your Degenerate Children (1992)

Magic Dirt -
Friends in Danger (1996)