Kitaro - Full Moon Story (1979)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Kitaro - Oasis (1979)

More spaced-out tranquility from Japanese synth-master Kitaro, who, according to an anon in the comments section on the post linked above, has ties with the Yakuza. At press time Kitaro has not responded to OPIUM HUM's requests for comment.

Track listing:
1. Krpa
2. Aurora
3. Hikari No Mai
4. Fuji
5. Full Moon
6. Resurrection
7. From Astral
8. Heavenly Illusion
9. New Lights

Endless dreamy world

For more like this, try:

Jorge Reyes

Software

Tenhi - Airut:Aamujen (2004)

Mournful, stately Finnish neofolk. Largely piano-based compositions, augmented by sparse yet highly atmospheric arrangements and understated male and female vocals.

Track listing:
1. Saapuminen
2. Seitsensarvi
3. Laitseni Kaikkeen
4. Luopumisen Laulu
5. Kuvajainen
6. Oikea Sointi
7. Kahluu
8. Hiensynty
9. Läheltä

Through me and into everything

For more like this, check out:

Kauan

Grivf

Liturgy - Dawn of Ash (2004)

Ridiculously brutal US death metal. Liturgy were on the tech-y side of brutal death, and while it's far from original, their one and only release, Dawn of Ash, is one of the best of its kind. Please note: this is not the black metal band.

Track listing:
1. Shrine of Moria
2. Shrouded in Suffering
3. Scars of the Saints
4. Dawn of Ash
5. Worship Incise
6. The Bishop's Gathering
7. Wounds of Christ
8. Solemn
9. The Acolyte's Exoneration
10. Cognitive Lust of Mutilation [Disgorge cover]
11. Infested with Worms [Brodequin cover]

We are the enemy
Excommunicated messengers will come
The spirit alive as people put to death in the name of god

More brutality:

Disavowed - Perceptive Deception (2001)

Yattering - Genocide (2003)

Bill Bruford - One of a Kind (1979)

Synth-heavy instrumental jazz fusion led by founding Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Lighthearted and noodle-y in a way that almost borders on lite-jazz, but cerebral and nerdy enough to avoid such pitfalls.

Track listing:
1. Hell's Bells
2. One of a Kind (Part I)
3. One of a Kind (Part II)
4. Travels with Myself - and Someone Else
5. Fainting in Coils
6. Five G
7. The Abingdon Chasp
8. Forever Until Sunday
9. The Sahara of Snow (Part I)
10. The Sahara of Snow (Part II)

And you and I

If you like this, try:

Ian Carr's Nucleus -
Out of the Long Dark (1978)

Neil Ardley -
Kaleidoscope of Rainbows (1976)

KZOHH - IAOLTDOTAD (2014)

Related:
Ulvegr - Arctogaia (2012)
Ygg - Ygg - (2011)

Unorthodox, experimental Ukranian black metal. Dramatic keyboards and torturous screams hang over a hypnotic maelstrom of glacial guitars and simple, tight drumming, plus some bizarre, inspired stylistic turns. Not that the first two songs are fully traditional black metal, but things don't really get weird 'til the dark jazz breakdown -- complete with sax and piano -- on "To Walk in Blood... to Step a Blood". It's the first of three like it on the album. Surprised this record didn't get more attention.

Track listing:
1. Onward to Bones Hollow Yawn... (Intro)
2. Roaming Depthwards
3. To Walk in Blood... to Step a Blood
4. ... They Wipped by Fear
5. Purification Path
6. ... And Shadowed Blackness Darker
7. Inhaled Ash of Life, the Dust of Time and Death (Outro)

Black star domination

Warning - Electric Eyes (1983)

Warning was a German duo whose music -- a darkly propulsive, goth-friendly, prog-y, very German take on synth pop with psychotic, growled/moaned/whispered vocals -- was simply too awesome for this world, forcing them to call it quits after Electric Eyes, the second of just two (equally phenomenal) records.

Track listing:
1. White Camels
2. Dark Crystal
3. Soldier of the Light
4. Journey to the Other Side
5. They Are on Their Way Again
6. The Spider
7. Night Crossing
8. Electric Eyes

You are big and I am small

Alrakis - Alpha Eri (2011)

Mesmerizing, atmospheric German black metal. As you may have guessed from the album cover, like Darkspace and Trist before them, Alrakis' interests reside in the darkest, most isolated reaches of the universe.

Track listing:
1. Alpha Eri
2. M20
3. Gas Und Staub Zwischen Den Sternen
4. Sternenstaub
5. Verteilung Der Nebel Im Raum
6. NGC 6611
7. NGC 3242 (Ghost of Jupiter)

My molecules are those molecules
Those stars that die, that's me

For more like this, check out:

Astral Silence - Astral Journey (2010)

Odium - The Sad Realm of the Stars (1998)

Indo G - Angel Dust (1998)

Hard as fuck Memphis gangsta rap, courtesy of Prophet Posse. Crimes, drugs, and misogyny.

Track listing:
1. Da Calendar
2. Ain't No Bitch in My Blood
3. Throw Them Thangs
4. Ashes to Ashes
5. Remember Me Ballin'
6. Break the Law '98
7. Dead Men Don't Talk
8. Fall Up Off Me Ho
9. Will a Nigga Make It
10. Big Boy Shit
11. Prophet Hataz
12. Ghetto Party
13. My Nigga's Crazy
14. Fly Straight
15. Cleopatra
16. Can You Feel Me
17. Tear da Club Up Thugs (Intro)
18. Fuck What Ya Heard

Body parts

Thorybos - Monuments of Doom Revealed (2012)

Dark, heavy, kinda crusty, Blasphemy-style German black/death metal. Simple, tremolo-picked riffs, lots of blasting -- caveman metal.

Track listing:
1. Anadolu Kavangh (Intromancy)
2. Bones
3. Apololeka
4. Orgiastic Rites of Bacchanalia
5. Blood Libation
6. Iudaea Capta
7. Downfall of Masada
8. From the Depths of Desolation

Atomic nuclear desolation

If you like this, try:

Knelt Rote - Trespass (2012)

Demoncy - Joined in Darkness (1999)

Subconscious Evil - Subconscious Evil (2009)

Raging Japanese black metal. Two long tracks of intricately programmed drums, disgusted vocals, and thick, hazy guitars, with some brief, disturbing, abstract breaks.

Track listing:
1. I
2. II

Enshrine in madness

Lullaby for the Working Class - I Never Even Asked for Light (1997)

Here's some nice, melancholic indie folk that reminds me of simpler times. Lullaby for the Working Class have aged much better than some of their more successful Saddle Creek compatriots (lookin' at you, Rilo Kiley.) This is partially due to their approachable, dense but organic sound, which, on I Never Even Asked for Light, is made by 12 musicians and over 20 instruments -- acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, violin, that kind of thing -- and partially due to their ability to look beyond their own little worlds. Members of Cursive and Bright Eyes.

Track listing:
1. Untitled
2. Show Me How the Robots Dance
3. Irish Wake
4. Jester's Siren
5. Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H.)
6. In Honor My Stumbling
7. This Is as Close as We Get
8. The Sunset and the Electric Bill
9. Bread Crumbs
10. Descent
11. The Man vs. the Tide (Part 1)
12. The Man vs. the Tide (Part 2)
13. The Man vs. the Tide (Part 3)

Colliding in a gas
We're two atoms of a kind
Rising from the fuel tank
And dancing on the windshield

Blasphemophagher - ... For Chaos, Obscurity, and Desolation... (2010)

Ripping blackened death metal. In addition to the many other things this record does right -- great riffs, nasty vocals, crushing breakdowns, unintelligible solos -- there are multiple instances of the all too rare slow blast, which is IMO one of the best things a heavy band can do. Someone once told me that people don't like this band because their look is super cheesy. I can't confirm or deny this, but I can say that that would be a really dumb reason to dislike a band as good as Blasphemophager.

Track listing:
1. Intro - Descending Into Extermination
2. Chaos, Obscurity, and Desolation
3. Perverse Multiverse of Damnation
4. Sign of Blazar Storm
5. Vengeance from Nuclear Abyss
6. Altar of Quantum Immortality
7. Fleshripping Terrordeath
8. Black Hole Abominations
9. Rites of Eternal Horror
10. Ascending to Chaosthrone - Outro

Bestial vomit

Atra - In Reverence of Decay (2011)

Haunting Australian black metal. Depressive and disturbing, with ghostly, reverb-drenched production. Fans of Drowning the Light -- with whom Atra's sole member, Blackheart, briefly played -- get in here.

Track listing:
1. Of Mysteries Ancient
2. Possessed by the Night
3. Majestic Evil
4. Phantasms of Silence and Dying
5. In Reverence of Decay
6. Upon the Throne of Shadows and Doom
7. Sacrifice to the World Beyond
8. The Souls of the Arcane Dance
9. Vox Vermes

Invocation of morbid torments

If you like this, try:

Harvest - Forgotten Vampyres of the Melancholic Night (2013)

Beatrik - Journey Through the End of Life (2002)

Abudullah Ibrahim - Banyana / The Children of Africa (1976)

African folk-flavored, mostly low-key jazz for piano, bass, and drums, with just a bit of vocals and soprano sax. I'm coming down from a very short but alcohol-filled mini-tour, and this is doing me right.

Track listing:
1. Banyana - Children of Africa
2. Ishmael
3. ASR
4. The Honey Bird
5. Dream
6. Yukio-Khalifa
7. Ishmael - Alternate Take

I need to sleep, why won't you let me?

Nortada Gelada - Inverno das Trevas (2005)

I know, I read your mind: you want more Portuguese black metal! Epic, depressive, and crypt-bound.

Track listing:
1. Intro + Legião da Vitória
2. Nevoeiro da glória imortal
3. Viriato
4. Como um lobo que uiva
5. Uma ode ao pinhal
6. Glorioso Povo Lusitano
7. Lost Wisdom
8. Inverno das Trevas

Ashes and fog cover my realm