Gianni Ferrio - Perversion Story (1969)

The soundtrack to Lucio Fulci's very first piece of giallo, Una sull'altra (aka Perversion Story). Encompasses big band jazz, cool jazz, psych pop, deranged carnival tunes, and general abstract horror creepiness.

Track listing:

1. The Mess

2. Tell Me

3. Strip for a Teenager

4. Hammond Psychedelic Concert

5. I Love You More Than What You Do

6. Psychedelic Concert

7. L.S.D. Atmosphere

8. Old Little Theme

9. To End

10. All I Need

11. Psychedelic Concert

12. Harry's True

13. Violence for Sax

14. L.S.D. Atomsphere

15. London Ride

16. Helen, My Love

17. In a Strange Mood

18. A Man in the Shadow

This is a crazy man

More Italo-horror soundtracks:

Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (Colonna Sonora Originale) (1968)

Bruno Nicolai - Tutti i Colori del Buio (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1972)

Gomorrha - Gomorrha (1969)

Here in PDX, it seems that summer might finally be hitting. So to mark the occasion, 'bout some hard-driving German psych-pop? After this record, Gomorrha decided that hard prog was where it was at, and re-recorded their debut with a more pronounced psych/blues sound and English lyrics, but I prefer this rawer, less self-conscious version.

Track listing

1. Lola

2. Totes Land

3. Flammenhände

4. Reise

5. Regenbogenschein

6. Gestern

7. Kreiseltanz

8. Sommer

9. Trauma

Dance on a volcano

Also listen to:

The Lollipop Shoppe - Just Colour (1968)

The Misunderstood - Before the Dream Faded (1982)

Αρλέτα (Arleta) - 2 (1967)

Haunting, sparse folk from Greek musician Arleta. I came to Arleta in an indirect, nerdy way: namely, via the instrumental trio Dirty Three, whose "I Remember a Time When Once You Used to Love Me" is, I discovered only recently, a cover of a song written by Greek composer/lyricist Giannis Spanos and originally performed by, you guessed it, Arleta. So I've learned a bit about her, including her involvement with the Greek neo kyma scene, her longtime low-key association with gay culture, and her passing in 2017.  But I didn't know any of that when I first heard, and was utterly transfixed, by the elusive, nocturnal sounds of 2. It's just her guitar and voice, illuminated by a touch of reverb, and that's all it needs to be.

[Thanks to adgy, the helpful commenter who uploaded 2 in FLAC, the old crappy link has been replaced by a nice, clean, 320 rip. If you'd rather have it in FLAC, have at it.

Track listing:

1. Τα Μικρά Παιδιά

2. Τίποτ’ Άλλο (Τρίπτυχο)

3. Δύο Γλάροι

4. Καβαλάρης Στραφτερός

5. Έτσι Είναι

6. Νάνι Το Γαρούφαλλό Μου

7. Ήταν Καμάρι Της Αυγής

8. Ο Τρελλός Του Χωριού

9. Σαράντα Μέρες

10. Ήτανε Μόνο Ένα Παιδί

11. Οι Σαρανταπέντε

12. Φώναξέ Με

Let secrets remain hidden

You should also listen to:

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

Mossy Davidson - Northwind Calling (1977)

Richard Harris - The Yard Went on Forever (1968)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Richard Harris - A Tramp Shining (1968)

For all the derision it attracts, "MacArthur Park" is an extremely strange piece of music, and its massive success as a single probably surprised everyone involved in its recording and release. To follow it up, Harris (well, Jimmy Webb, who actually wrote and arranged the entirety of both this album and A Tramp Shining) leaned into that song's artfully overblown melodrama, and generated a towering song cycle of heartbroken symphonic vocal pop that holds together even better than its predecessor.

Track listing:

1. The Yard Went on Forever

2. Watermark

3. Interim

4. Gayla

5. The Hymns from the Grand Terrace

6. The Hive

7. Lucky Me

8. That's the Way It Was

Is everybody safe?

Has everybody got a place to hide?

Is everybody warm inside?

You might also wanna hear:

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

Pierre Bachelet - Pierre Bachelet (1975)

Robin Scott - Woman from the Warm Grass (1969)

Related:

M - The Official Secrets Act (1980)

Before he became M, new wave one-hit wonder, Robin Scott was just Robin Scott, verbose folk rock singer given to psychedelic flights of fancy. This is sadly the only record he ever did in this style, but if you're into this kinda thing, it's a real gem.

Track listing:

1. The Sailor

2. Song of the Sun

3. The Sound of Rain

4. Penelope

5. The Day Begins

6. Woman from the Warm Grass

7. I Am Your Suitcase Lover

8. Mara's Supper

9. Point of Leaving

10. The Purple Cadger

I could have been a cunning wizard with spells at my command

Or perhaps a sailor's son with tales of far-off lands

I could have been shipwrecked, broken on your sands

But no, I'm just the lucky one who's fallen in your hands

More along these lines:

Duncan Browne - Give Me Take You (1968)

Rex Holman - Here in the Land of Victory (1970)

Hilton Valentine - All in Your Head (1969)

2021 is off to a predictably bleak, anxiety-ridden start, huh? Here's a bit of late-60s psychedelic folk rock to help us escape to a world of sunshine, soft green hilltops, and weed smoke.

Track listing:

1. Listen

2. Everything Returns to Me

3. It's All in Your Head

4. Little Soldiers

5. Eyes of a Child

6. Sitting in the Sun

7. Is There Anything But Love

8. Land of Children

9. Run, Run, Run

10. Peace

11. Girl from Allemagne

The world's not all bad

Similar vibes:

Gary Lewis - Listen! (1967)

Paper Garden - Paper Garden (1969)

Bobby Hutcherson - Now! (1969)

Dynamic, expressive, avant-garde post-bop and psych-leaning fusion by vibraphonist/jazz legend Bobby Hutcherson. Features the vocals and lyrics of Gene MacDaniels, as well as three female backup singers. Often, the presence of vocals on records of this nature has made for a divided reaction among jazz-heads, but Now! is just too good to deny.

Track listing:

1. Slow Change

2. Hello to the Wind

3. Now

4. The Creators

5. Black Heroes

God is watching

God is dying

If you like this, check out:

Andrew Hill - Lift Every Voice (1969)

Miles Davis - Get Up with It (1974)

Sonny Sharrock - Black Woman (1969)

The heavenly solo debut of guitarist Sonny Sharrock. Free jazz in beautiful, expressive, often melodic form. Unfortunately, Sharrock spent a good chunk of the 70s and 80s away from the music world, and he passed away too young in 1994, so this is one of just five proper solo records he put out. Many people, myself included, first heard Sonny Sharrock without even knowing it, in the form of the theme song from Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.

Track listing:

1. Black Woman

2. Peanut

3. Bialero

4. Blind Willy

5. Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black

They enter the dream

If you like this, check out:

Wayne Shorter - Super Nova (1969)

Ben Monder - Oceana (2005)

Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (Colonna Sonora Originale) (1968)

A pretty great soundtrack for a giallo film that I've never seen and doesn't seem to get the best reviews, which tend to center on the idea that the plot makes no sense, despite that being pretty much a given for Italian horror. Eerie, smoldering, late-night jazz with some hints of exotica and other weirdly perky diversions.

Track listing:

1. Marcel-Deborah

2. Night Story

3. Intimità

4. Ossessione

5. Il Valico

6. Molto Tempo Fa

7. Musica Bionda

8. I Robot

9. L'Imprevisto

10. Ginevra

11. La bandita

12. Croisette

Shallow breathing

Also consider listening to:

Bruno Nicolai - Tutti i Colori del Buio (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1972)

James Clarke - Mystery Movie (1974)

Bobby Callender - Rainbow (1968)

A low-key masterpiece of mystical psychedelia and baroque pop from the relatively unsung Bobby Callender. Weightless clouds of sitar, tabla, harpsichord, strings, and more gather and hover like angels over Callender's hazy vocals.

Track listing:
1. Rainbow
2. Nature
3. Sade Masoch
4. Purple
5. Mother Superior
6. Autumn
7. A Man
8. I'm Just High on Life
9. Symphonic Pictures
10. Raga Man [bonus]
11. The Story of Rahsa & D'ahra [bonus]

The two of us have just
Climbed the highest mountain

You might also like:

Annette Peacock & Paul Bley -
Dual Unity (1972)

Clivage -
Mixtus Orbis (1979)

Tucker Zimmerman - Ten Songs (1969)

American folk rocker Tucker Zimmerman's excellent debut LP. Surreal, psychedelic songs delivered with a fuzzy, rough-around-the-edges sound. Band includes a pre-cape Rick Wakeman on organ and the great Tony Visconti, who also produced the record.

Track listing:
1. Bird Lives
2. October Mornings
3. A Face That Hasn't Sold Out
4. The Roadrunner
5. Children of Fear
6. The Wind Returns into the Night
7. Running, Running from Moment to Moment
8. Upsidedown Circus World
9. Blue Goose
10. Alpha Centauri

And they kept on falling in
And they kept on crawling out

More along these lines:

Tim Hollier -
Tim Hollier (1970)

Andy Zwerling -
Spiders in the Night (1971)

Joe Henderson - Power to the People (1969)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Joe Henderson - Black Is the Color (1972) + Black Narcissus (1976)
Joe Henderson - Multiple (1973)

One of the first jazz records that ever stuck with me. Loose and energetic pieces that build from a low simmer to chaotic peaks with incredible ease. Unsurprisingly, Herbie Hancock puts in some phenomenal work.

Track listing:
1. Black Narcissus
2. Afro-Centric
3. Opus One-Point-Five
4. Isotope
5. Power to the People
6. Lazy Afternoon
7. Foresight and Afterthought (An Impromptu Suite in Three Movements)

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem

You'll probably also enjoy:

Elvin Jones -
Genesis (1971)

Steve Reid -
Nova (1976)

Dr. John - Babylon (1969)

Mind-melting second album from this New Orleans legend. A dense stew of bluesy guitar, hammond organ, clattering percussion, saxophone, soulful backup singers, and the man's own gravel-throated vocals over raw, buoyant grooves. Bursting with life but heavy with sorrow and anger, and rough around the edges, Babylon is a serious head-trip of an album, but it's definitely one worth taking.

Track listing:
1. Babylon
2. Glowin'
3. Black Widow Spider
4. Barefoot Lady
5. The Patriotic Flag-Waver
6. The Lonesome Guitar Strangler

This is not the land of milk and honey
This is a place where people sell their souls out for money

You might also like:

Aum -
Resurrection (1969)

Larry Coryell -
Coryell (1969)

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

Beautiful bossa nova/vocal jazz from Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto. The perfect balance of melancholy, string-swept ballads and breezy, uptempo numbers. File the title track alongside "I Get Along Without You Very Well", "Most of the Time", and "She Thinks I Still Care" -- breakup songs in which the narrator goes to great lengths to explain how little they care about their former lover, thereby revealing the true depths of their heartbreak. Bought this LP today for (drumroll please) 10 cents. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, you've been great.

Track listing:
1. I Haven't Got Anything Better to Do
2. Didn't We
3. Wailing of the Willow
4. Where's the Love?
5. The Sea Is My Soul (I Remember When)
6. Trains and Boats and Planes
7. World Stop Turning
8. Without Him
9. Wee Small Hours
10. If (The Biggest Little Word)

He's got a problem if he thinks I need him
I couldn't care less now that we're through
I only sit home and I wait for his phone call
When I haven't got anything better to do

Also check out:

Brigitte Fontaine -
Brigitte Fontaine Est... Folle (1969)

Joan Manuel Serrat -
Mediterráneo (1971)

The Misunderstood - Before the Dream Faded (1982)

Phenomenal, dark-tinted early psych/garage. Before the Dream Faded compiles material from various sessions between 1965 and '66.

Track listing:
1. Children of the Sun
2. In My Mind
3. Who Do You Love
4. I Unseen
5. Find a Hidden Door
6. I Can Take You to the Sun
7. I'm Not Talking
8. Who's Been Talking
9. I Need Your Love
10. You Don't Have to Go Out
11. I Cried My Eyes Out
12. Like I Do
13. You've Got Me Crying Over Love

But you don't want to go

If you like this, listen to:

The Five Day Week Straw People -
The Five Day Week Straw People (1968)

The Open Mind -
The Open Mind (1969)

Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis / Pithoprakta / Eonta (1965)

Unsettling modern classical from Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis. From creeping pizzicato flurries to shrieking walls of dissonance, these anxious, cacophonous pieces wouldn't sound at all out of place soundtracking an artfully-made slasher flick.

Track listing:
1. Metastasis
2. Pithoprakta
3. Eonta

You really scared me, you know

You might also enjoy:

Kaija Saariaho - Verblendungen - Jardin Secret I -
Laconisme de l'Aile - ...Sah Den Vögeln (1985)

György Ligeti - Kammerkonzert / Ramifications /
Lux Aeterna / Atmosphères (1988)

Alice Coltrane - Huntington Ashram Monastery (1969)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Alice Coltrane & Carlos Santana - Illuminations (1974)

Dreamy, psychedelic fusion from the great Alice Coltrane. Recently, I've heard way too many so-called friends (two, to be precise) say that they never could get into her music. Yeah, the glimmering sounds of a harp being played by a literal master over a slow-burning, in-the-pocket rhythm section -- who would ever wanna listen to that? We should be thanking our lucky stars that we got to share a world with her. I WILL FIGHT YOU.

Track listing:
1. Huntington Ashram Monastery
2. Turiya
3. Paramahansa Lake
4. Via Sivanandagar
5. Ihs
6. Jaya Jaya Rama

Galaxy after galaxy

You should also check out:

Dorothy Ashby - Soft Winds: The
Swinging Harp of Dorothy Ashby (1961)

Bennie Maupin -
The Jewel in the Lotus (1974)

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Delta Blues (1964)

The simplest and most perfect form of the blues: an acoustic guitar, and a booming, wailing voice. How could music this beautiful and pure have (d)evolved into a bunch of rich dudes jamming on the most boring party music in existence for hours on end? HOW???

Track listing:
1. Write Me a Few Lines
2. Louise
3. I Heard Somebody Call
4. 61 Highway
5. Mama Don't Allow
6. Kokomo Blues
7. Fred's Worried Life Blues
8. You Gonna Be Sorry
9. Shake 'Em on Down
10. My Trouble Blues
11. Black Minnie
12. That's Alright
13. When I Lay My Burden Down

Please see somebody for me

You might also like:

Lightnin' Hopkins -
Lightnin' Strikes (1962)

Loren Mazzacane & Kath Bloom -
Sing the Children Over (1982)

Egberto Gismonti - Egberto Gismonti (1969)

Lovely first album of jazz-saturated folk rock by virtuosic Brazilian guitarist Egberto Gismonti. Laid-back and sunny but with plenty of energy, filled out by a percussion, piano, strings, flute, and a bit of Gismonti's sweet, understated singing.

Track listing:
1. Salvador
2. Tributo a West Montgomery
3. Pr'um Samba
4. Computador
5. Atento, Alerta
6. Lirica II (Pra Mulher Amada)
7. O Gato
8. Um Dia
9. Clama-Claro
10. Pr'um Espaço
11. O Sonho
12. Estudo Nr. 5

A series of portraits

If you like this, you should hear:

Joan Manuel Serrat -
Mediterráneo (1971)

Milton Nascimento -
Minas (1975)

The Lollipop Shoppe - Just Colour (1968)

Fred Cole, a Portland legend and a punk rock n' roll lifer if there ever was one, has passed into the great unknown. To highlight just how dedicated and true this man was, let's take it back to 1968, when he was making topnotch garage psych with The Lollipop Shoppe. Be free.

Track listing:
1. You Must Be a Witch
2. Underground Railroad
3. Baby Don't Go
4. Who'll Read the Will
5. It's Only a Reflection
6. Don't Look Back
7. Don't Close the Door on Me
8. It Ain't How Long
9. It's Makin' It
10. I'm Gonna Be There
11. You Don't Give Me No More
12. Sin

God was always with me
Looking through the door

You should also listen to:

Sam Gopal -
Escalator (1969)

The Open Mind -
The Open Mind (1969)