Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Ghost - Ghost (1991)

You know what I absolutely love? Albums that start with their longest, least accessible track. As opposed to the prevailing idea that you have to immediately grab a listener's attention or you'll lose them, it says: "This is our house. You're absolutely welcome here, but we're not gonna put on airs." Such a baller move. Other examples that spring to mind: Get Up with It by Miles Davis, ...Is Eternal Life by William Hooker, and Northsuite by Velvet Cacoon.

Anyway, this one's another request, and as long as y'all keep asking for great shit that I'm stoked to revisit, I'm happy to deliver. Ghost truly is one of the greatest psych bands to have ever graced this wretched planet, and from its amorphous, free-jazz-leaning opener to uptempo psych rock to its haunting psych-folk closer, Hypnotic Underworld is for sure one of their best.

Track listing:

1. Hypnotic Underworld: God Took a Picture of His Illness on This Ground

2. Hypnotic Underworld: Escaped and Lost Down in Medina

3. Hypnotic Underworld: Aramaic Barbarous Dawn

4. Hypnotic Underworld: Leave the World!

5. Hazy Paradise

6. Kiseichukan Nite

7. Piper

8. Ganagmanag

9. Feed

10. Holy High

11. Dominoes - Celebration for the Gray Days

Pastures who used to be green

Perish in white seas

That even embrace

The slumbering trees like border marks

You should also listen to:

Osamu Kitajima - Benzaiten (1976)

Six Organs of Admittance - RTZ (2009)

Ghost - Ghost (1991)

Self-titled first album from Japanese underground psych gods Ghost. Easy-breezy, pastoral folk, kaleidoscopic garage rock, shimmering psych ballads, and droning, drugged-out dissonance, with a richly diverse instrumental palette to match. So, so, so much better than the fucking Swedish Ghost (aka Ghost B.C.) who I now regret even bringing up.

Track listing:
1. Sun Is Tangging
2. Guru in the Echo
3. Moungod Te Deum
4. I've Been Flying
5. Ballad of Summer Rounder
6. Moungod Asleep
7. Moungod Radiant Youth
8. Rakshu

First drop of the sea

You should also give these a spin:

Alan Sorrenti -
Aria (1972)

Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat -
An Interlude to the Outermost (2007)