Jack Frost - Jack Frost (1991)

Related:
Steve Kilbey - The Slow Crack (1987)
Steve Kilbey - Unearthed (1987)
The Church - Priest=Aura (1992)
Steve Kilbey & Russell P. Kilbey - Gilt Trip (1997)
The Church - Hologram of Baal (1998)
The Church - Untitled #23 (2009)

First of two albums from this fruitful collaboration between Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Grant McLennan (The Go-Betweens, who I still haven't really given a good listen). Jangly guitars, drum machines, gauzy synths, and heavy-lidded vocals. Way better than an obscure side project of this nature has any business being.

Track listing:

1. Every Hour God Sends

2. Birdowner (As Seen on T.V.)

3. Civil War Lament

4. Geneva 4 a.m.

5. Trapeze Boy

6. Providence

7. Thought That I Was Over You

8. Theshold

9. Number Eleven

10. Didn't Know Where I Was

11. Even as We Speak

12. Ramble

13. Everything Takes Forever

Every night she brings me here

And I fly around the room

Also listen to:

Martin Newell - Songs for a Fallow Land (1985)

Daniell Dax - Inky Bloaters (1987)

The Church - Untitled #23 (2009)

Related:
Steve Kilbey - The Slow Crack (1987)
Steve Kilbey - Unearthed (1987)
The Church - Priest=Aura (1992)
Steve Kilbey & Russell P. Kilbey - Gilt Trip (1997)
The Church - Church of Baal (1998)

My favorite late-career Church record. The same echoing guitars and dark, surreal lyrical concerns as ever, just applied to some of the best, most beautiful songs they've ever conjured forth from the infinite subconscious of the universe.

Track listing:
1. Cobalt Blue
2. Deadman's Hand
3. Pangaea
4. Happenstance
5. Space Saviour
6. On Angel Street
7. Sunken Sun
8. Anchorage
9. Lunar
10. Operetta

Darkness returning
My torch keeps on burning for you
In the life you keep on spurning
Everything is hurting me

You might also enjoy:

The Ocean Blue -
Cerulean (1993)

Air Formation - Nothing to Wish
For (Nothing to Lose) (2010)

Steve Kilbey & Russell P. Kilbey - Gilt Trip (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Steve Kilbey - The Slow Crack (1987)
Steve Kilbey - Unearthed (1987)
The Church - Priest=Aura (1992)
The Church - Hologram of Baal (1998)

Abstract, lush instrumental psych from Steve Kilbey and his brother Russell. Though the overall feel is, of course, dark and dream-like, Gilt Trip doesn't really sound like anything else that Kilbey's done. It's certainly more stylistically diverse -- subtly so -- referencing at times Eastern and Western folk music, synth-driven new age, ambient drone, krautrock, and even horror movie music.

Track listing:
1. Gilt Trip
2. The Onset
3. Tragic Mandarin Love Story
4. Eyes Smeared with the Ointment of Love
5. Neither Sun, Nor Moon, Nor Electricty
6. Darkness and Gardens of Steel
7. Dress Circle Seats for Creation
8. Blowing Through the Mansion of a 1930s Films Star
9. Happy Endings

Ashes block out the sun

You should also listen to:

Alesini & Adreoni -
Marco Polo (1995)

Ben Reynolds -
Earth and Space Magics (2005)

Steve Kilbey - The Slow Crack (1987)

Related:
Steve Kilbey - Unearthed (1987)
The Church - Priest=Aura (1992)
The Church - Hologram of Baal (1998)

The Slow Crack finds Kilbey tapping into his warped pop sensibility and -- with an arsenal of guitars, synths, drum machine, and even some horns here and there -- creating perhaps the most upbeat record of his career. The hallucinatory lyrics and psychedelic feel remain, of course.

Track listing:
1. Transaction
2. Fireman
3. Woman with Reason
4. A Favourite Pack of Lies
5. Something That Means Something
6. Consider Yourself Conquered
7. Like a Ghost
8. Ariel Sings
9. A Minute Without You
10. Surrealist Woman Blues
11. Song of Solomon
12. Starling St.

Each day is a terrible discovery

You might also be into:

Frazier Chorus - Sue (1989)

Care - Diamonds & Emeralds (1997)

The Church - Priest=Aura (1992)

Get The Church's excellent new record, Further/Deeper, right HERE.

The Church's masterpiece, Priest=Aura saw the band almost entirely abandoning the attempts at accessibility that had plagued the hit-or-miss Gold Afternoon Fix, in favor of sprawling, shimmering, anxiety-tinged compositions and their most abstract, evocative lyrics to date. It's remarkably cohesive, devoid of weak spots, and masterfully sequenced, from an enigmatic beginning, to a pleasantly opiated midsection, to a dissonant, paranoid conclusion. One of my all-time favorites.

Track listing:
1. Aura
2. Ripple
3. Paradox
4. Lustre
5. Swan Lake
6. Feel
7. Mistress
8. Kings
9. Dome
10. Witch Hunt
11. The Disillusionist
12. Old Flame
13. Chaos
14. Film

And you = me
The land = the sea
Richer = poorer
And priest = aura

The Church - Hologram of Baal (1998)

Been listening to this one a lot the past few days. If you know the Church, you know what to expect -- glistening guitars and dark, dream-like lyrics, the sound of painkillers and a star-filled sky -- and if not, this is as good an entry point as any. I'm including the bonus disc, Bastard Universe, which consists of a single, extended instrumental jam that's divided into six sections.

Track listing:
-Hologram of Baal-
1. Anaesthesia
2. Ricochet
3. Louisiana
4. The Great Machine
5. No Certainty Attached
6. Tranquility
7. Buffalo
8. This Is It
9. Another Earth
10. Glow-Worm
-Bastard Universe-
1. Stage One
2. Stage Two
3. Stage Three
4. Stage Four
5. Stage Five
6. Stage Six

It was so pleasant, incandescent
It's over now
We should get going

Steve Kilbey - Unearthed (1987)

This blog has gone far too long without a post about Steve Kilbey and/or his band, The Church. Although they're pretty popular in their homeland of Australia, The Church are known everywhere else in the world, if they're known at all, for their only major hit: the immortal "Under the Milkyway". I think that this is really unfortunate, as their synthesis of new wave, goth, U2-like arena rock, and psychedelia makes for some of my favorite music.

No matter how lush and inviting the rest of the band sounds, though, Kilbey's surreal lyrics and spectral voice are the band's lifesblood, so it's not surprising that Unearthed, his first solo album, stands up nicely to comparison with his primary project's work. Although the dreamlike words and crystalline guitar work are in full effect, Unearthed leans more heavily on synths and drum machines than anything that The Church had recorded up to this point. Like many solo excursions, there's a sense of experimentation and spontaneity to this record, and thankfully, in addition to the cool, weird keyboard pieces, there are a bunch of great songs.

Track listing:
1. Out of This World
2. Guilty
3. Pretty Ugly, Pretty Sad
4. Swampdrone
5. Judgement Day
6. Rising Son
7. Tyrant
8. Transference
9. My Birthday, the Moon Festival
10. Design Error
11. Nothing Inside
12. Other Time
13. Heliopolis
14. Famine

It reminds me of the time I've told you about
Every voice in the world seemed to shout
I sank to my knees, hands over my ears
I could have heard what nobody hears