Phthalocyanine - Navy Warship; (1997)

Here's a fucking weird noisy abstract techno-ish album for you to have an existential crisis to.

Track listing:

1. Jax 57 Or Jist BGIU

2. Navy; 3

3. 1.7

4. Eliditt

5. --> ...

6. Block

7. Fer U 2

8. Com.2

9. Liph; 39

10. West After

Living with lightning in your body

If you like this, listen to:

Philip Jeck - Loopholes (1995)

Black Faction - Internal Dissident Part I (1999)

These New Puritans - Field of Reeds (2013)

These New Puritans really had an extraordinary first-3-album arc, moving from post-punk revival to percussive art rock to experimental chamber music with such precision that each of those albums could rightly be considered their best. (The fourth one's really great, too; it just wasn't such a massive shift.)

For me, though, Field of Reeds is an all-out masterpiece. A series of haunting, elusive songs grappling with the (possibly futile) search for meaning, understanding, or connection, against a musical backdrop of piano, woodwinds, horns, strings, synths, and spare percussion. Although there is at least one obvious predecessor -- Mark Hollis -- the mood that this album sets is truly unlike anything else I've heard: always drifting in the liminal space between the beautiful and the sinister without ever fully committing to either one. This sense of constant unease and uncertainty is not for everyone, but at least a few of you are about to discover a new all-timer.

Just want to add this bit from the liner notes regarding the title of the first track, because I love how annoyed they sound: "The opening track originated from a field recording made by Jack Barnett of an amateur singer half-recalling fragments of a song. TNP were unaware of the original song until completion of recording 'The Way I Do' [original title]. Since then the trustees of Bacharach and David's songwriting material have demanded that the title of the half-recalled song be used in place of TNP's title."

Track listing:

1. This Guy's in Love with You

2. Fragment Two

3. The Light in Your Name

4. V (Island Song)

5. Spiral

6. Organ Eternal

7. Nothing Else

8. Dream

9. Field of Reeds

Is there a prayer that just for a moment

real life and dreaming swap places?

Nothing else but this.

You should also listen to:

Rain Tree Crow - Rain Tree Crow (1991)

Gastr del Sol - Camoufleur (1998)

Brendan Walls - Cassia Fistula (2002)

Pure minimal drone from Australian composer Brendan Walls, with assists from Oren Ambarchi. If you, like me, haven't been able to shake that gnawing sense of dread for the past, oh, month or so, Cassia Fistula probably won't help, but it will transmute that anxiety into an aural form, so that instead of just feeling it, you can listen to it, too.

Track listing:

1. Section One

2. Section Two

3. Section Three

And when the sun is low

And the rays high

Similar vibes:

Coil - Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil (2000)

Mirror - I Paint for the Love of Color (2001)

Dreamboat - Dreamboat (2016)

Related:

Ilyas Ahmed - Between Two Skies (2005)

Ilyas Ahmed - Speaking of Shadows (2006)
Golden Retriever - Golden Retriever (2010)

One-off collaboration between two phenomenal Portland artists. The rare collaboration that actually delivers on its implicit promise: Ahmed's spectral desert folk intertwined with Golden Retriever's shimmering synth drone.

Track listing:

1. Aftershock / Face to Face

2. Mirrored Image / Your Sunday Best

What do you think I'd see

If I could walk away from me?

You should also hear:

Charalambides - Market Square (1995)

Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson - Negative Chambers (2017)

Juana Molina - Segundo (2000)

Dreamy, abstract Argentinian indie-folk against a backdrop of minimal electronic textures and pulses. If you're a fan of Vespertine -- which, statistically speaking, you are -- you should find a lot to love here.

Track listing:

1. Martín Fierro

2. ¿Quién?

3. El Perro

4. ¡Que llueva!

5. La visita

6. Quiero

7. Mantra del bicho feo

8. El desconfiado

9. El zorzal

10. El pastor mentiroso

11. Misterio uruguayo

12. Vaca que cambia de querencia

13. MedDlong

14. Sonamos

15. The Wrong Song [hidden track]

I know that pain

You should also hear:

Manual - Until Tomorrow (2001)

Aspidistrafly - I Hold a Wish for You (2008)

Bernhard Günter - Crossing the River (Night Music) (2001)

Minimal, sparse experimental sounds. The half-hour-plus title track is dedicated to then-recently deceased composer Iannis Xenakis, and is composed of dissonant strings, manipulated sources, and field recordings. "Haiku for Mu" is built on recordings of Günter's dog sleeping. A real party-starter, this one.

Track listing:

1. Crossing the River (Night Music)

2. Haiku for Mu

Gradually the blinding sunset drained from the glass, darkened, and it was as if snow were falling there, flakes shaping snow-eyes, hair: a face trembled like a white beautiful moth, smiled. She beckoned to him, shining and silver, and he knew he must go: unafraid, not hesitating, he paused only at the garden's edge where, as though he'd forgotten something, he stopped and looked back at the bloomless, descending blue, at the boy he had left behind.

Also listen to:

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Müller • Sugimoto - I Am Happy If You Are Happy (2000)

Irmin Schmidt - Musk at Dusk (1987)

Strange, sinister art rock solo outing from Irmin Schmidt, who you know as Can's keyboardist. Queasy, minor-key, island music/soft rock-inspired songs with lurking hints of violence and horror, sung in a quavering, Bowie-esque croon. In fact, Musk at Dusk could be likened to a more fully realized, artistically satisfying take on the canned, vaguely tropical nocturnes of Bowie's Tonight.

Track listing:

1. Cliff Into Silence

2. Love

3. Roll On, Euphrates

4. The Great Escape

5. Villa Wunderbar

6. The Child in History

7. Alcool

Dancing in the limelight

Champagne after midnight

If you like this, try:

Steve Hillage - For to Next (1982)

Obywatel G.C. - Obywatel G.C. (1986)

Badgerlore - We Are All Hopeful Farmers, We Are All Scared Rabbits (2007)

Related:

Charalambides - Market Square (1995)

Badgerlore - Of Things Too Sorrowful to Be Reminded Of, and Things Too Beautiful to Possess (2003)

Six Organs of Admittance - For Octavio Paz (2004)

Six Organs of Admittance - RTZ (2009)

Got a request for more Badgerlore, so here's their final full-length. At this point, the former duo had ballooned to a six-member quasi-supergroup encompassing the original two plus Liz Harris of Grouper, Tom Carter of Charalambides, and more. All things considered, We Are All Hopeful Farmers... really isn't all that different from the Badgerlore that had come before -- skeletal guitar figures, shimmering drones, and a spectral vocal here and there -- but it does feel like the most fully realized version of the project's vision.

Track listing:

1. Furbearer

2. Goodnight, Sweet Rabbits

3. The Crops That You Tend

4. Whichever

5. We Are All Hopeful Farmers

6. Mountain Wine

7. Snowballs for Reuven

8. Grow Your Hair

9. Duet

10. When I Look at Your Face, I See Timothy

Find the ones you hate and hold them tight

You should also hear:

Es - Kaikkeuden kauneus ja käsittämättömyys (2004)

Fursaxa - Alone in the Dark Wood (2007)

Philip Samartzis - Mort aux Vaches (2003)

Related:

Troum - Mort Aux Vaches: SEN (2000)

I'm back from a long trip that was just a little too emotionally and physically demanding to call a "vacation." Looking for a job and studying for the CPA exam are gonna be occupying much of my free time in the coming weeks and months, so expect even more sporadic posting. But in the here and now, enjoy these engrossing experimental sound pieces by Australian composer Philip Samartzis. Describing them would sorta take away from the fun of hearing their sound pallets expand and explode, so I'm not going to.

Track listing:

1. Variable Resistance

2. Deconstructed Windmills

3. Soft and Loud

In another time zone, tarantulas are climbing red rocks, and on top of those rocks are churches. Days go by, first and last, always the same stone. Go down, dematerialized like the last one, cast into loneliness. The data cloud is crestfallen. All thoughts of men are sinking like a stone. It's not the first slip, but it's the right time to fall. I want to go now, in the same way, go right away.

You should also listen to:

Michael Prime - Fructification (1989)

John Wiese - Collected Tracks (2000)

Oren Ambarchi - Stacte.2 (1999)

Two untitled early guitar/looping experiments from the great Oren Ambarchi. I first heard Ambarchi years ago via his collaborations with Stephen O'Malley/Sunn O))) -- Burial Chamber Trio, Gravetemple, Pentemple, Shade Themes from Kairos -- but only recently started listening to his solo stuff. Five albums in, I've yet to hear anything that's less than excellent, and Stacte.2 was where I started, so that's where we're starting. Its joyful, minimal, textural sounds are all guitar-sourced and I'm guessing are the results of tape looping, as according to the album notes: "All sounds = guitar – no editing no processing no computer no". I still don't understand how those aren't synths but what do I know.

"Quite the opposite," she said, "I've never felt better."

If you like this, you should listen to:

Troum - Mort Aux Vaches: SEN (2000)

Growing - His Return (2005)

Müller • Sugimoto - I Am Happy If You Are Happy (2000)

Low-key, free-form improvisations by the duo of German experimental sound artist Günter Müller and Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto. Tentative, ghostly guitar figures against backdrops of gently crackling white noise, alien oscillations, and subterranean pulses.

Track listing:

1. Frozen Memories

2. Snow Pocket

3. Rest and Smile

4. Bright White

5. Cumulus

6. Pitch the Clock

It is known where we come from, but no one much cares about things like that anymore.

Also listen to:

Mother Tongue - Open in Obscurity (1988)

Tigersmilk - Android Love Cry (2007)

Khalil - The Water We Drink (2017)

The sound of Auto-Tuned pop/R&B stuttering, faltering, collapsing, and being fed through a digital wood chipper. Never heard anything else quite like it. A Posh Isolation joint. I remember thinking this record was gonna be a big deal with us nerds but as far as I can tell I was wrong, as I don't remember hearing/seeing anyone talking about it and it was surprisingly hard to track down a good rip for the purposes of this post. 

Track listing:

1. Trapper

2. Rest My Head Against a Wall of Water

3. Gigds

4. Submit So Deep

5. Estate Straight Line

6. Herat

7. Always Wanted to Ride in a Place Like This

8. Natures Envy

9. Sculpture No Solid

10. The White Hoodie I Wear Because I Love You

I've been looking for your touch

You should also hear:

M.E.S.H. - Piteous Gate (2015)

KÁRYYN - The Quanta Series (2019)

Loren Mazzacane-Connors & Alan Licht - Hoffman Estates (1998)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Loren Mazzacane & Kath Bloom - Sing the Children Over (1982)

By request, here's this excellent collection of woozy, avant-jazz-psych-etc. In addition to the two musicians listed on the tin, you get contributions from a bunch of great Chicago musicians, not the least of which are from Jim O'Rourke, who played on the initial sessions, then edited them down and added overdubs.

Track listing:

1. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly

2. Block That Nixon

3. Sad at Times

4. Wisdom Day

5. Peace Scare

6. Turner's Murder

7. And Everyone 'Neath Their Vine and Fig Tree Shall Live in Peace

Moonlight walk of the soothsayer

You should also listen to:

Savant - The Neo-Realist (At Risk) (1983)

Anthony Pateras - Chasms (2007)

Jon Appleton & Don Cherry - Human Music (1970)

Got a request for this deeply strange collaborative work from electro-acoustic innovator Jon Appleton and free jazz legend Don Cherry. Sparse, discordant, sonically manipulated sound pieces composed of synth, trumpet, flute, hand drums, and distinctly un-musical mouth noises.

Track listing:

1. BOA

2. OBA

3. ABO

4. BAO

This is Earth Radio, and now, here's human music.

If you like this, listen to:

Tony Scott - Music for Voodoo Meditation (1972)

Hal Russell & Mars Williams - EFTSOONS (1984)

Hunstville - For the Middle Class (2006)

Abstract, instrumental folk-jazz/post-rock from a Norwegian trio. Dreamy, droning, but bubbling over with life, For the Middle Class sounds both improvisational and expertly composed, and is probably a mix of the two. A favorite of mine ever since the golden age of the mp3 blog.

Track listing:

1. The Appearance of a Wise Child

2. Serious Like a Pope

3. Add a Key of Humanity

4. Melon

Presence in absence

You might also like:

Masabumi Kikuchi - Poo-Sun (1970)

Gastre del Sol - Camoufleur (1998)

Dante Augustus Scarlatti - Demises of the Dynamic Microphone (in Monodelity) (2009)

A few months back, I found a crate in my garage full of old CDs of friends' projects and random shit that I accumulated while on tour back in the day. There's a lot of mid-tier punk and metal, but there are a few gems in there, like this one, which I got in Bloomington, IN, where, in 2009, there was a surprisingly rich scene for experimental, often black metal-adjacent sounds. Demises of the Dynamic Microphone (in Monodelity) presents a series of grainy, analogue synth and/or guitar abstractions against a backdrop of tape hiss and muffled field recordings. While there, I also picked up this tape, as well as this LP by the band OS, who we played with and whose house we stayed at -- neither of which I have the capability to rip, unfortunately.

Track listing:

1. Prologue

2. Re:verses of Decay in 1939's Kodascope Mass for Arachnid

3. Transcriptions of Subterranean Meteorological Phenomena in the Galaxie Deluxe

4. Vinyl Etchings Containing Hymns of the Sacred Greek Orthodox Funeral

5. Electro-Syncing Static Keys in the City of Dead Sound

6. Recitations of the Reel Rhythm in a Stern Seasonal Stereophonic Headphone Set

7.  Epilogue

The weaver's fulfillment does not come from disparity and shame, but from courage and consistency.

You should also hear:

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Badgerlore - Of Things Too Sorrowful to Be Reminded Of, and Things Too Beautiful to Possess (2003)

Lol Coxhill & Morgan Fisher - Slow Music (1980)

Experimental ambient pieces constructed by Morgan Fisher via deconstructing, layering, sampling, and otherwise processing recordings of saxophonist Lol Coxhill. As of writing this, I've been working on a succession of extremely complex projects all day, and while I'm finding Slow Music's scattered, warped sensibility extremely relatable, I just don't have the capacity to put any effort into this post, so the end.

Track listing:

1. Que en paz descanse

2. Flotsam

3. Vase

4. Jetsam

5. Matt Finish

6. Slow Music

7. Pretty Little Girl

Life under the floor

Also listen to:

Asunta - Landscapes (1996)

Akira Rabelais - Spellewauerynsherde (2004)

Hal Russell & Mars Williams - EFTSOONS (1984)

Abrasive, sparse free jazz from two American saxophonists/multi-instrumentalists. Between the sax parts often sounding more like guitar feedback than saxophones and the whimsically unsettling atmosphere, much of EFTSOONS plays like a lost Nurse with Wound record.

Track listing:

1. Carnal Concupiscence

2. Is This Virginia?

3. A SYNC/SYNC STAT MUX PROLIXTHUX

4. Odoriferous Flambeaus of the Paranymphs

5. N, SSS, EEE <RETURN>

6. Eftsoons

7. Noise Command: Blast 1

I didn't know anybody, and there was a funny smell

If you like this, listen to:

Anthony Braxton - 3 Compositions of New Jazz (1968)

William Hooker - ... Is Eternal Life (1977)

Kallabris - Njonto (1988)

10 untitled tracks of weird-ass experimental sounds from the German industrial underground. Droning accordion, rumbling noise, warped keys, and disjointed whispers. At times, almost sounds like a lost LLN project.

Did you dream last night?

More club bangers to get this fucking party fucking started:

Ruth White - Flowers of Evil (1969)

Mother Tongue - Open in Obscurity (1988)

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Uneasy experimental sounds from Japan. Frail keyboard figures floating amidst abstract, analogue drones and muffled industrial noise. Music for ghosts to listen to when they're alone.

Track listing:

1. Plasmodium

2. Giaour

3. Lame Meter

4. Somnus

5. Concussion

6. Hard Words

7. End All

Set: The leathery skin of a female straddling a furnace. Illuminates in blue. Hands melt against the burning surface. Feel no pain. Kiss the burner. Lips fall away. Blood runs down the inside of her thighs. She tightens her grip in one last exaggerated movement and falls to the ground. A pile of ashes. The furnace stands triumphant over the mound.

If you like this, you should hear:

Attrition - Death House (1982)

raison d'être - Residuality (1993)