Anna Domino - East and West (1984)

My schedule is positively brutal this term. Goddamn, I miss having free time. But I have a tiny little window of nothing right now, so I'm listening to this short-but-sweet EP of downtempo, laid-back but sharp 80s art pop and staring out the window of the student union.

Track listing:
1. With the Day Comes the Dawn
2. Land of My Dreams
3. Review
4. Everyday, I Don't
5. Trust, in Love

I know that my dreams aren't true
I sit and spin, and I can't begin
To recover and count the cost, and get lost

You should also listen to:

Nona Hendryx -
SkinDiver (1989)

Eg and Alice -
24 Years of Hunger (1991)

Jerry Peters - Blueprint for Discovery (1972)

A gloriously sprawling soul-funk odyssey courtesy of New Orleans composer/producer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Jerry Peters. How such a wonderful song cycle slips between the cracks is anyone's guess -- it certainly doesn't help that's it's never been reissued -- but do your part and get hip to it, then help spread the gospel.

Track listing:
1. If You Leave Me Now (Prologue)
2. If You Leave Me Now
3. Long Before You and I
4. Did I Step on Your Heart
5. Going in Circles
6. Love Song
7. White Shutters
8. Kuri Monga Nuie (Big Black Dog)
9. Lest We Forget

Wherever I am
Yes, I love it

You should also hear:

Billy Paul -
War of the Gods (1973)

Angelo Bond -
Bondage (1975)

Vulcano - Bloody Vengeance (1986)

Old-school Brazilian black/thrash. 23 minutes of raw, full-tilt, slop-filled thrashing destruction. Oof, the "Holocaust" breakdown just hit and I almost smashed my computer against the wall.

Track listing:
1. Dominios of Death
2. Spirits of Evil
3. Ready to Explode
4. Holocaust
5. Incubus
6. Death Metal
7. Voices from Hell
8. Bloody Vengeance

End will come as an explosion

You'd also like:

Morbid Saint -
Spectrum of Death (1988)

Anal Vomit -
Demoniac Flagellations (2004)

Midori Takada & Masahiko Satoh - Lunar Cruise (1990)

An excellent collaboration between percussionist Midori Takada and pianist/keyboardist Masahiko Satoh. Lunar Cruise is a thing of alien energy and woozy beauty, and explores a wide range of styles and moods, so you know what that means: I'm way too lazy of a writer to address it effectively here. Here, read this.

Track listing:
1. Iron Paradise
2. Nahm
3. Ancient Palace
4. A Vanished Illusion
5. Jyomuran
6. Monody
7. In 'D'
8. Madorone
9. Chang-Dra
10. Lunar Cruise

Return from sleep

If you like this, listen to:

Jon Hassell -
Vernal Equinox (1977)

Alesini & Andreoni -
Marco Polo (1995)

Morgue - The Process to Define the Shape of Self-Loathing (2002)

Sick French death/grind. A hateful, impenetrably relentless mass of brutality, with cyber-grind underpinnings that eventually bubble to the surface in a full-on breakcore denouement.

Track listing:
1. Homesick
2. My Life Is Sicker Than Your Band
3. Kerri Lenardic
4. There Is No End of the Harvest
5. In-Between Storms
6. (Pig) In Human Form
7. Heart Shape Substance
8. 1909
9. Meridian / Untitled

Doors of no return

You should also check out:

Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition -
Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition (2001)

Internal Rot -
Mental Hygiene (2014)

Terrace of Memories - Terrace of Memories (1992)

Related:
Vidna Obmana - The Ultimated Sign of Burning Death (1985)
Sam Rosenthal - Before the Buildings Fell (1986)
black tape for a blue girl - Mesmerized by the Sirens (1987)
Vidna Obmana - Gathering in Frozen Beauty (1989)
black tape for a blue girl - A Chaos of Desire (1991)
Vidna Obmana - Echoing Delight (1993)
Steve Roach & Vidna Obmana - Well of Souls (1995)
Vidna Obmana - The River of Appearance (1996)

A one-off collaboration between Sam Rosenthal and Vidna Obmana. Haunting ambient compositions that truly sound like what they are -- a combination of BTFABG's dark, enveloping synths and early Vidna Obmana's icy beauty.

Track listing:
1. These Ancient Halls
2. Dark Mist, Rain
3. Terrace of Memories
4. From Within the Cold (A Fragment)
5. Of Silent Crossings

Float through nights

You'd probably also like:

Vangelis -
L'Apocalypse des Animaux (1973)

David Darling -
Cello (1993)

Michael Stearns - M'Ocean (1984)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Michael Stearns - Ancient Leaves (1978)
Michael Stearns - Floating Whispers (1987)
Michael Stearns - Encounter (A Journey in the Key of Space) (1988)

Damn, it's been a while since I posted anything by this guy. A beautiful, haunting world of synthesizer magic, M'Ocean was one of the first new age records I ever connected with, and to this day it remains a favorite.

Track listing:
1. Sirens
2. Marriage Chords
3. M'Ocean
4. Lightplay
5. Vicki's Dance
6. Fireflies' Delight
7. Walking Song

Great big blue world

You'd also like:

Michel Genest -
Crystal Fantasy (1984)

Dan Hartman -
New Green Clear Blue (1989)

CorpseVomit - Raping the Ears of Those Above (2001)

Unorthodox US death metal. Disjointed songs full of weird time signatures, spazzy changes, ring-outs, and false stops -- but all in service of beefy OSDM brutality.

Track listing:
1. Sons of Famine
2. Maggot Lamb
3. Waste
4. Seas of Excrement
5. Mind Scabs
6. Gathering Chemical Children
7. Sleeping Dismay
8. Death Meddle
9. Crawling Visions
10. Nothing

Elevation of death void
Down below a maimed corpse
Symphony louder
Farewell

If you like this, try:

Acrostichon -
Sentenced (1995)

Ingrowing -
Cyberspace (1998)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Sweet, fuzzy, lo-fi indie rock. I saw Beulah sometime around late 2001 (maybe 2002) and my big takeaway, other than it being a really great show, was that I'd never seen a band less concerned about looking cool. Truly endearing, and with a seemingly endless arsenal of bittersweet hooks to match.

Track listing:
1. Maroon Bible
2. Law Low for the Letdown
3. Disco: The Secretaries Blues
4. The Rise and Fall of Our Hero's Reward
5. I Love John, She Loves Paul
6. Slo-Mo for the Masses
7. I've Been Broken (I've Been Fixed)
8. Queen of the Populists
9. Shotgun Dedication
10. Rust with Me
11. Delta
12. Dig the Subatomic Holdout #2

If it's any consolation
Remember we're fucked up together
So far

Also listen to:

Circulatory System -
Circulatory System (2000)

Elf Power -
The Winter Is Coming (2000)

Heir - Au Peuple de l'Abîme (2017)

French black metal with elements of sludge/post-metal. Gnarled dissonance, cosmic heaviness, and weird, ugly beauty.

Track listing:
1. Au Siècle des Siècles
2. L'Heure d'Helios
3. Meltem
4. L'Âme des Foules
5. Cendres

One last breathless sigh for everlasting rest

Similar listening:

Amestigon -
Thier (2015)

Convulsing -
Errata (2016)

This Ascension - Tears in Rain (1989)

Atmospheric goth-rock excellence with a vocalist like Siouxsie Sioux on a handful of downers.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Isabella
3. Groove
4. Alex Kidd
5. Poor Mortal Lost
6. Just Assassin
7. Megan
8. For a Day
9. Drone

Teach me how to drown

You'd also enjoy:

The Essence -
Ecstacy (1988)

Nosferatu -
Prince of Darkness (1996)

Aliénante Damnation - Le Chantre du Charnier (2012)

Related:
Vociferian - On Angelbones Blood Altarized (2009)

Relentlessly ripping Belgian black/death devastation.

Track listing:
1. Charogne Béatifiée
2. Au Sacre de la Trinité du Viol
3. L'Infanterie Nazaréennicide
4. Stigmates de l'Antéchrist
5. Noire Kénose Transfiguratrice
6. Ordalie Satanique
7. Rosaire de Barbelés
8. Vêpre du Gérasien Possédé
9. A l'Orée de l'Eviction Céleste
10. Mes Paupières S'obstruent Telle la Lame Oxydée d'une Guillotine
11. Sylvestre Trône des Brumes
12. Gel Diaphane de l'Arcane Lunaire
13. Me Révulse Cette Imperceptible Aura Stérile (Aux Portes Béantes de l'Ennui Radieux)
14. Suprême Râle au Soir de l'Humanité (Ou la Domestication du Genre Humain et la Haine Magnifiées)

May the holocaust appease thy God

More like this:

Manticore - Bowels of the Holy
Anoint Us in Evil (2003)

Iconoclast Contra - Battle Is
the Voice of the Heathen (2010)

Obscurus Advocam - Verbia Daemonicus (2007)

Related:
Wolfe - Wolfe (2006)

Excellent French black metal featuring two members of Glorior Belli. With its dark, cerebral, riff-forward guitar work and undertones of occult psychedelia, Verbia Daemonicus would still sound fresh if it came out tomorrow.

Track listing:
1. Bounded Artefact
2. Verbia Daemonicus
3. Starlight to Twilight
4. To the Bone
5. Endarkenment
6. Blooming Disaster
7. Tale of a Scorched Earth

I was meant to live under the sign of the dark star

Also listen to:

Altar of Peversion - From Dead Temples
 (Towards the Ast'ral Path) (2001)

Lorn -
Subconscious Metamorphosis (2013)

Medicine - Her Highness (1995)

Medicine's absurdly underrated third album. Heavenly, pop-leaning shoegaze. It's like, I get it, y'all, it's less abrasive than their first two records, and we're all supposed to pretend that that's inherently bad, but come on -- taken on its own terms, this album's great. Sure, it's super 90s, but I refuse to hold that against it.

Track listing:
1. All Good Things
2. Wash Me Out
3. Candy Candy
4. I Feel Nothing at All
5. A Fractured Smile
6. Farther Dub
7. Farther Down
8. Aarhus
9. Seen the Light Alone
10. Heads

I tell you lies
I sympathize
With your demon
When he turns you inside out

You'd also like:

Curve -
Open Day at the Hate Fest (2001)

Guitar -
Sunkissed (2002)

Cryfemal - Fuck You God!! (2000)

Spanish one-man raw black metal. Christ-obliterating, wrist-slitting madness.

Track listing:
1. Reddar Tenebris
2. Direccion la Muerte (Locura en la Alturas)
3. Interludio
4. He Escondido el Cadáver (Puñaladas Infinitas)
5. Forgotten Spells
6. Hate to the Cross (The Escape of Angels)

Darkness prevails

More like this:

Irae -
Terror 666 (2006)

Total Genocide -
Worship Humanicide (2006)

Delayer - Breath by Breath by Breathing (2002)

Related:
Horizon 222 - The Three of Swans
Ingleton Falls - Absconded (1994)
Reformed Factiom - Vota (2006)

Droning, drugged-out electronic abstractions courtesy of Andy Eardley. Compiles six recordings that were originally made for Horizon 222 and :zoviet*france, but never released in these forms (although you'll find a live version of "As You Let Go" on the above-linked The Three of Swans), plus a reality-bending, 36+ minute piece of manipulated chant-drone.

Track listing:
1. Leave the Streets
2. As You Let Go
3. Feel the Warmth
4. Process Purce
5. Accord
6. Daisy Gun Three
7. Urban Chant

The sun is warm and directly above you

If you like this, try:

Lotus Eaters -
Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)

Coil -
Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) (2002)

Ester Drang - Goldenwest (2001)

A forgotten gem of hazy, shoegaze- and emo-indebted Oklahoman post-rock. I've always gotten vaguely Christian vibes from this band, but as far as I'm aware, their lyrics are cryptic enough to elude specifically religious interpretations.

Track listing:
1. Goldenwest
2. Song for Jonathan
3. Is Nothing New
4. Repeating the Procedure
5. That's When He Turns Us Golden
6. Words That Cure, Part 1
7. Words That Cure, Part 2
8. How Good Is Good Enough?
9. Felicity, Darling

Everything you do
Becomes a part of you

You should also hear:

Aereogramme -
Sleep and Release (2003)

Piano Magic - The Troubled
Sleep of Piano Magic (2003)