The Otherworld with MHLee:
Playlist
from April 23, 2026
The Otherworld explores music that seeks to conjure images of distant lands and fantasy ambiance through dreamy dungeon-synth, acid folk, neo-folk, and more. Featuring work primarily from small projects, it's an ambiance to which you can drift off and imagine yourself in another land.
<-- Previous playlist |
Back to
The Otherworld with MHLee playlists |
April 23, 2026: The Otherworld: Episode 39
| Artist |
Track |
Album |
Year |
Comments |
Images |
New
|
|
Psychic Hood
|
The First Orakle
|
Codex of Sand
|
2026
|
From across the stars, transmissions of distant empires converge. This Friday, Landsraad and Psychic Hood unite with brand new hymns on “Codex of Sand.”
|
Side A
Written, recorded, mixed and mastered by the mentat O in accordance with inter-planetary law of the Landsraad, The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles and House Atreides
|
Side B
++ Hymns channeled from within the Immaterium, transcribed and woven by The Astropath. Purified and sanctified for mortal ears by Hoarfrost, who also supplied additional ordnance via forbidden archeo-tech (Polysix) on "Aba Aba Mushira."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blood Tower
|
Fidgeting Ghoul
|
Posture Magic Redux
|
2022
|
Wistful and forlorn dungeon synth from Nebraska with an adventurous spirit and emotive archaic atmosphere. To those following the dungeon synth scene closely, Lord Bill's Blood Tower project will need no introduction. While this solo dungeon synth project was started in 2016, his involvement with the genre goes further back to a keyboard-oriented lofi black metal project in the mid-00s.
|
In Autumn 2018, the 'Posture Magic' album was released on a tape run by his Moonworshipper Records label. Arguably the strongest manifestion yet of the multifaceted expressions of the Blood Tower project, and well-received at the time, but today somewhat faded in the collective memory. This expanded reissue edition collects the original on the A-side. The B-side holds the Blood Tower tracks on the 'Bestiaries of Uncommon Realms' split from the same period as well as three previously unreleased tracks.
|
|
|
|
The Northern Lighthouse Board
|
To Dance Upon Nothing
|
An Anthology
|
2023
|
A collection of NLB tracks 2019-2023
|
|
|
|
Current 93
|
Sky End
|
Sleep Has His House [Disc 3 - Harmonium Drones]
|
2006
|
|
|
|
|
Channel Marker
|
Death and the Lady
|
The Grey Funnel Line Ep
|
2025
|
|
|
|
|
Little Vodka
|
The Prisoner
|
LEFT/FOLK VIII: 'Neath Thy Bloody Star
|
2025
|
To our dearest friends and enemies,
|
We would like to start off by expressing our deepest gratitude to all who have participated in the construction of this great collection of work. Without your trust and collaboration, none of this would be possible. This Working is a testament to the totalizing power of creativity, perseverance, and cooperation. We consider this collection a work of collective magick and believe that you will too.
|
There is a noxious miasma festering beneath the mask of the World as It Is under the current administration. Often, we are faced with the idea that “it could happen here,” but one would have to be absolutely isolated from reality to not see that though the uniforms are not yet established, it is happening here and now. One could argue that it is still incubating, but we can practically see the beak crackling through the ever-thinning shell of the egg.
|
The State’s attacks on human decency and rights are only amplifying, just the other day the so-called “leader of the free world” signed an executive order that greatly expands the powers of the police state, further accelerating the centralization of power. This is on the heels of the erosion of trans rights, the blackmailing of educational institutions, and the mass deportations of immigrants to a concentration camp overseas. All is in motion. There is no turning back now.
|
For all of this, we beseech you to continue building connections with like-minded people and those who may not be where you are at but have the potential to get there. Establish affinity groups, cultivate a new popular front under the three-pointed Mourningstar of international resistance, set forth designs of action, engage in subterfuge. Learn to operate by cover of night, move in the shadows, hide amongst the leaves. Time is running out, have contingencies, surround yourself with people who will have your back and in lieu of having that already, build community with those that eventually will. There may come a time when the only person you can count on is a person you never even imagined breaking bread with, but necessity is the mother of invention after all.
|
Live as hard as you can live. Do not let the current moment snuff out your flame, it is one of the only things that you ever truly have, it is yours to cherish and cultivate and grow. With that flame, you can extinguish tyrants, you can light the pyres of liberty, you can illuminate life in the throes of hopelessness. Keep creating, for destruction goes hand in hand with creation, and there is no struggle in the world that does not ignite the light of creation.
|
Even if you are not a fighter, there are many ways to fight, there are many ways to help those that do. Find your niche, find your role, ask yourself what you are good at and what you can contribute. Never forget that ideas can be weapons, weapons so great that The State may seek to punish them. Know this truth, they are terrified of your thoughts, they are terrified of your knowledge.
|
Do this, but do not ignore the creeping shadows in your mind, they are your allies, they can protect you, they can arm you with courage, they can guide your hands and your eyes in the right direction. Sharpen your shadows, learn to conceal your truths in them, lie to your enemies and learn to strike when least expected.
|
With this in mind, we invite you to listen and absorb the new works. In this massive compilation you will find messages of great urgency, warnings, and desires. You will be treated with the sound of secrecy and obscurity, as well as the echoes of the past that will help us to build an alternate future. Take the messages here and let them guide your journey of self-actualization and resistance with great passion and fury, illuminated by the glow of the moon, ‘Neath Thy Bloody Star.
|
Stay feral.
-L/F161
|
Proceeds from this compilation will be donated to RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services). RAICES is a Texas-based non-governmental organization that promotes migrant justice by providing legal services, social services case management, and rights advocacy for immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking people and families. RAICES is highly ranked as a reputable organization by numerous charity watchdog groups across various platforms. RAICES is currently one of the most directly vocal and confrontational organizations pushing back against the current flurry of State-sanctioned hatred, violence, and discrimination against migrant communities in the United States.
|
|
|
|
Forêt Endormie
|
Lit de poussière
|
Une voile déchirée
|
2020
|
Musically, each piece is intended to evoke a sense of place, most of which ended up being environments that are hostile to humans (a forest on fire, the open sea, approaching storm clouds, arid fields...), metaphors for obstacles we find on our individual journeys. All words are sung in French and are centered around the process of shedding inner negativity and fighting against the compulsion to retreat as we age, hopefully being more open to life afterward.
-Jordan
|
|
|
|
Greet
|
John Barleycorn
|
Harmonium 1
|
2024
|
“Greet” is the new dark folk solo project from Matthew Broadley, the former drummer of Black Metal band Dawn Ray’d. Harmonium driven drones and textures combined with wonky melodies. 4 Odes to winter, nature, the drudgery of work and beer. A labour of love and fear, of hope and anxiety, of joy and hate. If you imagine Neil Young crossed with The Wicker Man then you’ll be some of the way there
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Soil Bleeds Black
|
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
|
"May the Blood of Many a Valiant Knight Be Avenged"
|
1998
|
|
|
|
|
Fogweaver
|
And the Sound of the Breaking Sea
|
Spellwind
|
2020
|
Inspired mostly by the third Earthsea book, The Farthest Shore.
|
"You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose... That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself? Would you give up the craft of your hands, and the passion of your heart, and the light of sunrise and sunset, to buy safety for yourself—safety forever?"
|
|
|
|
Fjældmark
|
Samodswegend
|
Dúneweard
|
2021
|
|
|
|
|
Wandesborow
|
Lady of The Fountain
|
Wandesborow
|
2024
|
|
|
|
|
Geldurum
|
Hall of Kings
|
Medieval Campfire Tales
|
2020
|
Gather around and have a moment of peace.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Siliniez
|
Centaurs' Dance
|
Altar of Moss
|
2012
|
|
|
|
|
Duergar
|
Fey Wanderer
|
|
2021
|
The latest EP in Duergar's efforts to bring some spice to your TTRPG table. Pan delivers a series of tracks inspired by the Lord of the Wilds himself, usable for everything from intense combat music, downtempo somber scenes, and even forest soundscapes.
|
|
|
|
Lye The Imprisoned
|
The Well At The End Of The World
|
The Tales of The Frog King
|
2021
|
|
|
|
|
Lone Adventurer
|
A Broken Spell Fizzles in the Night Sky
|
The Eternal Quest
|
2020
|
Dedicated to the stories that give us hope even in the darkest of times.
|
|
|
|
Deliverer
|
Reunion
|
Smother
|
2018
|
You knew even then that this palace was not your home. It was the way they spoke of your origin, finding you among the reeds, or on the river, like some story out of their divine book; it meant that your raising was to be an offering to their god. To think of all those years you, not knowing any better, went gladly along, eager to please. But what did it mean when they, all of them, looked at you like an object? You were, after all, presented and not introduced. Even servant children felt some kind of power over you, though neither you nor they could properly grasp what that was. Every night for the last year, you cut one strip from your bedclothes and braided it into a rope. It started out no more than a cubit long, but you would keep adding to it; someday you were going to use that rope to climb down the walls and get away.
|
And then one day you rode with some forgettable man whose resting posture, even in the cramped palanquin, oozed an unearned confidence. As you rode, your route took you across the plain, where some miles away blood had been spilled, and a village burned. A small clan of heathens living in the most desolate part of the plain to avoid contact with the empire, you would later learn. A great wind blew, carrying the smell of vengeful blood with it and to your nostrils. The forgettable man fought back his sick. Your eyes flared. A knowledge had entered your heart - or perhaps awakened from a deep slumber there. The fear of the people so recently slaughtered, but also their knowledge, their experience. Their bloodlust in battle when it was needed. Their rituals of deep earth and of deeper sky. You and the man exchanged a look. You would never see him again.
|
You return to the palace late, and are to bed without bathing, catching the eye of more than one attendant. Lying in the dark, you can see - and more importantly, feel - the workings of the survivors from this village. They had nothing left to lose. They planned to attack, and tonight. You intended to help them.
|
And later, the two attendants who are required to sit upright all night, finally slouched into their seated sleep. They will survive the night. You've snuck around the palace while everyone else slept before - you know when they all sneak off for sleep, for trysts, for sustenance. You cut your final piece from a sheet, and silently remove the rope from its hiding place between the layers of the curtains. It's gotten long in just a year, but you tied the final strip to the end just the same, completing the ritual you created out of need. You went on, then, to the guard tower, encountering no one, as you knew you would, and let the rope down. Instead of climbing down and off into the night, you waited. Not long after, a figure on the edge of your vision, then another, then a dozen more. Men and women, their bodies painted in blood and ash. You shake the rope, and plant your feet - and from your mouth comes a shriek like you've never heard in the bounds of the empire. It is a matter of instinct for your throat, and your lungs, and the cry is returned, en masse, as they begin to climb the rope.
|
|
|
|
Dabu & Simon Swerwer
|
Forgotten Beast
|
Dwarf Fortress (Official Steam Soundtrack)
|
2022
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
High Mage
|
III - Washed Away
|
Arachnophilia
|
2021
|
WORSHIP THE SPIDER
|
|
|
|
Halm
|
Water from Ancient Stone I. Across the Stream, Through the Firs, Towards the Sunlit Crag
|
The Fall of Weirdblade
|
2021
|
The new album in the Halm Saga.
96 minutes of fantasy synth. Please take your time and enjoy the ride.
It is a time of strife, dread and discovery
|
Beasts emerge from the deep forests, come down from the mountains and up from abyssal depths. Villages and hamlets disappear. Towns are destroyed. Wild sorcery floods the land and elder spirits awaken from realms of slumber.
|
Adventurers hunt after tales of fortune that lead them into the wilderness of the realm. Wayfarers seek out new passages and paths for trade and in the depths a cult is planing its rise.
|
The Empire of Ost and Westmark is at the brink of destruction. A cataclysmic civil war has ravaged the land and its peoples. The pariah champion Weirdblade rallies his chosen warriors at the city of Bronzehafen to defend its inhabitants from Ostwindbunds host. It is his home.
After 3 months they fall to a kill team comprised of the knightly houses best. They fall at Bronzehafens inner Gate of Time.
|
THE FALL OF WEIRDBLADE is dedicated to the Defiant One, who is my Father, the Conqueror, who is the Spirit, the Sword, that is my Hand and Fire Eternal, who is my Love and Shield.
|
|
|
|
Trollhunt
|
The Pipper & the Juggler
|
Anthems to the Fiendish
|
2025
|
|
|
|
|
Defenestración
|
En el borde, la sangre
|
Demo 2026
|
2026
|
Insiste en permanecer, |
la señal del injusto |
su silencio ensordecedor, sin eje |
caerá
|
|
*
|
|
|
|
The Shakespearean Frog
|
Love looks not with the eyes
|
Handkerchief Soap
|
2020
|
Beautiful melodies performed by The Shakespearean Frog.
|
|
|
