Somehow while searching for Fennesz interviews and audios I stumbled upon Opal today when confounding them with Oval, the German electronic experimentalists. Opal were from sunny California and dissolved long ago. They were part of the paisley underground, the return to folky guitar tunes after the technology trip called new wave ran out of steam in the early/mid 80s. Paisley underground was also a kind of hippie music revisited. Often extremely psychedelic with guitar drones and spacy organs.

The nucleus of Opal were David Roback (guitar and organ) and Kendra Smith (bass and vocals). From Roback's point of view they were the band in between Rain Parade and Mazzy Star, from Smith's one the band after Dream Syndicate. Smith's voice which is not too dissimilar from Hope Sandoval's (Mazzy Star) is nevertheless a lot less sexy and less languid. She sounds more like a Nico transplanted from frosty Germany into the Mojave desert. Overall Opal were influenced a lot by Velvet Underground. Mostly by the third album and Loaded but also by White Noise/White Heat and the first.

In the following I have collected real audio links to the five Opal songs I found in the rich treasure trove of the WFMU radio archives. They are all excellent but my faves are the last two. Fell from the Sun is a gorgeous melancholic tuneful ballad which has some of the most mesmeriszing fuzzy guitar work on it I know. Siamese Trap bends more towards guitar noise, especially at the end. The repetitive organ "riff" gives it a slight Doors feel. The raw guitar sound has got something of Hendrix. At the end we arrive in deep improvisational droneland. I have been asking myself what song Grains of Sand reminds me of. It begins like a classic but never arrives to the climax. Now I know. It is Jim Morrison's The End.

• My Only Friend (Early Recordings)
• Grains of Sand (Early Recordings)
• Northern Line (Early Recordings)
• Fell from the Sun (Early Recordings)
• Siamese Trap (Happy Nightmare Baby)