Full Length Review: "H.P. Lovecraft’s I Notturni Di Yuggoth" (Cadabra Records) by Dave Wolff

Full Length: H.P. Lovecraft’s I Notturni Di Yuggoth

Label: Cadabra Records

Format: Vinyl

Release date: September 16, 2019

Just released by Cadabra Records is a collection of poems written by the legendary H.P. Lovecraft. As we know, Lovecraft is a classic American author in the tradition of Washington Ivring, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, having published his complete body of horror fiction and weird fiction by the age of forty-six. “The Rats in the Walls,” “The Call of Cthulhu,” “At the Mountains of Madness,” “The Shadow over Innsmouth” and “The Shadow Out of Time” were unlike anything written before his time, influential to contemporary authors but never quite equaled. Cadabra Records is taking the task of preserving his work for the millennial generation of horror fans with extreme care and planning. Millennials who may be familiar with Lovecraft’s fiction will discover he was as gifted at writing verse. The poems featured here were written in the late 1920s, and their imagery would be elaborated upon in “Madness” and “Innsmouth.” Lovecraft’s ability to bring eldritch creatures too horrible to imagine to life is more than convincingly reproduced by stage/screen actor Andrew Leman of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Composer Fabio Frizzi who contributed to the soundtracks of the horror classics “The Beyond” and “City of the Living Dead” and Quentin Tarantino’s grindhouse movie “Kill Bill” delivers acoustic compositions to accompany Leman, ensuring your attention is firmly, unbreakably held. “H.P. Lovecraft’s I Notturni Di Yuggoth” is an anthology you should listen to well past midnight with a single light on close by, as it will produce the same effect as reading a book of his poems in this setting. You might even find yourself looking over your shoulder every now and then, just to see if something is lurking in the dark behind you. Leman and Frizzi work together as if they’re painting a wall mural with every word recited and guitar note played, the acoustic guitars complement each verse creating a fitting mood for the gripping images read to the listener. Frizzi’s interpretations of Leman’s animated narration creates a monumental cinematic panorama inside your mind that’s infinitely better than virtual reality because you’re free to put your imagination to work and explore. The exclusive vinyl release comes with instrumental versions of each track, commissioned artwork by Jeremy Hush, liner notes by Frizzi, an essay by weird fiction scholar S.T. Joshi, a foldout insert and poster. -Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Andrew Leman: Spoken word

Fabio Frizzi: Acoustic guitars

Track list:

1. H.P. Lovecraft - The Book-Pursuit

2. H.P. Lovecraft - Star Winds

3. H.P. Lovecraft - A Memory

4. H.P. Lovecraft - Night-Gaunts

5. H.P. Lovecraft - Nyartathotep

6. H.P. Lovecraft - Azathoth

7. H.P. Lovecraft - St. Toads

8. H.P. Lovecraft - The Familiars

9. H.P. Lovecraft - The Book-Pursuit (instrumental)

10. H.P. Lovecraft - Star Winds (instrumental)

11. H.P. Lovecraft - A Memory (instrumental)

12. H.P. Lovecraft - Night-Gaunts (instrumental)

13. H.P. Lovecraft - Nyartathotep (instrumental)

14. H.P. Lovecraft - Azathoth (instrumental)

15. H.P. Lovecraft - St. Toads (instrumental)

16. H.P. Lovecraft - The Familiars (instrumental)

Audio Drama Review: EDGAR ALLAN POE’S THE BLACK CAT (Cadabra Records) by Dave Wolff

EDGAR ALLAN POE’S THE BLACK CAT

Read by Anthony D. P. Mann

Music by Fabio Frizzi

Art by Jeremy Hush

Cadabra Records

Release date: August 17, 2018 (Vinyl only)

Cadabra Records, the new, hopefully groundbreaking independent label, returns with yet another classic of horror literature, this time from Edgar Allan Poe. Planned for August release, The Black Cat pays as much homage to Lucio Fulci’s 1981 movie version of Poe’s tale, of which noted composer Fabio Frizzi was set to score the soundtrack, as it does to the story itself. It is also his latest collaboration with Cadabra Records, the first being a reading of Lovecraft’s The Picture In The House, reviewed at this blog in September of 2017. As noted in that review, you may know Frizzi for his work on other Fulci films like Zombi 2, City Of The Living Dead, The Beyond, Manhattan Baby and House Of Forbidden Secrets. Those are horror classics in their own right, and if you’re a fan of any of them you won’t doubt that Frizzi was made to score this reading. Having gotten his start as a member of the trio Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera from 1974 to 1979, he went on to score Fulci’s movies and mainstream productions like Kill Bill. He is reportedly excited to be involved in a new adaptation of The Black Cat as his plans to score Fulci’s film version fell through. As he was quoted, "The Black Cat is back. And with enthusiasm, the magical flow of creativity is again with me!”

Cadabra’s release of The Black Cat marks the return of regular reader Anthony D. P. Mann, a stage/screen actor who in recent years appeared in 2011’s Sherlock Holmes And The Shadow Watchers, 2012’s Terror Of Dracula, 2014’s Phantom Of The Opera and 2015’s A Christmas Carol. His reading experience comes from adapting Poe, Lovecraft, Charles Dickens and others. Jeremy Hush’s surreal art makes his visual interpretation of The Black Cat fitting, depicting the story’s demonic and insane themes with equal clarity. As an aside I recommend checking out his official website for several samples of his work, as well as finding as much information as possible about the others involved in this recording. The collaboration of these talents brought together is like a rare stellar conjunction, if you believe in such things, since their contributions complement one another distinctively. Hush’s cover artwork is but a taste of what waits within; Frizzi’s musical score accompanies Mann’s reading with a disturbing proficiency as the adaptation descends from innocence to derangement, making for a horrifying performance. Cadabra will be releasing The Black Cat in single album format and an exclusive double album with an isolated score. Both planned releases are pressed on 150-gram colored vinyl, printed on deluxe heavy weight tip-on gatefold jackets, and including liner notes by Frizzi and author Fabio Capuzzo (Goblin, Seven Notes In Red) and finally including a 24" x 36" poster. Preorders are available through Cadabra Records. -Dave Wolff

Track list:
1. Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat - Side A
2. Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat - Side B

Full Length Review: JEREMY VOID Irrelevant Discourse (Independent) by Dave Wolff

JEREMY VOID

Irrelevant Discourse

Independent

Place of origin: Rutland, Vermont, USA

Genre: Spoken word

Release date: April 13, 2017

Irrelevant Discourse spawned from the mind of a poet, artist and novelist who has written fifteen books in the course of his career. Irrelevant Discourse is his third collection of poems since 2016, the first two being Absurd Nihilism and Word Vomit. Void's thoughts, based on personal experiences in his life, are not for the faint hearted or sensitive minded. His is the voice of the agonized, the confused, the disordered, the desperate, the depressed, the disturbed, and the near-insane. His verses have been described as deviant and devastating. He is said to deliver them like a kamikaze pilot, with a certain brilliance you have to seek with an objective, observant effort. Understanding what he is trying to say to the listener may lead to discovering the reality of human existence, if you are not part of the world that hides the most lurid characteristics of human nature from itself. If you thought the diatribes of Lydia Lunch and Diamanda Galas were intense, you need to listen to the fierceness and vehemence of this anthology. Void recites with a stream of consciousness that is like an all-out assault on your self-awareness, and if you’re unprepared  your world view may not be the same as before you listened. If you read the poems he submitted to this zine you’ll have an idea what to expect. His work is all the more effective if you hear them as he envisioned them. These poems not only assault your mind, they assault your soul. Inner conflict and introspection become one and the same the more you experience Void's work as he uses repetition to drive his point home about love, fear, hate, life, death, alienation, addiction, meaningless sex, destitution, emptiness, regret, self-destruction and especially  judgmental, pseudo-intellectual selfishness masquerading as morality. There are no efforts to whitewash these concepts or lessen their impact. They are slammed into your head with inexorable force, unappeasable in their desire to consume you. It’s hard to choose any single poem as an example as all of them hit you with such force you’ll feel you’ve lived through these experiences firsthand. The only way to completely understand. -Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. Broken

2. I begin to notice

3. PANIC || a t t a c k

4. In a New City

5. The Crazy

6. A Thorn in My Mind

7. Let me dream if I want to

8. Collateral Damage

9. Come Be Androgynous with Me

10. L-U-V

11. Talking

12. That which shall not be named

13. Evacuate!

14. The Siren's Song

15. Don't go into the light!

16. Self-Destruct

17. Timeless Indecisions

18. United We Divide

19. Soundly I lie awake

20. When the Night Comes Alive

21. Collateral Damage, the alternate version (featuring Gregory Higgins)

Audio Drama Review: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Picture In The House (Cadabra Records) by Dave Wolff

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Picture In The House

Read by Andrew Leman

Score by Fabio Frizzi

Cadabra Records

To be released October 13, 2017

I have been meaning to read more of H.P. Lovecraft for some time, and after hearing about this release from Cadabra Records now would be a fitting time to start. Likewise I have been raving about this independent label for the contributions it has made to classic horror literature in recent years. My latest review on Cadabra Records’ behalf was for their adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles last July. Andrew Leman’s reading of The Picture In The House will fuel the interest I’ve taken in Lovecraft after The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Lovecraft wrote The Picture In The House on December 12 of 1920; its first publication was the July 1919 edition of The National Amateur, which came out in the summer of 1921. In my research I found the short story adapted at several Youtube channels including Free Ebooks, Ghastly Tales and Chilling Tales For Dark Nights. Some film versions of the piece were even made; one by Gary Lobstein Day 304 Productions was the official selection of the 2009 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Cadabra’s adaptation is particularly special since stage/screen/audio actor Andrew Leman is the founder of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society and was involved in film versions of Lovecraft’s writings: The Call Of Cthulhu, The Whsperer In Darkness and The Testimony Of Randolph Carter to name a few. Here he is joined by Fabio Frizzi, a renowned Italian composer who has written the soundtracks for the indie milestones Zombi 2, City Of The Living Dead, The Beyond, Manhattan Baby and most recently House Of Forbidden Secrets. This historical meeting of these two horror industry icons feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch, like a solar eclipse or the appearance of a comet. Leman and Frizzi collaborate on a reworking of a classic about cannibalism in an isolated New England backwood home that predates Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chainsaw Massacre by half a century. The tale depicts a trip through Lovecraft’s Miskatonic Valley in New England, seeking shelter from a coming storm the protagonist meets an old, ragged man speaking in a very old Yankee dialect. There he finds a rare book that was in the old man’s possession for many years, more than he would have expected to live. If you haven’t read this story, you should acquire this release to see what happens. My infatuation with cannibal fiction has remained through the years from when I watched the indie films of Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato to when I started reading Lovecraft and Shirley Jackson (The Summer People). As I’ve said the efforts of Cadabra Records are exemplary for fans of splatter flicks and extreme metal fans. The grim foretoken at the beginning (“The haunted wood and the desolate mountain are their shrines, and they linger around the sinister monoliths on uninhabited islands”) is given funereal ebullience on this release. It is available in a deluxe LP edition with art by Jeremy Hush, an eight page booklet, liner notes by S.T. Joshi, notes by Fabio Frizzi and much more. A limited “blood”-filled edition will also be made available from Cadabra. -Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. The Picture in the House read by Andrew Leman

2. The Score by Fabio Frizzi

Audio Drama Review: The Hound Of The Baskervilles (Cadabra Records) by Dave Wolff

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles

Cadabra Records

To be released August 11th 2017

Released for airplay July 18th 2017
Produced by Bleak December, Inc.

Cadabra Records, the independent spoken arts label that released Clark Ashton Smith’s The Muse Of Hyperborea, present a modern adaptation of a timeless supernatural mystery. Cadabra has previously released spoken word adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker and has since added Roland Topor and Robert W. Chambers to its catalogue. More than a narrative, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles is a thirty-five minute audio play featuring accomplished stage and screen actors. In its original form Baskervilles it is part of Doyle’s extensive Sherlock Holmes series, with elements of horror that chill readers to this day. It was serialized in an English fiction magazine called The Strand from August, 1901 to April, 1902. These elements should appeal to fans of extreme metal with occult and supernatural themes. Set in the nineteenth century English West Country moorland of Dartmoor, the original urban legend where many disappearances are said to have taken place, it involves an old mansion reputed to be haunted by its gruesome past, an unexplained death, escaped inmates from a mental asylum, mysterious lights and noises across the moorland and the underworld-spawned presence carrying out a blood curse that has held the Baskerville family for centuries. When surfing Youtube I’ve found radio dramas and audiobooks from the 1950s to the present. The dramas include Sci Fi Radio, Ray Bradbury 13, The Saint Vincent Price Radio Show and more recently BBC Radio. The audiobooks I found include adaptations from Stephen King, Clive Barker and many readings of Doyle’s novel. As with albums, the presentation and acting quality of each varies from adaptation to adaptation. As for this one, the most notable talent in this drama is legendary actor Sir Derek Jacobi as Sherlock Holmes, joined by Anthony D. P. Mann (who penned the liner notes for the Cadabra release) as Dr. John H. Watson, Ilke Hincer as Sir Henry Baskerville, Nikolas Yuen as Mortimer, Amie Bello as Mrs. Barrymore, Barry Yuen as Inspector Stapleton, Lisa Morrissey as The Hotel Attendant, James Hoergerl as The Boy and Richard Boyer as The Policeman. Mann’s narration as Dr. Watson, the actors’ portrayals of their respective characters, the music composed and performed by Brent Holland do their part to draw you into the story. Holmes, who does not believe in devils or ghouls, agrees to investigate the death that occurred at Dartmoor and is confronted with occurrences that challenge his perceptions of reason as he works to solve the mystery. The tone and soundtrack have been compared to the old Hammer Horror movies, and recapture that of the radio dramas I mention above. There are new projects Cadabra has planned for the unsuspecting listener; visit the label’s official site to read about them. -Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Part 1

2. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Part 2

Audio Drama Review: CLARK ASHTON SMITH The Muse Of Hyperborea by Dave Wolff

CLARK ASHTON SMITH

The Muse Of Hyperborea

Cadabra Records

Poems collected and read by S.T. Joshi

http://www.earsplitcompound.com

http://www.cadabrarecords.com

Experimentation was always the number one underground rule, and if you’ve stayed in touch with this industry to see how many doors can be opened since 1995 you’ve probably been rewarded with recordings memorable for daring to try something they discovered on their own. If you thought the roads you’ve encountered couldn’t continue, consider a new independent label dealing specifically with spoken readings of classic horror authors. The factor setting Cadabra Records apart is that it’s purportedly the first of its kind. Earsplit Compound is taking a chance advertising and promoting this label, having previously worked with recording artists since their inception as a public relations company (Earsplit has since expanded into a distro and indie label called Compound Records). Cadabra’s past releases since their gestation in 2015 include readings of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (read by Tony Todd of Candyman and the 1990 Night Of The Living Dead remake), all released on vinyl. Their latest full length features the poems of Clark Ashton Smith narrated by S.T. Joshi. Some background orientation if these names are unfamiliar: Clark Ashton Smith was an author of fantasy, horror and science fiction who lived from 1893 to 1961. His writings have appeared in such publication as Weird Tales, Strange Tales and Wonder Stories, and have been lauded as having approached the beauty in darkness and death since E.A. Poe. His use of language was revolutionary for its time, with a perception as far reaching as the cosmos and an acerbic sense of humor. Smith himself referred to his writing as a form of verbal black magic, constructed more as incantation than verse. S.T. Joshi is a literary critic and bibliographer who studies Lovecraft and has penned an extremely extensive collection of books on Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos and a variety of other subjects. Knowing this, it’s not a stretch to understand the reason Earsplit is promoting this release and the label making it available for perusal. Not only does it fit the tastes of its target audience but it can expand the horizons of the average fan of brutal and extreme music by treating them to worthwhile classic literature, hopefully making them want to learn more about both authors. Smith’s darkly imaginative imagery and Joshi’s hypnotic, spellbinding intonation make for an experience like you haven’t had before. Haunting music serves as a background to these incantations, though it’s not specified who composed it. All the same this is a bold move to expose metal and stoner rock fans to entertainment of its magnitude, and perhaps the beginning of something that will benefit the underground, taking it to even loftier plateaus of sophistication. The Muse Of Hyperborea is being released on a limited edition run of three hundred releases on red vinyl, so contact Earsplit or Cadabra for info.  -Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. The Muse Of Hyperborea, Side A

2. The Muse Of Hyperborea, Side B