Popbreak has a new interview, “The Arkhams on ‘The Art of Psychobilly, H.P. Lovecraft & The New York City Scene'”. Psychobilly? I guess… kind of like toe-tapping washboard-rasping Rockabilly gone really wild in the backwoods and apparently with “over-the-top horror lyrics”. The slant of the interview and link to the latest wordy single makes them appear a bit dour, but on some random listening to their back-catalogue I like it. It’s more pulp fun than dour lecture, and they certainly evoke that late 1950s feel very effectively. The Arkhams evidently have lyrics that are more more rooted in individualism, pulp humour (“Hell’s Where All the Good Records Are”) and everyday spookiness, than straight “horror lyrics”. The feel of the music also sometimes veers nicely toward Chuck Berry or the famous instrumental hit “Telstar”, also from that period.

The two albums

25% of their output is said to be instrumental. There’s talk of a forthcoming “third album called Thunder Over Arkham“.

In related news, sea-shanties are said to be the hot thing among hipsters during our futile and never-ending lockdown, here in the UK. I guess it’s the ‘castaway’ feeling and the beards. If that’s you, you may enjoy The Curious Sea Shanties of Innsmouth, Mass. album.

In the same vein, new this month on Kickstarter and already funded is Dunsany Dreaming: An Eldritch Folk Album…

“Dark, dreamy interpretations of author Lord Dunsany’s poetry, featuring original music and Nordic folk tunes.”

Rather more earthy sounds might be heard if one could rest a flint stylus on the pre-vinyl grooves of Phil Bell’s ‘Disc of Cad Goddeu’, an artefact fashioned from Rowan wood during the famous Battle of the Trees (allegedly) — and restored and displayed in January 2021 by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

The Norman Rockwell Museum is seeking entries for an outdoor art exhibition…

The Norman Rockwell Museum is seeking entries from artists working in all media for a juried outdoor exhibition of contemporary sculpture and installation art. The show, “Land of Enchantment: A Fantastical Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition,” opens 10th July 2021 in conjunction with the museum’s featured indoor exhibition, “Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Art”.

Richard Stanley’s successful H.P. Lovecraft movie adaptation of The Colour Out of Space is to be joined by two more. It was reported last week that a movie of “The Dunwich Horror” has been ‘greenlit’ for production, and thus the mooted trilogy is actually underway.

The third movie in the trilogy is not mentioned. What could it be? The $200m blockbuster possibilities can be discounted (“Mountains”, “Shadow”, “Cthulhu” etc). On a more medium-sized budget “The Shadow over Innsmouth” could just about be done and would have the most obvious box-office appeal. But it would still likely be outside the budget range, and also lacks some of the more trippy aspects of Lovecraft that obviously interest Stanley.

My guess is that it’ll be “The Dreams in the Witch House”. The latter would allow re-use of Miskatonic University sets from “The Dunwich Horror”, has the necessary psychedelic potential, and offers various ‘contemporary’ angles likely to please producers requiring ‘political relevance’.

Netflix is also said to have an Indiana Jones vs. Cthulhu TV-movie spoof scripted and in the works, Gordon Hemingway & The Realm of Cthulhu.

Update: almost as soon as it was greenlit, the movie series has now been abruptly cancelled. Ah well… such is the fickle movie business.

This week Miskatonic Debating Club published a new review of Stealing Cthulhu, from a tabletop gaming perspective…

If you’re interested in HPL’s writing technique, there’s a lot here to inform about his process. If you’re trying to write a computer game featuring the Mythos, then this is a solidly number-crunchy architectural overview for that project. And if you’re running or writing a roleplaying scenario, it’s a good foundation to work from, although – in terms of writing one – it’s incredibly simplified and you’ll need to finesse your stories in order to make them convincing. That being said, there’s a lot of good material here about improvisational technique, narrative engineering, refereeing tips, and the addition of colour which can be applied to any campaign, new or ongoing.

Back in 2011 I reviewed it here, but from a ‘tool for story-writing’ perspective.

Here’s a link to the original for the book’s cover, “Silent night” by Korintic.

Not to be confused with Dissecting Cthulhu by S.T. Joshi, which has the subtitle ‘Essays on the Cthulhu Mythos’.

Walls of R’lyeh: A Tribute to Howard Phillips Lovecraft. A multi-band compilation album from Gates of Hypnos, a Russian curator released via a Polish label, and dated December 2020.

Difficult to find out more, but described in passing by one sonic observer as in the ‘rasp ambient and noise’ sub-genre (who knew?). Here that serves to power soundscapes which evoke some of Lovecraft’s famous landscapes. There are samples to listen to, which on hearing are actually rather more approachable than the daunting sub-genre tag might suggest. Although the final track does evokes the Plateau of Leng via a constant wall of warbling static, seemingly without even any fleeting vocals.

In like ambient vein, and rather more listenable, is a recent ambient concept album by Air. They released a Music for Museum album a few years back as a limited-edition vinyl gatefold album, which is probably why I missed it. It’s somewhat similar in concept to Eno’s famous Music for Airports, but evoking wandering through a big museum. The four best tracks are on YouTube, where they effectively form an E.P. version…

Reverse Bubble.

The Dream of Yi.

Integration Desintegration.

Octogum.