Autumnal horror with Macabria and Oil of Dog 7" records now on sale!
Cadabra Records has just released two autumnal horror 7” records in the form of Joe Keinberger’s Macabria and Ambrose Bierce’s Oil of Dog! I was fortunate enough to score both of these vinyl releases.
Joe Keinberger did an amazing job reading his own fantastic and immensely festive Halloween inspired poetry for the Macabria 7”. He also created all of the wonderfully creepy art for the release along with writing the foreword.
For the soundtrack I played an assortment of synthesizers as well as piano, organ and hand percussion that weave in and out of the mix. Barry Knob produced all of the collaged sounds just right as always.
Anthony D.P. Mann continues his impressive run of reading the phenomenal work of Ambrose Bierce. Oil of Dog is a tremendously strange and darkly comic tale that Mann brings it to life with exacting modulation that greatly elevates this brutal tale.
I played banjo, nylon-string acoustic guitar and synthesizers as part of this soundtrack. Barry Knob once again beautifully produced and mixed the music and also added some incredible electronic bass along with additional keyboard parts.
There are 2 equally great pieces of art by Eric Adrian Lee and Matt Dougherty as part of The Oil of Dog release and they both go well with the proceedings.
Yet again, Cadabra mastermind Jonathan Dennison puts together singular releases that so clearly demonstrate what a one of a kind and special label Cadabra is!
More information about both releases below from Cadabra:
Ambrose Bierce's Oil of Dog 7" read by Anthony D. P. Mann & scored by Chris Bozzone
&
Joe Keinberger's Macabria 7" read by Joe Keinberger & scored by Chris Bozzone
Ambrose Bierce, Oil of Dog 7" Read by Anthony D. P. Mann, score by Chris Bozzone
* Limited pressing on transparent red 150 gram vinyl
* Housed in fold-over sleeve
* Newly commissioned art by Eric Adrian Lee & Matt Dougherty
About:
In the telling of the events in "Oil of Dog," writer Ambrose Bierce crafts a tale which is perfectly calculated to evoke in the listener a feeling of unease verging on disgust. The narrator's behavior is eye-popping in its abject criminality, and is only matched – and, truly, surpassed – by that of his parents.
As read by Anthony D.P. Mann, whose recitation of the events which led to the "so bad an end" of "these estimable persons is quite matter-of-fact, Bierce's tale will shock the listener. Mann's stentorian delivery has always felt as though his narrators are patrician madmen attempting to explain horrors beyond belief to a bewildered audience, but never more so than in "Oil of Dog." Maintaining a fine line between childlike innocence and the ravings of one committed to an asylum, Mann's diction never slips from its commitment to delivering every horrific detail.
Composer Chris Bozzone's score utilizes a spare, plucked banjo, taking the listener back in time a century and a half to the time in which Bierce wrote. A gentle acoustic guitar also makes an appearance as the events in "Oil of Dog" take their strong left turn into the bad end. The lush moodiness of the backing track which threads throughout the entirety of the story is electronic, but reminiscent of an orchestra's worth of strings. It's only more desolate when paired with the ever-intensifying banjo, which ends by trailing off, as if exhausted by the frantic nature of the tale's final moments
Joe Keinberger, Macabria 7" - Read by Joe Keinberger, score by Chris Bozzone
* Limited pressing on black 150 gram vinyl
* Hand screen printed sleeve
* Insert with foreword by Joe Keinberger
* Art by Joe Keinberger
About:
Thanks to author Joe Keinberger's reading of the selections contained within Macabria, listeners to this new 7-inch will feel as though the writer is sitting beside them, while composer Chris Bozzone takes up residence just a little ways away to create nerve-jangling sounds to increase their sense of fright.
"The King October" is a poem paying homage to the end of harvest and beginning of decay, while also a paean to the Halloween season. Solid bell-like tones ring sonorously behind Keinberger's echoing voice while a piano has its keys pushed with savage intensity. This piece sets the tone for the entirety of the collection, wherein the author's voice and words are paired with sounds more akin to musique concrete than a traditional score.
Within "Coven," the author has his voice reverberate, as though it's shaking the very Gates to Hell mentioned in its opening lines. The bells in this piece chime first in one ear, and then the other, back and forth throughout this tale of dead souls, as a church organ pierces the darkness, "swirling and glimmering" as the ghosts themselves do.
"The Town Without Spring," "A Witch's Curse," and "Year's End" are as one, as though the curse of the latter is what afflicts the town in the middle, where "nightmare screams pierced the October darkness," and the fiends taking flight at the end, awaiting Samhain coming once again.
A ringing handbell peals repeatedly in the far distance as Keinberger's recitation of what befell this now-cursed place, where "the dead walk the earth." As the final poem begins, the darkly ethereal, slightly decayed synthesizer is paired once again with a piano, but this time, its tones are gentle, as though welcoming the incoming new year.