H.P. Lovecraft "Electrollentando" MP3

A DoseNation blog has posted a nice blurb and MP3 sample of psychedelic band H.P. Lovecraft's song, "Electrollentando." H.P. Lovecraft, after taking their name from our favorite author, made significant headways on the psychedelic scene in the late 1960s. Though the song above is far removed from what comprises dark, ambient music today, it fairly reflects a mystical overtone. The musicians also rarely sought to capture a mood of cosmic horror in their songs, despite carrying HPL's name, though they did produce a few notable selections.

Songs like "The White Ship" accurately reflect themes from Lovecraft's story by the same name. They also occasionally threw Lovecraftian references into other songs, and even named an entire album "At the Mountains of Madness." Their most recent edition came in a 2005 re-released of their full discography, "The Dreams in the Witch House: The Complete Philips Recordings."

Generally, it's safe to say H.P. Lovecraft stood out in the world of surreal "acid" music, but failed to adequately incorporate the weird, fantastic elements of its namesake. Psychedelic groups like King Crimson, in the opinion of many, did a better job of this. Still, the sampling of "Electrollentando" above is worth listening to for the curious, and to hear a decent specimen of historical musical experimentation breaching the boundary between song and sound production.

-Grim Blogger