By Brian M. Sammons
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Live at the Gilman House: Ogham Waite and the Amphibian Jazz Band. H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, 2011.
The members of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society are cultists of the highest degree and they are the ones that will receive the greatest honour: being eaten first when Cthulhu finally rises from R’lyeh. They have shown their love for Lovecraft proudly over the years and carried the Cthulhu Mythos flag farther than almost anyone else. In addition to being Cthulhu LARPing maniacs, they have made first-class props for the Call of Cthulhu game, created ringtones for your mobile phone, designed T-shirts, crafted a variety of random collectibles, produced radio plays – hell, they’ve even made movies – and that is just the tip of the Titanic sinker. If you can think of it, chances are these guys and gals have made it with some sort of connection to HPL. Well, now you can add music to that impressive and ever-growing list with this collection of jazzy tunes to sooth the sleeping Deep One inside all of us. So, does this latest offering from the HPLHS continue to please the Great Old Ones, or is it a blunder that will demand a whole bunch of virgin sacrifices to appease the angry, eldritch horrors? Well, let’s find out.
Live at the Gilman House is eight humourous jazz songs as sung by a Deep One hybrid for an audience of fine fish folk. If that sounds like a fun time, then you would be right. It’s all performed with a wink, a smile, and a nod for the funny. There are eight tunes on this album, many with melodies that will be familiar, but twisted with a Deep One spin on things. Some of those “Hey, I know that one” moments I got, while others remained tantalizing and torturously on the tip of my tongue. I won’t ruin the fun for you figuring this out for yourself while you listen to this album, by naming the influences behind the songs I picked up on, but I will say that they’re there. So, keep that in mind while listening.
As for the actual music, it is appropriately jazzy and the band never misses a note. I would have thought webbed fingers would have impeded piano playing, but that’s certainly not the case here. As for the velvet croaking of the crooner, Ogham, he’s what you would get if you crossed a lounge singer with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Whether he’s slurping his way through “My Slimy Cephalopod”, gulping down air (and I can all but imagine cigarettes and booze) in between “When you’ve Got the True Marsh Eyes” and “We’ll Be Stalking You”, or just chatting with the crowd (Keep an ear out for a shoutout to Robert Olmstead), this CD will deliver plenty of grins to Lovecraft fans.
Live at the Gilman House is designed for easy listening and grooving to. It lets Lovecraft fans play “spot the injoke”, and is suitable for background music to your Call of Cthulhu RPG, if you roll (ha, get it?) that way. In that last regard, the HPLHS, always good at giving a little more bang for your buck, have included a cocktail napkin and a matchbook (complete with a scribbled note about Zadok Allen on the inside cover) from the Gilman House Lounge, which is perfect for Call of Cthulhu Keepers looking to plant clues to send their players out Innsmouth way. Ogham Waite and his assembled amphibians provide smooth jazz music with a lipless, fishy smile and I, for one, could not be happier.
You can buy Live at the Gilman House directly from the HPLHS website.