Rejected 33 1/3 proposal for Rudimentary Peni's "Cacophony" by Nathan Carson

“That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die.” So stated American horror author H.P. Lovecraft in his seminal tale “The Call of Cthulhu”. These hoary words have been repeated in literature, on film, and across countless coffee mugs and bumper stickers. But their resonance in the world of extreme music has been perhaps more profound, appearing (with only slight alteration) as lyrics on Metallica’s Master of Puppets and as titular inspiration for Entombed’s Strange Aeons. Of the literally hundreds of Lovecraft-inspired albums, none has reflected his nightmarish mythos so thoroughly as Rudimentary Peni’s Cacophony. This mysterious record has yet to be explored with any depth in print. Therefore I propose a book that will study the fascination of one group of outsider artists with another. Biography and fiction becomes music and visual album art becomes non-fiction study—with some fictional framing and trappings woven in for good measure and pure entertainment value.

Lovecraft and Peni both share humble origins. Luckily, good art has a way of making its worth known over time; the works of both author and band have slowly funneled outward towards inevitable notoriety. In the last twenty years, all manner of experimental listeners, metal and punk fans, noise aficionados, art lovers, and Lovecraftophiles have discovered Cacophony’s multi-layered splendor. Likewise, since his death in 1937, H.P. Lovecraft has become a household name and institution. His reprints now crowd store shelves at chains like Barnes & Noble, and celebrated filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, The Hobbit) has declared that his ultimate goal as a director is to bring Lovecraft’s novel At the Mountains of Madness to the big screen.

As for the band, even after twenty-eight years as an entity, Rudimentary Peni remains highly enigmatic, but continues to produce and sell. In that time span, there have been no more than a handful of concerts, interviews, or publicity photos issued, further contribution to a unique and mysterious legacy. Beyond any expectation, Peni has outlasted other UK punk bands from its original scene and era. Though new recordings are issued every few years, not once has the musical style on Cacophony been referenced by the band. Instead, the group seems to have assumed that Cacophony was an eccentric diversion. Subsequent material has been comparatively mundane. The legacy of Cacophony, it seems, has been lost on its elusive creators.

Lovecraft’s myths were (and remain) inspiration for countless other authors, and I have studied all of those in his immediate circle (Smith, Howard, Bloch, Bradbury, etc), as well as his many cited influences (Poe, Chambers, Bierce, Dunsany, Blackwood, et al). It is likely that there are Lovecraft students that could make similar distinctions, but how many in the world could possibly be equally attentive to the musical importance of this album and the art-punk context in which it must be considered? This is the crux of my argument for dissecting the beauty and utter strangeness of Cacophony.

The book will follow the album sequence, studying each of the thirty tracks one by one. Simply listing the titles of the thirty album tracks on Cacophony could quickly blow my word limit, but a sampling includes the squall of interwoven guitars and mumbled vocal layers that introduces the album as a literal cacophony on initial track “Nightgaunts”. A nightgaunt is a particularly nasty winged beast drawn from Lovecraft’s dream cycle of stories (his other more famous fiction cycle being known as the “Cthulhu Mythos”). Lovecraft often had hideous dreams of these nightgaunts digging their hooked hands into his stomach and bowels, flying him over great abysses, and dropping him from unfathomable heights. Also illustrating the parallel of the album with Lovecraft is “The Horrors in the Museum” (a name drawn from one of Lovecraft’s many ghostwriting projects for other authors). Lovecraft’s collaboration with Harry Houdini produced their infamous tale “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” which provides the introductory lyric for track 8, “Sarcophagus.” Built on a dreary guitar arpeggio that supports a spoken word narrative punctuated by hissing snakelike vocal sibilance, this piece is exactly one minute and three seconds long, and bleeds immediately into one of the album’s most chipper, musically accessible, and sarcastic pieces, “Lovecraft Baby”.

Book-ending this study will be short introductions to historical, biographical, and aesthetic data on both Lovecraft and Rudimentary Peni (handled separately at first, in combination in the main body). An epilogue will provide a summation of the similarities between the two career arcs. A wealth of notes and citations will further explain specific references. As songs on the album delve into quotations from stories, correspondence, biographical information, and the work of other related authors, there will be no shortage of Lovecraftian study. The remainder of the text will be filled in with discussion of the musical and sonic qualities of the recordings themselves, as well as relevant anecdotes from key interview subjects.

Contacts at Southern Records, the label which continues to release and distribute Rudimentary Peni recordings, should provide support, as a book on Peni can only generate more interest in sales of the band’s catalog. Nick Blinko’s art dealer is another resource I plan to pursue while writing this book. Upon acceptance of this proposal, I will book a flight to the UK and interview the band in person, if feasible. Barring their participation, my fallback plan is to mirror the semi-autobiographical novel The Primal Screamer by Rudimentary Peni singer Nick Blinko; a combination of fabrication in the style of Lovecraft and using details garnered from source material and other experts—it’s an approach that would seem to implicitly have the artist’s blessing already. As Cacophony is the Peni album that was very much Nick Blinko’s pet project, I’ll concentrate first and foremost on speaking with him.

Blinko can easily be seen as the Syd Barrett of punk; constantly being checked in and out of psychiatric institutions, and reportedly going on and off different medications. But in the twenty-first century, he’s experienced a strange renaissance, becoming highly praised in Outsider Art circles and textbooks. His drawings and paintings are celebrated in international exhibits. Bassist Grant Matthews will likely act as a counter-point, since he’s gone on record to cite Cacophony as an artistic misstep in the band’s catalog. It’s a sentiment that recalls Beach Boy Mike Love’s take on Pet Sounds. Rudimentary Peni ceased live performance early in its career due to Matthews’ cancer diagnosis. Thankfully, his illness went into remission, but not before rumors of his death became an oft-repeated piece of Peni-related misinformation. Of course, drummer John Greville’s opinions will be considered as well.

Though the album’s producer John Loder sadly passed in 2005, it’s likely there was another engineer on the recording who can provide session details, notes, and anecdotes. Loder also founded Southern Records in order to release albums by bands like Peni. A thorough vetting of Southern personnel will be pursued. Loder worked on all of Peni’s major releases, beginning with debut album Death Church. His contributions to this story cannot be underestimated. Even so, the man is perhaps even more acclaimed for his production of The Jesus & Mary Chain’s Psychocandy. Loder was also Steve Albini’s go-to guy for mastering when Shellac began. That professional compliment should speak for itself.

RP initially came to be known to the punk community through a beneficial relationship with the acerbic activist ’77 punk band Crass, so I’ll seek interviews with key members of that collective as well. Peni released two furious, politically charged EPs in 1981 that were traded heavily. The first caught the attention of Crass. The second was produced (for better or worse) by Crass drummer Penny Rimbaud and issued on the homegrown label Crass Records. Crass has had an inestimable impact on anarchist culture. Any inclusion of Rimbaud’s insight and recollections will be valuable.

Also on my list of potential interview subjects is S.T. Joshi, the world authority on Lovecraft’s writings. Known for all the current annotated editions of HPL, Joshi has commented on the Cacophony album, though never in the detail I intend, nor with the musical empathy that I feel for the material. Of the thirty tracks on this album, I am familiar with the origin of most of the obscure references in the lyrics and sounds. What stones have not yet been overturned will be a pleasure to discover.

Cacophony is like no other album. It is a remarkable document, featuring an avalanche of creative ideas and huge crystalline production. It has been called The Wall of punk, but this hints only at its dark grandeur, and says nothing of its specific musical aesthetic or literary influence. Better musical and structural analogs would be Captain Beefheart’s Troutmask Replica and Brian Wilson’s Smile. Similar to both those examples, Cacophony is a work that continues to find its audience and respect as time goes by. The beauty, complexity, and utter strangeness of the material beg for an autopsy.

Rudimentary Peni, a British art-punk band inspired profoundly by an American Anglophile author, reveals an artistic echo that can be captured and preserved. Peni revered Lovecraft for his un-commercial vision and cult appeal. RP has followed suit by creating its own legacy. Lovecraft’s legacy has been documented, studied, and annotated. Rudimentary Peni’s has not. Yet.