To Lewis Carroll and H​.​P. Lovecraft

Arkadiy Tropinkin is an underground artist from Volgograd. Perhaps he can be classified as an painter of outsider art / art brut (French for "raw art" or "rough art"), because his primitive pictures are very similar to the creations of children and psychiatric hospital patients. Arkadiy is involved in the underground scene too. Some of his projects are defined as black metal ones, although it is not typical black metal.

It would be better if this project has a name more proper to the genre, because the only track on this release presents Arkadiy Tropinkin as quite a fullfledged project. Sadly it doesn't have a "true" name. As the artist explained to me, the song "To Lewis Carroll and H. P. Lovecraft" was recorded somewhere in 2006-2008, "for some art 'zine, but it was issued without the [audio] supplement or was not issued at all, so this stuff was released at later date accidentally," the name "didn't cross my mind." Well, the Russian underground is doing very well, if such a project can be "accidentally" released on an one-sided 7-inch colored vinyl single (and it is not "lathe cut").

The recording is raw and dirty, but not so bad. I've faced worse. The music of the project can be described as "an Abruptum-like havoc", but everything is more harmonious here. And without self-flagellation. There is much less chaos on this recording.

The whole composition is based on one riff repeating throughout, if you can call it a riff. First there is a rhythmic melody, then comes the turn of the "noise" part, although it also has a distinct melody. Then this alternation is repeated.

In the "noise" part Arkadiy reads (in Russian) the famous dialogue between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Chapter VI "Pig and Pepper"): "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." You must know that this passage should probably be read more artistically. There are no emotions here. This is a significant drawback. And words are difficult to understand sometimes. I even had a suspicion that the voice was laid down on the track in the most primitive way on a PC. Not very impressive, to be sure.

The next part of the song (the same rhythmic pattern dominates here, and it is supported by the drums) includes the usual black metal screaming. Anguished cries arise. And the words are impossible to understand this time. Maybe this "voice part" contains a quote from Lovecraft. Although it is unlikely. Anyway, if the duration of this song was about 20 minutes, it would be possible to make the soundtrack to "At the Mountains of Madness". Seriously. By and large, this song is from the category "did not expect". Impressive stuff. Too bad it is short.

There is another quote by Carroll in the final ("Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat") — and then the song ends abruptly. A true act of perfidy!

I guess the cover shows the Cheshire Cat cat and Alice, except the girl has very mature tits. Perhaps this is a broad hint of a version (or rumors) that Lewis Carroll was a hidden pedophile. But then again, Howard Phillips Lovecraft or his influence can not be found on the cover. Something like "Well! I’ve often seen Lovecraft without a cover, but a cover without Lovecraft"...