Dark Adventure Radio Theatre - H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness
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Category: Music CD
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CD Details
Artist: Dark Adventure Radio TheatreEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Digital Sound, Special Edition
Running Time: 74 unknown-units
Published: 2006
CD Release Date: 2008-11-18
Music Label: Microcinema
Soundtracks:
- Opening
- Worldwide Wireless News
- Lake's Camp
- The Elder City
- The Abyss
- Closing
Music reviews of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness
Music Review: A Genuine Mythophone Recording!
Rating: 4 Stars
Lovecraft's unique style of cosmic horror is particularly suited to audio drama. Film and television are visual media that rely on flashing an image in front of you, while Lovecraft always believed that what he didn't show would be much scarier than anything he could describe. Such a natural combination has been done several times, from the 1945 version of "The Dunwich Horror" for the radio program "Suspense" to the phenomenal versions made in the 1960s by the California-based radio show "The Black Mass." More recently Atlanta Radio Theater Company recorded a 30-minute adaptation of "At the Mountains of Madness" live at the 1992 World Horror Convention and done in the style of the Golden Age of Radio.
Dark Adventure Radio Theater carries on and updates this tradition with gusto. A branch of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, taking Lovecraft to radio is a natural next step for the group that also produced the beautiful silent film The Call of Cthulhu. Both the film and radio series are from the same innovative concept; What if Lovecraft's works had been adapted in the era in which they were originally written?
"At the Mountains of Madness" is the first outing from "Dark Adventure Radio Theater." From the get-go, you can tell that this adaptation is quite different from the Atlanta Radio Theater Company version. Because they recorded in a studio instead of live, they are able to do more with sound effects and audio tricks. Also, instead of doing only the main story, Dark Adventures Radio Theater recreates elements of OTR like advertisements and radio news serials. These clever details deliver a full package of one of Lovecraft's most famous stories of an adventure to Antarctica and the uncovering of an ancient civilization that appeared before the dawn of man.
As the first offering from Dark Adventure Radio Theater, "At the Mountains of Madness" is not without its flaws. Instead of diving right into the story, the first twenty minutes are taken up with scratchy clips from "World Wide Wireless News" covering earlier accounts of the Dyer expedition. I liked the effect and authentic sound of these clips, but they could be somewhat hard to hear and there was too much exposition before the main story. After the twenty-minute mark, however, when Professor Dyer begins to give his personal account the story begins to envelope the listener.
The voice acting is well-done, and noticeably improves as the story goes along. Too often actors adopt some sort of corny "over the top" style when imitating OTR, which is entirely unsuitable an unauthentic. There is some of this in "At the Mountains of Madness," especially at the start of the story. Give a listen to old radio series like "Suspense" and "Inner Sanctum" and you will find voices as subtle and commanding as any modern film. The natural style of modern radio giants like the ZBS Foundation, such as in their adaptation of Karl Edward Wagner's Sticks, shows just how effective weird fiction can be when done in naturaly acted audio drama.
Props must be given to the amazing supplemental materials that come with this CD. The CD case pull-out has a publication history of "At the Mountains of Madness," and there are incredibly realistic re-creations of a torn out newspaper article from the Arkham Advert about the expedition, a page from Dyers' sketchbook showing the murals and bodies of the Elder Things, as well as two old-style photographs of the walled city. I have spent several months leading a group through Chaosium's Beyond the Mountains of Madness with the Antarctic Expedition Pack, and the supplemental materials that came with that game were amateur-hour compared with what comes with this CD. A lot of love and passion went into creating this release, and it shows.
For a first effort, "At the Mountains of Madness" is a triple-play if not a grand slam. I have listened to the 4 Disc Boxed Set (More to come? I hope!) and I know that Dark Adventure Radio Theater learns with every recording, with H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time being absolutely phenomenal.
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Description of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of Madness brings Lovecraft's tale to life as it might have been adapted for radio during his lifetime. In the style of The War of the Worlds and The Shadow, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre dramatizes HPL's story with a cast of professional actors, exciting sound effects and original music by Troy Sterling Nies (composer for The Call of Cthulhu). Relive the excitement of 1930s radio with one of HP Lovecraft's most exciting and fascinating stories: At the Mountains of Madness. A 1930s geologic expedition ventures into the unknown wastes of Antarctica. There part of the expedition suffers a horrendous fate. The survivors set out to discover what happened and find a vast city buried in the ice which pre-dates mankind. As they explore the fantastical ruins the scholars discover that the city's terrifying builder's may still be there.Miscellaneous CDs
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