Goblin
DRG
Lineup:
Massimo Morante – guitars, bass, mandolin
Claudio Simonetti – electric keyboards, synthesizers, organ, violin
Fabio Pignatelli – bass, acoustic guitar
Agostino Marrangolo – percussion, piano
Remember those great old horror and suspense movies like Dawn of the
Dead, Deep Red, Susperia, and so many others? Most likely you have heard of
maybe one or two of those, and most likely you never cared about who did the
musical score for the movie, but now you’re dealing with a huge dork. While I’m
not a huge horror geek or anything, and while I do enjoy a good suspense movie,
I’ll take a comedy any day, but I do have to say, those movies mentioned above,
and a lot of movies that are listed in the track listing have some of the best
musical scores to them. They’re so good that I actually went out and bought a
CD full of songs from their scores, and that is what’s being reviewed right
here. Goblin’s basically an electronic synth type of band from Italy that made
themselves known by doing scores like these, and they still have a following,
although they don’t work nearly as much as they once did, but they have done
some good recent work, such as the score of “Shaun of the Dead”, which was also
a pretty funny movie. Their sound is very distinct, as it comes off as very
clean, but very suspenseful. Most of their work was on films that the legendary
Dario Argento had his hand in, like Susperia, Dawn of the Dead (George Romero
film that was presented by Argento), and Deep Red (wait, didn’t I just mention
those three?). Anyway, this is just what I expected from them, if not better.
The sound you get is very dark and at times just plain disturbing, for
instance, “Susperia”, the main theme is nothing short of evil, and it gets
really awesome when you get all the crazy electronics in there, giving a
complete mindfuck. There’s other songs that don’t sound quite as evil, like the
opening track, the main theme in “Profondo Rosso” (aka Deep Red), which is a
little bit dark, but nothing quite as crazy as “Susperia”. “Phenomena” is
another great dark track featuring some opera vocals in there as well (hey,
Opera, another great Argento movie!), and I’ve always been a sucker for
“Tenebre” (both the movie and the song). All in all you get some really cool
movie scores here with a lot of ambience and just some killer electronic
effects that, for the time, were very cutting edge. Goblin really were as good
at scores as almost anyone out there (Ennio Morricone still stands alone
though, but with a completely different style).
The sound quality on this, of course, is perfect.
Goblin made their name with their great movie scores for so many
great movies, mostly suspense movies. Their cutting edge electronic style
really separated them from the rest of their peers in the movie score industry
(if it really exists completely), and their stuff is actually fun to listen to
even without the movies. Out of 100 I give this a 90.
Track listing
Profondo Rosso
1.
Profondo Rosso (Main Title)
2.
Death Dies – M 32 (original film version)
3.
Profondo Rosso – M 15
4.
Profondo Rosso – M31
Wampyr
5.
Wampyr (finale)
Chi?
6.
Chi? – Part 1
7.
Chi? Part 2
Patrick
8.
Patrick – M 32 bis
9.
Patrick – M 1
10. Patrick – M 34/34 Bis/35
Suspiria
11. Suspiria (main title)
La Via Della Droga
12. La via Della Droga – M 1 IV
13. La via Della Droga – M 2
14. La via Della Droga – M 6
15. La via Della Droga – 31
Zombi
16. L’Alba dei Morti Viventi
Buio Omega
17. Buio Omega – M6
18. Buio Omega – M25
19. Buio Omega (main title)
St. Helen
20. St. Helen (Love Theme)
Contamination
21. Contamination – M 3
22. Contamination – M 8
Tenebre
23. Tenebre (Main Title)
Notturno
24. Bass theme
Phenomena
25. Phenomena – M 12
26. Phenomena – M 15
La Chiesa
27. La Chiesa
