GOBLIN

• Profondo rosso
• Cinevox
• 1975
• Italy

Inspired by the last weekend’s Goblin gig in Helsinki, I just had to make this post. Although their heavy-prog’ish live sound, the music is really amusing with it’s weird synthesizer sounds and cinematic beats.

After several phases and bands in their early career, Claudio Simonetti and Massimo Morante formed the Goblin band in 1973. During the years they have profiled as one of the top class horror soundtrack scorers in the world. Goblin’s first release was a soundtrack in 1975 to a Dario Argento film called Profondo rosso. Or Deep red as the English title is.

A musician witnesses the murder of a famous psychic, and then teams up with a fiesty reporter to find the killer while evading attempts on their lives by the unseen killer bent on keeping a dark secret buried. (IMDB)

The music in Profondo rosso is clearly divided in two different types. There’s dramatic scoring just perfect for the suspense and horror of the movie. And then there’s jazzy and funky Italian style soundtrack tracks. “Mad puppet” with it’s weird and slightly kaotic start is a little stagnant suspence theme, but rather good one. “Wild session” starts with a long dramatic intro turning to a jazzy cinematic funk track with creeping synths and horns. The title track “Profondo rosso” also starts with some haunting synths and then turns into another cinematic funk meets dramatic soundscapes track. However, in my opinion the best track is the uptempo drum frenzy “Death dies”, although the album version is missing the percussions that appear on the movie version. Profondo rosso sold over million copies within a year and remained in the charts for 52 weeks in a row. So it’s not that hard to find. The single release from the album, “Profondo rosso” / “Death dies” hit #1 on the charts and remained there 16 weeks and that’s a record that is yet to be broken. Overall this is my favorite album from Goblin - along with another great Dario Argento soundtrack, Tenebre.

Profondo rosso

Mad puppet

Wild session

Death dies