Goblin: Kings of Euro-Horror

Jon Gibson, Frankie Knuckles record collection, Harry Smith B-Sides, Japan's record culture hits hard times

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You might not think you know the music of progressive Italian band Goblin, but if you've seen horror films such as Profondo Rosso, Suspiria, and George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, then you have heard some of their music. The group took the unconventional road to success of becoming known for their work on such films, giving them steady work and a following among serious fans of horror cinema. Originally they were known as Cherry Five, and in 1975 they cut an eponymous record featuring prog rock in the vein of early (The Yes Album, Time and a Word) Yes with strains of The Moody Blues and some jazz fusion influence as well. The opening track, "Country Graveyard," sums up their sound pretty well.

Check out this YouTube playlist of great Goblin tracks!!

The record was released on Italy's Cinevox label, home of Italian cinema's soundtrack music, and though few were interested in it as a rock album, director Dario Argento found them interesting enough to hire to work on the soundtrack to his film Profondo Rosso. The band created a rock-driven sound replete with organ and synthesizer sequencing that was starting to be heard on records like Tangerine Dream's Phaedra and Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene. Such sound has become somewhat cliched on horror film soundtracks, but the group also provided some incidental music tempered by modern jazz and not far off from some of the sounds generated by New York's No Wave and punk jazz musicians. 

(Goblin/Suspiria)

Next, the group was asked to do a soundtrack for Argento's stunning film Suspiria. The main theme goes from a music box theme (the film is about an American dancer who discovers that the prestigious German dance school she is attending is a front for a supernatural conspiracy) to a driving guitar theme (and I hear some mandolin in there) that fades into a burbling synthesizer. Again, there are elements of the soundtrack music of Tangerine Dream (who composed the soundtrack to William Friedkin's Sorcerer the same year). But that's nothing like the tribal pounding that underlies the track "Witch" or the  acoustic guitar and layered vocal drones of "Sighs." Ultimately Goblin's Suspiria soundtrack holds its own as a sonically fascinating album that is really not like anything else heard on a horror soundtrack before or since. In a 2019 piece for Red Bull Music Academy, director John Carpenter talked about soundtracks that influenced him, and he had this to say about Goblin's Suspiria:

"I will say there was a moment when I heard a score from another movie that I thought, oh, I wish I had done that. I still wish I had done it. That's Claudio Simonetti and Goblin. The Suspiria score was, 'oh my God, what is that?' It has the Indian sitar sound in it. Absolute genius. He and I became friends."

So impressive was Goblin's Suspiria soundtrack that when Radiohead's Tom Yorke signed on to create the soundtrack music for Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake he didn't make any attempt to evoke it, opting instead to be influenced by musique concrete experiments, modern electronic music, German bands such as Faust and Can, plus the soundtrack to Blade Runner. Indeed Yorke's music is more meditative and much less psychedelic, which fits Guadagnino's vision for the film well.

  (Tom Yorke The Balance of Things)

Goblin's next project was creating the soundtrack for the Italian version of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, titled Zombi. The film was co-written by Romero and Argento, and Argento maintained control of the editing for European releases of the film. Since he was already used to working with Goblin and liked their sound, he asked them to compose a complete score, which he used as the entire soundtrack to his cuts of the film. Romero, in charge of the film's final cut in English-speaking countries, used three of Goblin's songs as well as stock music from the De Wolf Music Library, including the Pretty Things (billed as Electric Banana) singing "Cause I'm a Man" and a track by British composer Herbert Chappell entitled "The Gonk," which accompanied the zombies' wanderings in the mall.  I have to say that I prefer the retro Latin style music from the Goblin score.  Romero also used "The Gonk" over the movie's ending credits with overdubbed sounds of the zombies from the movie. 

  (The Gonk)

Goblin returned from a twenty-two-year hiatus to score Dario Argento's 2000 release Sleepless. The recording awoke fans and new listeners alike to the exciting realization that they could still make great music. Unfortunately, the group was unable to remain together due to personal issues, and that has continued to be the case with leader Claudio Simonetti's frequent attempts to restart or remodel the group, though it has resulted in a handful of recordings. Just as with other longstanding electronic acts like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk their personnel has changed many times, generally centered around the leader (Simonetti) and a longstanding core group ( Fabio Pignatelli, Massimo Morante, and Agostino Marangolo) with other musicians sometimes swapped in and out depending on a variety of factors. 

Goblin ended up, because of their relationship with Cinevox as well as Argento's interest in the group, becoming a successful working band without recording albums at frequent intervals (although they did follow up their Cherry Five outing with a couple more prog albums under the Goblin name) or frequently touring. In many ways, the movies they scored became videos for the band and the soundtrack recordings were their albums. Later in the '90s and 2000s, bands would earn money from music they composed and recorded specifically for video games and, later, for specific cues in commercials. These guys licensed their music before they had even written it, but there's no denying the power of the fusion of Argento's style and use of color coupled with the group's music. 

 (John Carpenter/Assault on Precinct 13)

Goblin's music and Argento's close work with the music for his films led director John Carpenter to create his own scores in the 1980s. His minimal work, which was born of economic necessity, set a new standard for horror soundtracks, which until now had largely been scored (in Hollywood, anyway) for symphony orchestra just as any soundtrack. Carpenter changed that, bringing some of Goblin's European sensibility to his own soundtracks. "The one way I could sound big was to play on synthesizers, (where I could) do numerous tracks and sound something like an orchestra – not exactly, but close," he told Dazed in a 2017 interview. "When I moved into features I kept doing it because, again, I didn’t have any money, it was low-budget. But then I just kept doing it." 

Bonus Tracks

Saxophonist Jon Gibson has died at the age of 80. While Gibson is best known for his work with the Philip Glass Ensemble, he was also a composer in his own right and worked with other minimalist composers including Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and LaMonte Young. His technique, which included mastering circular breathing, was incredible and influenced the sound of the ensemble as well as what Glass could technically compose for the group. Gibson, who was a member of the Glass Ensemble from its inception in 1968 until last year, also played flute and keyboards. "His technical abilities were beyond what anyone else was able to do,” Glass said, “and he brought everyone else around him up to his level. He was very gentle with everyone and very generous.” Without Mr. Gibson, “the music wouldn’t have grown in a certain way that it could grow.”  The link above is to an obituary by Steve Smith for the New York Times republished on another site due to NYT's paywall.

Francis Warren Nicholls, better known as Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House Music and 1997 Grammy winner, collected some 5000 vinyl records from many decades of recorded music. That collection was preserved, cataloged, and made publicly accessible in 2015 by Chicago's Stony Island Arts Bank, and Rafe Arnott writes about it for The Resistor ('HiFi Till We Die') in this interview with Julie Yost, director of programming with the Rebuild Foundation. The idea that the collection should stay together is an exciting one for music enthusiasts who understand the importance of preserving our recorded history. "The significance of the vinyl collection cannot be understated," writes Arnott, "as it is quite literally a chronicle of the birth, adolescence, and maturity of what became known as House music."

The Harry Smith B-Sides from Dust to Digital has been long-awaited and is now available. The B-sides contain the flip side of 78-rpm records that Harry Smith included in the Anthology of American Folk Music. Many historians and musicians cite Smith’s reissue, with its recordings of country, blues, Cajun, and gospel music from the 1920s and ‘30s, and its booklet containing idiosyncratic liner notes, esoteric artwork, and handmade design as a major impetus for the folk music revival of the 1950s and ‘60s and as a source of profound cultural change. The B-Sides is sequenced in identical order to Smith's collection but features the flip side of each 78 rpm record that he included. Three tracks on B-Sides were deleted at the last moment due to racist language, a decision that the producers considered carefully. While three discs were repressed to accomplish this, the accompanying booklet is intact with writeups on the deleted material and an essay that addresses the issue of racism in America's musical heritage. 

Japan has long been recognized as having one of the strongest record cultures in the world. Collectors from all over the planet come to Japan to find that elusive piece of vinyl for their collection. Many of the country's record stores have been around for decades, including its largest chain store, Disk Union, which was founded in 1967. But just as with the rest of the world, Japan has struggled with the economic implications of the COVID-19 health crisis. This piece from Japan Times discusses the issue by focusing on the shuttering of one of Japan's most beloved stores, RECOfan Shibuya BEAM, which owner Masaru Ono closed permanently on October 11th. 

Leaving you today with Arthur Brown and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown performing his signature song, "Fire," complete with flaming helmet.

As always, I wish you a great week and look forward to seeing you next week with a new music roundup.