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Goblin - Claudio Simonetti's Goblin: Profondo Rosso (OST) [Aka: Deep Red] CD (album) cover

CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN: PROFONDO ROSSO (OST) [AKA: DEEP RED]

Goblin

 

Rock Progressivo Italiano

3.88 | 7 ratings

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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator
PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars As GOBLIN's career spanned multi-decades, the band's popularity only continued to grow as new generations discovered their unique horror themed soundtrack music that started with the soundtrack to Dario Argento's 1975 film PROFONDO RUSSO (Deep Red) which proved to be one of the best selling soundtracks of its era and allowed the Italian band's music to be heard far and wide well outside of their native Italy. This would be the start of a beautiful relationship that would continue with other blockbuster flicks such as 1977's "Suspira" and 1978's "Dawn Of The Dead." The soundtrack offers just kept coming and as a result GOBLIN, despite having made stellar progressive rock albums outside the context of the film industry, have nevertheless gone down in history as a band that is commissioned to make compelling music to accompany video imagery.

In the 2000s though, something really wild happened when members from the band's loose revolving door policy that centered around guitarist Massimo Morante, keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, and bassist Fabio Pignatelli, started to create a ridiculous number of GOBLIN related projects that were obviously trying to cash in on the GOBLIN brand name. Not only would the original GOBLIN lineup of Massimo Morante (guitar), Claudio Simonetti (keyboards), Fabio Pignatelli (bass), Walter Martino (drums) with Agostino Marangolo (more drums) continue the original GOBLIN but each of these members would initiate new versions of the band such as GOBLIN Rebirth, New GOBLIN, The GOBLIN Keys, Back To The GOBLIN and even a new version of the original Cherry Five. However, CLAUDIO SIMONETTI did something almost unthinkable and in conjunct with the 40th anniversary edition of PROFUNDO RUSSO, released his own re-recorded version of the debut album under the moniker CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN.

This one caught me completely off guard because i was interested in purchasing the debut GOBLIN album PROFONDO RUSSO that was originally released in 1975. However CLAUDIO SIMONETTI pulled a fast one that totally pissed me off at first. Not only did he take four tracks off the debut album and re-record them but added four remixes of various tracks which leaves this album with no less than three versions of the title track. The confusion results from the misleading album cover that is nearly identical to the original with a scarlet red backdrop with the famous blackened GOBLIN logo along with the giant black letters shouting PROFONDO RUSSO. However, closer scrutiny will reveal that above the GOBLIN logo in tiny print find that this is indeed CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN and although the picture of the upside down dude on the cover differs the dude peaking through some sort of whole in the wall, i simply assumed different artwork for a newer reissue. I was wrong. Doh!

However, my irritation quickly transmogrified itself into delight as i realized that this was actually a damn good album despite sounding like a pathetic attempt to milk it for all its worth. Graced with an entirely different lineup which finds SIMONETTI's keyboard playing as the only connection to the past, the others include Bruno Previtali picking up guitar duties, Federico Amorosi on bass and Titta Tani on drums. To make things even more confusing, the CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN project also goes by the names Daemonia and Simonetti Horror Project and the nine tracks are assigned to each of these monikers making it look like this is a collaborative effort instead of a single group of musicians performing all instrumental duties. This all seems a little gimmicky of course and i really want to hate this but it all goes back to the music which is absolutely brilliant. These tracks are just as good as the original and even better if taking modern day production values into account.

The first four tracks are re-recorded versions of the first four tracks from the original PROFONDO RUSSO. The title track, "Death Dies," "Mad Puppet" and "Wild Session" find a newly charged lineup tackle these classics with grace and add new interesting elements while remaining faithful to the original intent. Still rooted in a unique mix of progressive rock, jazz, blues and electronic keyboard wizardry, these four tracks deliver the same hypnagogic trance inducing repetition that adds subtle elements to create the perfect horrific response with small variations on the bass, guitar and keyboard runs. The compositions are teased out in slightly different arrangements but somehow it all works and nothing seems poisoned by this tampering.

The tracks "School At Night," "Mad Puppet" and second version of the title track that follow are live versions recorded in the year 2000 under the Daemonia moniker and add more improvisational attacks to the classic compositional constructs. The final two tracks, "Death Dies" and the third version of the title track are listed as being performed by SIMONETTI Horror Project and are remixed versions that take the tracks and completely update them into the 21st century with all sorts of collage sound effects and somewhat over produced synthesizer effects but offers dramatic effects such as Keith Emerson inspired keyboards gymnastics and more improvisational takes on the basic melodies and song structures. These last two tracks are the weakest part of the album but not necessarily without merit.

I have very mixed feelings about this one. One the one hand this is a mad dash to the bank to cash in on the band's past glories without the original members joining SIMONETTI in the process, however each of the other members get their own band to do the same. This wildly innovative experiment of splitting the band into several projects is quite interesting and all the members seem to carry it off fairly well. The album cover that deceives the consumer into thinking that this is the original is a mortal sin and SIMONETTI should be spanked for this naughty prank he portrayed upon his unsuspecting fans, however i probably never would've sought this out otherwise and just wrote it off as a gimmick and as it turns out, i like this as much as the original although i probably would've preferred the entirety of the album re-recorded if he's gonna go for it. Oh well, it is what it is and when all is said and done, this is an infectiously clever version of GOBLIN's past that i can't penalize simply for its clever Jedi mind trick that it successfully pulled off on me.

siLLy puPPy | 4/5 |

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