CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN - Profondo Rosso

Im letzten Review (The Osiris Club) habe ich sie erwähnt, und da fiel mir ein, dass ihre aktuelle Langrille hier durchaus auch ein paar Worte verdient hat:

Die legendäre italienische Horrorfilmsoundtrack/Progrock-Band Goblin, wie ich sie der Einfachheit halber mal im folgenden Text nennen möchte. Denn genau genommen muss man natürlich Claudio Simonetti's Goblin sagen, um seine Inkarnation der Gruppe von den Versionen, die andere Mitglieder der Originalband gegründet haben (Back To The Goblin, New Goblin, Goblin Rebirth, Goblin alkoholfrei) zu unterscheiden. Ja es spinaltapt ein wenig...

Ich persönlich bin ehrlich gesagt nur mit Simonettis Band vertraut, seit ich sie 2014 live gesehen habe. Nachdem ich dann dieses Jahr noch den Live-Score zu "Suspiria" auf dem Roadburn Festival erleben durfte, wollte ich auch gerne noch eine Kleinigkeit von ihrem Merchandising-Stand mit nach Hause nehmen.

Ohne Detailkenntnis der Diskographie zog mich dann ganz einfach die Signalfarbe ROT an...

CLAUDIO SIMONETTI'S GOBLIN - Profondo Rosso (10" red vinyl) (2015)

"Profondo Rosso", Erstwerk von Goblin und Soundtrack zum gleichnamigen Film, wurde seit 1975 in zahlreichen Auflagen rausgebracht, sowohl als komplettes Album (mit sieben Kompositionen) als auch als Single mit zwei Stücken.

Bei der nun erschienenen Version handelt es sich jedoch um eine komplette Neueinspielung durch Simonettis aktuelle Band, welche sich leicht von allen vorigen Veröffentlichungen unterscheiden lässt, da es sich diesmal weder um eine Single, noch um ein komlettes Album handelt, sondern um eine (natürlich knallrote) Zehn-Zoll-Platte.

Alle vier Tracks von "Profondo Rosso" erscheinen angesichts der heute in Horrorfilmen gewohnten Klangkulisse mit ihrem groovenden Rocksound, der meistens schon mehr Jazz Fusion als Prog ist, sehr leichtfüßig. Die sehr klare und druckvolle Produktion, die es allen Instrumenten erlaubt, jederzeit auf Augenhöhe Akzente zu setzen, hat daran ebenfalls ihren Anteil.

Der Opener "Mad Puppet" wird vor allem von einem Klavierthema mit unorthodox durchratternden tiefen Tasten bestimmt, in das immer wieder die spitze Leadgitarre hineinschießt.

Der Titeltrack, den wohl fast jeder zumindest unbewusst irgendwo schon einmal gehört hat, erfüllt mit seinen Orgelläufen am ehesten die - von Goblin mitgeprägten - Erwartungen an einen Horrorsoundtrack.

"Deep Shadows" könnte auch von Return To Forever stammen. Hier passiert musikalisch wohl auf allen Ebenen am meisten, jedes Instrument inkl. der Drums darf solieren, während neben den Keyboards vor allem der schnell reitende und irgendwie auch funkige Bass die Hauptrolle spielt.

Im wieder mehr score-typischen, finalen Stück "Death Dies" bilden Bass und Gitarre zusammen die kompakte, dominante Rhythmussektion, während sowohl Tastenmeister Simonetti als auch das Schlagzeugeher atmosphärische Geräuschkulisse beisteuern.

Alles in allem ist "Profondo Rosso" eine auch optisch als Sammlerstück schöne Platte, kurz und weilig - und musikalisch sicherlich für alle Freunde von (Italo-)Prog, Fusion und instrumentalen Soundtracks interessant.

Mag ich.

Anspieltipps: Deep Shadows, Profondo Rosso

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2015 • DAY FIVE: The Afterburner / Sunday, April 12th

*Yaaaawn*   Is it Sunday already?

Yeah, right...

Sunday, time for things to get a little bit cozier.

For Het Patronaat the festival was already over and the merchandise moved from the V19 building into Stage01 and the adjacent corridor. So there were only three stages left for music: the main hall, the Green Room and the club stage of the Cul de Sac.


My personal schedule was predominantely keeping me in front of the main stage, starting with guitarist Andrew W. and Ms. Ego Sensation on bass (plus their drummer), aka White Hills.

White Hills

White Hills

Of all records I bought during the festival, White Hills' recent release "Walks For Motorists" may be the one with the most "ear worms" (as we say in Germany), meaning parts and melodies being stuck in your head. Such was also their live performance.

Over a very effective, repetive, reduced but powerful rhythmic base the band gave much room to their spaced out singing, trippy effects and  glamorously rocking guitars.
This music is so clearly defined, groovy, catchy - yet also so wildly escalating. I just fucking loved loved loved this show.

Staying for the Roadburn Afterburner had already payed off by now.

Bongripper

Bongripper

Following was more happy headbanging, as Bongripper played their second set after the great "Miserable" performance on Thursday.

Today it was time for a more direct "best of" set, if you can even speak of something like that, talking about an infernal instrumental doom metal band almost exclusively playing bulky longtracks.

Comprised of disco classics from "The Great Barrier Reefer", "Satan Worshipping Doom" and their split with Conan, this was just another outstanding crushing demonstration of Bongripper's unmatched brutality in this genre. Excellent!

Claudio Simonetti's Goblin - "Suspiria"

And now there came a welcome opportunity to sit down for ninety minutes, as it was time for a screening of Dario Argento's classic horror flick "Suspiria" with the score performed live by Claudio Simonetti's Goblin.

Therefore the musician were pushed to the verges of the stage. Unlike last years's set of Goblin, they were not playing in a rock formation, as the drums very exchanged for a more orchestral percussion set and the role of the electric guitar was replaced by the bouzouki.

I'm not the biggest cineast on Earth, especially concerning italian movies as old as myself, so "Suspiria" luckily was something new for me.
And apart from a rather predictable plot and some goofy acting that generated good laughs, this movie is a true piece of art, especially for its colour palette and rich surreal scenography.

And then there is the score of course! The musical themes of "Suspiria" are very dark, filled with eery noises, strange breaths, Simonetti's famous "lalala". Playing live to the screen action the band had to be exactly on point and keep their concentration for some long periods without soundtrack. And they nailed it perfectly.

This screening was some great entertainment and another piece adding to the creative richness of the whole festival.

Bast

Bast

On Thursday I had bought some CDs at the Burning World Records stand, five CDs for ten Euro to be exactly. Among those was "Spectres" from Bast. The next morning I realized that the band would be playing at the Afterburner, so I gave it a spin in the car and instantly decided to add the trio to my personal running order.

A good decision, because their furious melange of black metal, doom, sludge, post rock elements and other influences in the periphery of those styles took the Green Room by storm. Devastatingly aggressive with the guitarist / singer literally roaring his microphone out of its stand one time, but on the other also beautiful and moving, Bast simply pulled off a killer show here.

Anathema

Anathema

When Bast left the stage, the longest show of the festival had already begun.

Anathema were playing a 30 years anniversary set, starting with new material and moving towards the past with former members of those times on stage. Did I watch the two hours that were still left of the show? - No, and honestly I wouldn't have endured that.

I'm not saying that Anathema is a bad band. They have some nice songs and I occasionally like to listen to them - but whenever they pop up in shuffle modus in my car I am like "Ok, who is this again? Ah, Anathema..."

I've seen enough songs in the first half of the set, including a ridiculously long break, and towards the finale to say this with confidence: No matter how perfect they conduct their songs, how beautiful the occasional female vocals or some other ideas may be - Anathema live are just not exciting.
And that includes all phases I witnessed from the hall or the merch corridor. Yes, there were some nice touches, but were these songs really the jewels of a thirty year history?

I know that this band has touched the lives of many Roadburn visitors, but it was also obvious that there were many fans with day ticket in the audience, who were only here for their show.

And not only because of that it was the only gig here that didn't even feel like Roadburn for me. This was an overly lengthy Anathema show. And as such - I say it again, because I seriously had expected more from it - it was just not exciting.


On top of that, they overran their scheduled stage time, meaning it got very hectic after them and the following final band of the festival likely had to cut their set shorter than planned.

The Osiris Club

The Osiris Club

The Osiris Club

Compared to Anathema the audience had now visibly thinned out, while musically everything about to come was far superior to Anathema - with the exception of the female vocals, but that's probably only because The Osiris Club didn't have those.

Visually I felt thrown back to the last year's last band Lumerians, who had also worn masks on stage and surely also shared a certain musical quirkiness with them.

The psychedelic rock of The Osiris Club also mirrored the beginning of the day with White Hills, only that where those have cultivated an almost machine simplicity, The Osiris Club tends to a much more sweeping proggy approach. This band plays some highly entertaining theatrical space prog.
I'm still unsuccessfully trying to put a finger on the main influences I'm hearing here, but I can only recommend their album "Blazing World".

The show was too short, but sincerely admired by those who were still on their feet. And thus after all the night and the whole Roadburn Festival ended on a high note for me.


I will still write a kind of "DAY SIX" review though, possibly containing some afterthoughts and definitely covering the Hamburg concert of Kayo Dot and Botanist, which of course technically is not Roadburn. Yet for me it was the closing part of the whole trip and experience, so I`ll stay in my english mode for that post.


DAY ONE (Wednesday) here!

DAY TWO (Thursday) here!

DAY THREE (Friday) here!


DAY FOUR (Saturday) here!

more pictures from Sunday: