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Italy 2000Nonhosonno
Italian horror king Dario Argento's last few films have been perceived by critics & fans as being below par for the director of such horror masterpieces as Suspiria, Profondo Rosso, Inferno and Tenebre. Thankfully, this new film (called Sleepless in English speaking countries), whilst perhaps not quite up to the standard of his very best work, is still a cut above his 90s films. One of the most exciting things about this new film is the score, by Italian rock group Goblin, who did their best work with Argento in the late 70s and 80s, but it's over a decade since their last score for Michele Soavi's The Church in 1989 (which wound up mostly scored by Keith Emersen). If you're not familiar with their music, I highly recommend the "Goblin Volume 1" compilation album available on DRG as an ideal career overview. Of course, reforming an old band is a more than slightly risky venture. Can the old glory possibly be recaptured? Most excitingly, this new score finds the original band members Agostino Marangolo (drums), Massimo Morante (guitar), Fabio Pignatelli (bass) and Claudio Simonetti (keyboards), back together for their first new music since Zombi/Dawn of the Dead in 1978.
It's great to report then, that this new score is most assuredly the business. The band have somehow managed to pull off the not insignificantly difficult challenge of sounding very definitely like the much-loved Goblin of old, yet putting enough of a contemporary slant on things so that it doesn't sound too dated. There is, however, a pronounced and pleasing 70s feel to the score that fans of the group will doubtless appreciate.
The album is split into two sections. The first six tracks are basically the album versions of the themes (which are cut around for use in numerous parts of the film), and the last eight are more conventional underscore, which are a lot moodier. This is where all the really scary music is to be found. However, the first half, (running around 27 minutes) is the best half, and the real reason for buying the album.
The title track opens with echoing synths and moody keyboards, before Morante's electric guitar kicks in with a throbbing theme. Later this theme is given to ticking celeste-like keyboards, and is revealed as being a mesmerically ominous nursery-rhyme style theme, which curiously reminds me of Edward Scissorhands (despite sounding completely different), drawing on the same childish, fairy-tale milieu, albeit to considerably nastier effect. The eminently memorable main theme is soon introduced on keyboards over the top, and it too draws on the fairy-tale feel. It's a grand, mesmeric, pounding and highly memorable track that starts the album in the best possible way. "Killer on the Train" opens with throbbing keyboards mimicking the sound of a train the uncanny and unnerving effect. The slowly building structure & style of the track, with its increasingly frenetic percussion and throbbing bass is somewhat in the manner of "Pickup at Dawn" from Tangerine Dream's Near Dark. "Endless Love" is somewhat calmer, with delicate piano and wordless soprano inevitably calling the score to Phenomena to mind.
"Arpeggio" is a terrific, typical Goblin track, with throbbing guitars and a highly memorable repeating keyboard theme. It's a propulsive, anticipatory track that comes pounding into life on the soundtrack the moment there's the slightest hint of violence. "Ulisse" gets back to the more pensive mood of "Endless Love," with a moody saxophone solo that curiously reminds me a touch of the tone of Revell's Body of Evidence before the throbbing nursery rhyme theme returns on those appropriately ominous keyboards. "Death Farm" is the last of the album tracks, utilising same nursery rhyme theme, before mucho electric guitar and pounding drums blast their way into an agitated, rocking conclusion. The ominous quasi-wordless chorus synths and ostinatos of parts of this track can't help but bring this teams' last score, Zombi, to mind.
The next four tracks accompany death scenes, where each character is killed in the manner of an animal in a nursery rhyme. Themes from the earlier tracks pop up (such as "Killer on the Train" in "The Pig" and "Death Farm" in "The Rabbit"), although these tracks are much quieter, more atmospheric and scarier on the whole. The shortest of these is probably the best, "The Swan" features the first nursery rhyme theme on celeste-like keyboards before building into a grand reprise of the opening theme. "The Rabbit" is probably the scariest - very quiet for the most part, with brief interruptions from what sounds like sampled voices, random guitar chords, scuttering Suspiria-like (think "Opening to the Sighs") synth effects and the celeste theme, before exploding into the pounding "Death Farm" music.
The next three are various other underscore pieces, being again more in the moody, atmospheric mode. Although there most assuredly is something of interest in every track on the album (check out the slowly building percussion in "Associated Dead" leading to the introduction of the "Arpeggio" theme, or the ominous anticipatory dread of "Final White Week"), it is the first six tracks that is the strongest part of the album. The final track is a shortened version of the title track, used for the film's main title sequence, which closes the album nicely, giving it a neat sense of symmetry. Overall, this is a fine score. If you add to the above the interesting notes by both Argento & Goblin, a plot outline and photographs of the band and their e-mail addresses, you get a first class package for fans, which I have no hesitations in recommending. Was it worth the 11 (or 22) year wait? Well, yes, just about. This score should really be half as good as it is. I just hope it doesn't take quite so long for the next album - a sentiment echoed by the band in their notes - although sadly it has since transpired that there were disagreements on the form this score should take, which makes further reunions highly unlikely.
The equation is simple. If you like Goblin or rock scores, then this is a must-buy. If you've not heard any Goblin music before, then I'd say it's about time you started...