VOTD 04/15/2025

 Goblin: The Other Hell soundtrack (Cinevox)

Purchased at Eides, new

I've written in the past that I know this blog is some degree of music commentary and sometimes analysis, some history, but also there's an autobiographical component too. I suppose if you should happen to find me interesting, that's fine. 

I've been putting a lot of things on hold until the university semester ends. It's felt like a weight on me but my teaching schedule is done at the end of next week, unusually early. Despite this, I've found time to at least accept gigs, do a couple of at-home punch-in recordings for other people, and occasionally check in here. And of course do things I generally enjoys such as dropping by the library and various record stores.

I didn't make a big rush for Record Story Day, even if I bought three things released that day. I've previously written the other two. I had the highest hope for this one, while at the same time wondering about the nature of it. Goblin was responsible for some exceptional soundtrack work: Suspiria, Deep Red, the European cut of Dawn of the Dead. So why hadn't this soundtrack turned up before? I don't profess to be a Goblin expert but a solid work from the early 80s would be in demand for release, seemed to me. 

Reading into it now, I see this is made up of cues and outtakes from other films: Buio Omega, Patrick, and  Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark. Thankfully I have none of those on vinyl (I've seen the first two around) so all the music is new to me. I noticed while watching the laughable Contamination that the soundtrack credited to Goblin was at least in part lifted from Dawn of the Dead. I can't point a finger at the Italians for cost-cutting moves, since it's thoroughly part of the American tradition of exploitation filmmaking as well. 

What sets Suspiria apart from the others is its intensity and atmosphere. It's bigger, louder, creepier, noisier. Dawn has a real drive to it to be sure, but Suspiria feels like an experience. The music here is solid late 70s instrumental prog rock veering slightly into fusion territory, sometimes sounding a little like the Bruford band circa One of a Kind (sans Allan Holdsworth).

I don't often comment on this, but the pressing (at least on side one) is terrible. There's a general noise to the vinyl which isn't so noticeable when the music is turned up, but takes over on fade outs and between cuts. Ugh. Do better! Maybe it didn't need to be fuchsia-colored vinyl. And with such great examples of original cover art on Mondo/Death Waltz and Waxworks soundtrack labels, the cover here looks slapdash. Sounds like trying to earn that RSD coin to me, even if the music itself is pretty good.