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Released on June 29, 2015 via Relapse Records
Goblin Rebirth is an offshoot of the progressive Italian rock-band Goblin. Best known for their atmospheric soundtracks in many films including, most famously, Suspiria and Dawn of the Dead (released generally as Zombi), Goblin cut a progressive-rock swath through the 1970s and 80s.
Like so many groups of this vintage, as musical directions/influences/real-life pressures bore down on the band, Goblin were faced with the choice of splitting (like the Beatles) continuing as a more-or-less unchanged unit (like the Rolling Stones) or fracturing into various factions and off-shoot bands (like Gong). In true Italian style Goblin fractured into a number of partisan variants, each featuring one or more of the group’s original crew. In addition to Goblin Rebirth there is, or has been, New Goblin, The Goblin Keys, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, original Goblin (with 4/5ths of the line-up) and Goblin Teasmaid (though possibly not this last one). It is however, Goblin Rebirth that we consider here.
Rebirth features original personnel Agostino Marangolo (drums) and Fabio Pignatelli (bass) from the original band with Giacomo Anselmi (guitars) and Aidan Zammit, Danilo Cherni (keyboards) making up the full quintet.
The eponymous album is actually something rather wonderful, what we’re delivered, in eight tracks, is atmospheric no-nonsense prog-rock. There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about it, which isn’t to denigrate it in any way, but rather to say that Goblin Rebirth have clearly decided that less is more, that the simple things done well, are often the most effective. The track ‘Back in 74’ could have been written in 1974 for Christsakes (this reviewer would have been 2-years old, but we’ll let that pass), but the band make it sound as fresh as any of their modern-day contemporaries (I’m looking at you Knifeworld). It’s a pure joy.
As befits a band with a canon of film-score work behind them Goblin Rebirth is composed of mostly instrumental tracks, occasional quasi-medieval/Eastern chants often rise and fall into your ears, but these serve mostly to create atmospheres, rather than deliver anything profoundly lyrical. The exception is ‘Evil in the Machine’, where it all gets a bit Kraftwerk, “Binary Infection! Binary Infection” sings whoever got to the vocoder first – it doesn’t quite work, but it’s very charming all the same.
There may only be eight tracks here – personally I’d love to hear more – but every piece of music is given a chance to breathe, to build up from simple chords or melodies, before exploding into something lush and orchestral – strings, toy pianos – it has it all, and the Marangolo/Pignatelli axis on the rhythm section really drive each composition forward in a way which I found compelling. But everyone is given a moment in the sun – if it’s not the two keyboard players creating new worlds, it’s Anselmi’s spot-on guitar work that commands your attention – there’s not a dull moment to be had. If they play live in your town, you’d be wise to go and see them to see how these tracks work in a live setting.
And no, it’s not gilding the lily too much to say that new worlds are created on this record. Each track is strong enough to be a self-contained world of its own, and equally strong enough to work together as a whole, but there’s enough invention here, sonically speaking, for the listener to create his or her own film in their own mind to accompany the music.
I hugely enjoyed Goblin Rebirth’s un-ironic take on prog. If you’re a fan of the original band, or John Carpenter’s soundtrack work, or good-old-fashioned-prog I’d daresay you’ll like it too. After multiple listens I still had a silly grin on my face – whatever they do from here on, it’s all molto bene by me.
