Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2010 September 27 • Monday

The 132nd Soundtrack of the Week is the prog rock score for a movie called Perché si uccidono, composed and performed by the band Goblin using the name Il Reale Impero Brittanico.

The first track, "Epopea", is classic Goblin, with insane synthesizer sounds supported by solid bass and drums. A guitar solo closes the track. The mood is sunnier than a lot of Goblin's other stuff.

The second track, "Ammoniaca", is a sappy instrumental ballad, a bit like "A Whiter Shade of Pale".

A laid back funk beat on the drums and a cool bass line introduce "Kalu". Percussion, guitar and keyboards gradually add more textures. Sounds like there could be some real flutes and other acoustic instruments on this one.

"Edda" must be Edda dell'Orso, the vocalist perhaps most famous for her work with Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West and many others). No doubt that's her singing the soaring wordless vocal line on this lovely tune. It starts pensively before bursting into a rhapsodic declaration of happiness. In other words, it goes from a minor key to a major one.

"Epopea (Reprise)" is a very different arrangement of the first tune, using acoustic piano instead of synthesizer.

"My Damned Shit" starts out sounding really cheesy (much like Bill's "Space Funk" in that episode of Freaks and Geeks) but becomes a kind of cool song with an interesting melody when the male vocalist comes in. He's singing in English with a definite accent, presumably Italian. "And in the sky / I saw a [girl? gull?] / I did no [sic] imagine / That it was an [sic] hurricane".

"Dodici e un Quarto" sounds a bit like a muzak/disco take on "Fools Rush In", which I guess is okay with me. "Block" brings us back to more familiar Goblin territory. The guitar work and the beat would fit right in with something like their soundtrack to Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso.

"R.I.B." is a surprise. It sounds like a cross between Goblin and Pink Floyd's The Wall. It's pretty cool. "Apotheke" has frantically strummed wah-wah guitar and is all build-up. You keep waiting for them to break out in some kind of insane jam and they never do.

The album closes with "Distrazioni", which has the sickest keyboard sounds on the whole record. There's a fleet-fingered electric piano solo and impressive drumming.