'Suspiria'

In honour of Hallowe'en 2015, my band 7thSun has recorded a cover of Goblin's 'Suspiria', the theme from Dario Argento's film of the same name. You can listen to it on SoundCloud or download it from Dropbox.

Review: Goblin Live @ The Sage, 24/02/2011

Despite living in Newcastle for ten years, Thursday night was actually the first time I'd been to The Sage, Gateshead's giant woodlouse-shaped concert hall. Regardless of the venue's appearance, I was pleased to discover that (the smaller) Hall Two is an intimate venue and that the sound is crystal clear.

I last saw Goblin at the 2009 Supersonic Festival in Birmingham; I think the line-up has changed slightly since then. Each of the musicians gave an extremely professional performance however, and the great thing about watching Goblin play live is seeing how well they work as a unit: their songs require a lot of careful coordination, and there isn’t a lot of room for showing off. This may be prog rock, but Goblin favour intricate time signatures and layered textures over stunt solos. There’s something engaging about the mixture of gratitude and bemusement with which they react to audience enthusiasm; they also commented on the fact that a lot of the
crowd were younger than the songs themselves.

As at Supersonic, their newer material worked better live than on record, but their Dario Argento soundtrack material got the best response. These tracks also really benefit from a modern sound system: the title track from 'Zombi' came through powerfully, as did a frantic run through 'Tenebre' (complete with vocoder) and the hypnotic 'Mad Puppet'. My personal favourite though was the eery title track from 'Suspiria', which featured an extended outro.

The band were performing beneath a video screen showing extensive clips from the Argento/Goblin collaborations (particularly 'Profondo Rosso' and 'Suspiria'), whereas last time I saw them, the clips were more minimal loops. I think I preferred the former approach.

A great performance nontheless: I recommend going to see them if you get the chance. I'm back at The Sage very soon to see Mogwai, this time in Hall One.

Weekend of Wonders @ The Sage, Gateshead

Music venue The Sage in Gateshead is hosting a kind of mini-festival next month called 'Weekend of Wonders', the vague theme of which seems to be horror movie soundtracks.

I'm going to see Goblin on Thursday 24/02 (who are apparently playing in front of a screen showing clips from the Argento/Romero films that they worked on, as when I saw them at Supersonic 2 years ago).

I'm then seeing Mogwai on Sunday 27/02, hot on the trails of their new album, 'Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will'.

You can read more about 'Weekend of Wonders' here.

Compilation - 'Needless Alley'

A compilation of some of the music I have been listening to this year - some new, some old. Enjoy!

01. Harmonia & Eno '76 - Welcome
02. New Order - Your Silent Face (Session)
03. Russian Circles - Hexed All
04. Kelpe - Eye Candy Bath
05. Nine Inch Nails - Lights In The Sky (Live)
06. Have A Nice Life - Deep, Deep
07. Goblin - Suspiria
08. Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
09. Grouper - Little Gray Cat
10. Svarte Greiner - Last Night.

Download.

Supersonic Festival 2009

I attended the Supersonic Festival in July and enjoyed sets by
Sunn O))), Remember Remember, Caribou, Head of David, Khyam Allami and Arbouretum. The highlight, however, had to be '70s/'80s Italian prog rockers Goblin (above) who played a lengthy selection from their career (including tracks from 'Profondo Rosso', 'Suspiria', 'Zombi' and 'Tenebre') and also took part in a Q&A session. They were by far the best dressed band.