Goblin
Patrick
One of three excellent Goblin releases in 1978--the other two being the soundtrack to Zombi and the somewhat unwieldy concept album Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark--Patrick was a commissioned piece created for the Italian release of an independent Australian film. More wide-ranging than Zombi in its sound, more focused than Fantastico, Patrick is also the most playful of any of the instrumental albums on this list. (Well, at least one of us thinks that.) Considering that 1978 was a year thoroughly entrenched within the superstar film composition era of John Williams, who had followed Jaws with the one-two-three punches of Star Wars, Close Encounters & 1978's Superman scores, it's a fetching and altogether delightful experience to be at play with something like Patrick--a film score separated in creation from the film itself, as Patrick already had music. (And rest assured, that existent soundtrack is god awful. Woe to any Australian who saw the film without Goblin's whistles tingling in their ears.) With an eclectic mix of prog-rock and the burgeoning power of the 70's synthesizer, Patrick set itself the simplest of goals: lend an emotional lilt to the creepy horror story of a coma patient as he falls in homicidal love with his attending nurse, accent the fear in a film without the budget for over-the-top stunt effects, make strange that which is funny. (And by "funny", we mean the acting in Patrick, which is about as bad as any other late 70's/early 80's low budget genre flick.) Whereas the Zombi soundtrack can, at times, overpower a bit of the film--Goblin's insanely catchy nightly tunes for the television news in that film is one of those tracks far more interesting than what's on screen--the Patrick score works to add a not-on-paper dimensionality that the film wouldn't have achieved on its own. It's not a simple "music made movie better" thing, Patrick may have some terrible acting, but it is an effective horror flick, the music doesn't change that--it's that Goblin made something that can stand completely on its own, a narrative on its own feet. Considering how brief their candle burned in the late 70's, with the revolving door of membership spinning almost as quickly as their soundtracks were being released, it's remarkable that Patrick came into existence at all. But it did, and it remains one of the most effective examples of the sound that Goblin, for too brief a time, had down to a science.
-Tucker Stone, 2009
Oh my god, Patrick is the most awesome movie ever. Well, not as good as Pin . . ., which is awesome-er, but still mighty awesome.
Posted by: Tim O'Neil | 2009.05.12 at 23:56