Let’s not beat around the bush, as soon as there was a mention that a new album by the Mountain Goats was due it should have been expected that something about it would be written here. Three singles have been released so far, MOBILE, THE SLOW PARTS ON DEATH METAL ALBUMS, and most recently, DARK IN HERE. Facts are facts, I pre-ordered this album the moment it was announced during their second dates of The Jordan Lake Sessions. However, there is something about DARK IN HERE that connects with a website about movies.
To start, however, I think it is necessary to remember when my friend Bruce gave me a birthday present many, many, moons ago. He gave me a copy of John Zorn’s THE BIG GUNDOWN. It ended up being my first true foray into Avant Garde music, and first impression of the record was that it sounded like a circular saw dropped into a rusty, metal, stairwell.
There is a subtitle to that album. It is THE BIG GUNDOWN: JOHN ZORN PLAYS THE MUSIC OF ENNIO MORRICONE. Now, as the composer for many popular films, you are probably already familiar with the music of Ennio Morricone. Perhaps one of his most famous score is for Sergio Leone’s A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. But you will also hear his work on THE THING, HATEFUL EIGHT, DANGER: DIABOLIK, THE UNTOUCHABLES, and about 400 other films or television shows.
What makes Morricone unique is that at a certain point in his career he decided that while a standard orchestral score was nice, the use of some sound effects and non-choral voices could supplement more typical instrumentation, especially when he had to be budget minded. It was this outside the box thinking that makes Morricone one of my favorite composers. It also makes his compositions uniquely suited to the style of John Zorn.
What does any of this have to do with DARK IN HERE? The first time I listened to the song I immediately listened to it five more times. I did this because I recognized the sonic symbolism. I don’t have a finger on the pulse on whether the song is intended as a western, but it certainly sounds like it is. The opening guitar riffs and themes are straight out of my memories of Serio Leone films. The lyrics are pretty clear. But, the last 40 seconds of the song have Ennio Morricone dead to rights.
From the onset of the track I feel like I am riding down a bumpy dirt road in a wagon. The tone of the guitars and the bends on the notes have just the right amount of distortion and echo to seem like they are reflecting off a canyon wall; the driving toms, in the percussion, simulate the hoof falls. Lyrically it sounds like a mix of Fred Zimmerman’s HIGH NOON and Delmer Daves 3:10 TO YUMA. But the dead giveaway comes when the flute enters the mix, you might has well be squinting along with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.
Anyway, since I have started writing this and now, I have received my pre-order and I can gladly tell you that the other 11 songs are great, but the title track slayed me. However, I want to also briefly highlight that I might need to write another essay linking Lizard Suit with Fulci’s A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN, maybe.