IL FANTASTICO VIAGGIO DEL "BAGAROZZO" MARK

This is maybe the last real interesting album by Goblin. At least in the seventies. It is more sophisticated and estructurally has the typical sonority of the band, in a progressive vein, although not being a horror movie soundtrack. Great use of keyboards, including the mellotron, great guitar parts. The weakest point of the album, for me, are the vocals which I'm not used to in this band. If you like Etna ou Il reale impero britannico (great Goblin off- shots), you should have this one. Nice.

This is an excellent Italian prog album. Powerful short songs with great vocals, lots of synthesizers, also mellotron and electric guitar. On the last song ...E Suono Rock you can hear the vocalist tries to sing like Ian Gillan. On the other songs it is a vocalist singing in Italian. Very beautiful and emotional. All songs are great. On my cd their is a bonus video from a song from their latest album released in 2000. The band is again recording in the original line up. Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark is regarded as their best progressive rock album for the first time with vocals. This album is a must!

I have decided to give this record the "Good, but non-essential" rating since I believe that the vocals on it aren't so good like vocals of the other Italian bands. As a fan of italian progressive rock music and a fan of the movies in which the band Goblin has offered its tunes. I find the instrumental part of this cd very average compared to the other Italian bands and as I wrote above their vocals aren't really good. I might be unable to understand the content of the music due to the fact that I don't comprehense Italian language. However, I certainly recommend that those who are in favour of Goblin's music check this recording out! Dan

I've never been a fan from Goblin but I appreciate this album very much because of its pure symphonic rock sound. It contains for the first time vocals and the sound is great. The eight compositions feature strong and beautiful interplay between a fiery and flowing electric guitar and sumptuous keyboards (lots of organ and some flashy synthesizers) with echoes from a certain Keith Emerson. Some songs are different and even contain rock and roll elements. Many progheads consider this album as the best Goblin ever produced.

"...violence, violence, in the Goblin's land there's no pity...!"

These lyrics do not really represent the spirit of Goblin' fourth studio album..."The Fantastic Journey of the Beetle Mark" is somehow a strange opus in their long and lucky career. It is not a soundtrack album, for instance, and it includes vocals (Massimo Morante) that may seem innatural to most part of the well informed italian prog lovers. Not to the hard-core fans of this unique band builded up around the great musicianship of Claudio Simonetti (keyboards and synths). "Bagarozzo" is a conceptual based work about the story of a bug named "Mark" who lives in a wild and wonderful land of thousands of different colours (Goblin's land) and meets other funny creatures like himself. He is pictured as the eight-legged-super-hero of his world, a little flying insect who take risks in outstanding adventures!

Musically the album is very convincing, expecially for the good and interesting and remarkable combination between the "heavy" keyboards' sound and that warm acoustic guitar provided by Massimo Morante whose style is so often the "icing on the cake!" Not particularly experimental in its essence, just a simple variation in the Goblin's discography, "Bagarozzo" show the band performing more usual symphonic progressive rock with references to Keith Emerson pompous keyboards, sometimes.

Luckily I own this good 1978 album in the new remastered version issued by Cinevox records with, as a bonus track, a live video track from "Non Ho Sonno", the 2001 Dario Argento's horror movie which saw another time the famous movie director work within such a mythic italian band, like the old good times... The bonus track features also an interview of the band's members about the comments on concept and making of "Bagarozzo".

Very good: 3,5 stars. Highly recommendable!

The fourth work released in 1978 "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark". Fantastic total concept album. The song was collected for the first time. It is a story that hero's Mark goes out to travel. It is an interesting album. However, a profound, magnificent performance is bright. It is the only fault not to refine vocal. It is perfect, technical, symphonic rock. The rhythm section, the synthesizer, and the guitar have preeminent power of expression. There are metallic sound and a synthesizer beat, too. The main stream in the latter half of 1970's and Italian rock were blend. It is a work that equals "Roller".

The first stage of the album is symphonic, and ending becomes instrumental again through middle electronic pop of the album. I was surprised for middle techno pop of the album. It is a masterpiece of the total album to which the performance with power consistently continues. It is unexpectedly pop. The album that catches a glimpse and competes for the new phase of Italian rock. The most unique album of GOBLIN.

A very nice album!!

Goblin is a band i particularly enjoy a lot while listening, as you may know they had done music for films such as Profondo Rosso, soundtracks i mean, this time with the release of this album in 1978 they show us something different, the horror movies are away from this album, instead, we can enjoy a story Mark who is a kind of bug or something, so as you can imagine this is a concept album, i dont really speak Italian but i can understand half of the lyrics and the other half with a help of a friend, so it is lyrically a fantastic album, as the title itself says, it is "Il Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark".

This album is short as usual, it features 8 songs and a 36-minute lenght, short but great. The first song is called "Mark Il Bagarozzo" a very nice opener which is different from their previous albums because it features vocals and as i said before, lyrics, the music in its classic Italian style, but with a more bombastic orientation (keyboards), excellent song. "Le Cascate di Viridiana" follows the first song and it is the longest track on this album, it starts with a novel feeling, despite it is not a soundtrack, while i listen to this song i imagine some strange characters walking or flying through the dark, maybe here is where Mark appears for the first time, a magnific track, full of tension, you may not focus in another thing while listening to its first 3 minutes, then the track becomes a bit "slower" with a very nice melody, good guitar and keys work. "Terra di Goblin" is another track with vocals, we can listen acoustic guitars and an atmosphere full of suspense, a part of the history is said here, again keyboards predominate here making a purely symphonic sound. "Un Ragazzo d´Argento" is my personal favorite track i really love this song, it is like a trip to somewhere in a cosmic spaceship, the work of keyboards here is great i love it despite being a repetitive song, very Italian but very cosmic as well, nice bass lines and great guitar riffs at the end. "La Danza" actually reminds me a bit of Tangerine Dream, a slow-tempo introduction which little by little is sucking you and suddenly you are inside the story, well hope you understand what i mean, i use to have this kind of experiences with my albums, so dont take me as a crazy guy. "Opera Magnifica" starts with vocals and piano, actually this is one of the worst songs here, without being bad,though, and probably the one which has the most conventional RPI sound here. "Notte" is the shortest track of them all, a calm song with spoken words, very nice, not the best for sure, it is just a kind of interlude before the final song. "E Suono Rock" is the last song of the album, the one who finishes this trip to Goblin´s land in a very Italian style, again this song has an electronic flavour that reminds me to either TD or Kraftwerk, but the different thing here is that we can listen to a good sax playing, this is an instrumental song and a nice last song which suddenly becomes a fast-tempo song when we can listen to a scream through it, great keyboard and guitar solo at the end.

After all, i like other Goblin´s albums more than this, but definitely this is worth listening! I would like to give it 4 stars due to my personal liking, but i believe it would be more fari a 3-star rating. Enjoy!

'The Fantastic Voyage Of Beetle Mark'... A great album penalized by volal parts.

'Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark' is Goblin's 4th studio album and the only Goblin's album with lyrics. Lyrics that ruins (also if not always) a very good album. The first track ('Il Bagarozzo Mark' [eng: 'Beetle Mark'] remember me Rustichelli & Bordini also for vocal style. For the rest Keith Emerson is too present in Claudio Simonetti's keyboards style and this fact is good for the pathos that creates. Also the guitar and drums are very good.

Incredible song is 'Le Cascate Di Viridiana' (eng: 'Viridiana's Falls') a perfect Goblin's song. It is noticeable also '...E Suono Rock' (eng: 'And I Play Rock) that is a good Proto Prog Metal song.

In first plan is the fact that the insertion of lyrics at first impact are not good but because lyrics are not common in Goblin's music. Once treated Goblin with lyrics here that the impasse is overcome.

So 'Il Fanastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark' is a good album, penalizes by vocal parts (not always), very well aged. Not a masterpiece but a great example of the more true and sincere RPI.

"I'll Fantastico Viaggio del Bagarozzo Mark" from GOBLIN is a disk where you can find various peculiarity. To start is a work which shows a merge from Space, Hard and Symphonic Prog with mastery . I feel a some slight influence from ELOY and a hint of GENESIS. To complicate, be a presence of some strange vocal full of reverbs, which looks like a priest in a mass (in addition to certain passages of church organ) and unusual guitar timbres and effects. More strange is encounter a track typically "Dance Music" (like in the track 4 "Un Ragazzo D'Argento") with some passages played in a acoustic guitar inside the prog music context ! In spite of this considerations the disk is very pleasant with a fantastic performance of the musicians, in specially the guitar and keyboard,. the music keep the attention of the audience without get tired. My rate is 4 stars with enthusiasm !!!

Goblin's career has, since their early-1970's inception, become fundamentally entwined with the films of horror maestro Dario Argento and with the horror genre itself. The bulk of their discography is made up of film work, and the creepy, atmospheric, keyboard-and-synth dominated soundtracks that accompany Argento's classic films 'Profondo Rosso', 'Suspiria' and 'Phenomena' have become huge cult items over the years, influencing the likes of American director and musician John Carpenter and French electronic duo Zombie Zombie to name but a few. However, despite their penchant for film work, the group have managed to produce a couple of non-soundtrack albums, with 1976's 'Roller' followed two years later by the ambitious concept piece 'Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark', the first Goblin album of any sort to feature actual vocals. Whereas 'Roller' found the group blending their rich soundtrack style with a heavy dose of electro-tinged symphonic prog-rock, 'Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark' attempted to take the formula one step further, eschewing the creepy atmospherics in favour of more straight-forward song-writing. Fans of 'Roller' - the album that probably finds Goblin at their purest and most powerfully original - should find enough to satisfy their needs, and the occasional moment does hint towards their horror-film past, with the groups trademark ethereal synth passages and spooky keyboard riffs augmented by some scintillating guitar-playing from Morante that creates a deeply-layered and complex sound. However, Goblin's strength was always their ability to create tension-building accompiaments to Argento's gore-filled suspensers, and the dark, ominous overtones that made the soundtracks to 'Suspiria' and 'Profondo Rosso' so deliciously menacing is sadly lacking, probably the result of the group's attempts to update their once fairly-basic sound. A genuine departure for this most unique of groups, 'Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark' would be the group's final dabble in progressive rock. It may not have reached the same cult heights achieved by it's predecessors but it's still a highly-enjoyable, polished album, showing, if only for a glimmer, Goblin's slightly lighter side. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010

In 1978 the reduced four-piece Goblin line-up recorded another album for Cinevox, but this was one of the rare cases this had nothing to do with a film.It was a regular Prog effort under the title ''Il fantastico viaggio del bagarozzo Mark''.Strange concept and front cover, as this had to do with a flying bug.

Musically I think this was the strongest work by the band throughout the 70's.Propably because they had added a full lyrical content in this work and the music had no particular specifications for an upcoming film, thus ''Il fantastico viaggio del bagarozzo Mark'' offered the very best balance the legendary band could achieve.The music displayed comes as a nice example of Prog's transitional period from the 70's to a new era, featuring a more pronounced synth performance and less emphasis on organ.You even get the feel of an Italian pre-Neo/Symph atmosphere during the listening, later to be met in the works of HOPO, GUERCIA or even SITHONIA towards the end of the 80's.It's the most symphonic album ever produced by the band, based on the Classic Italian Prog principles, which were the expressive or even theatrical vocals, the dramatic and romantic textures and the impressive, symph-oriented arrangements, even if none of the tracks exceeded the 6-min. mark.The sound is driven by Simonetti's varied keyboard work, characterized by the Classical background, the grandiose orchestral material and the soaring synths with Morante filling the gaps with his lovely electric and acoustic moves.Morante was also responsible for the neurotic vocal lines of the album, which was actually the only element crossed with the previous, more dark sound of the band.As expected, the album contains also some great melodic themes and even some electronic beats in the process, resulting a beautiful music document of the era.

The next few years were rather inconsistent for the group with line-up changes and more conventional works, always linked with Italian movies.They fell in hiatus around early-80's to reform in 2000 with old member Maurizio Guarini retaking the keyboard lead from Simonetti.In 2009 they were split in two bands, New Goblin (with the comeback of Simmonetti) and Goblin World.Another side project appeared in 2013, named Simonetti's Goblin, these attempts only hurt the band's long and succesful story in my opinion.

Anyway, if you're stuck in the 70's ''Il fantastico viaggio del bagarozzo Mark'' is among the best Italian Prog Rock documents and a must-have for all fans oif keyboard Prog.Very nice and clever transition from the vintage stylings to more modern sounds, keeping an impressive composing quality.Highly recommended.

"Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" (English translation: "The Fantastic Journey of the Beetle Mark") is the 4th full-length studio album by Italian progressive rock artist Goblin. The album was released through Cinevox Records in 1978. It´s the successor to "Suspiria" from 1977. Unlike its predecessor "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is not a soundtrack album, but instead a concept album telling the story of a flying bug named Mark and his colorful adventures in the imaginary land of Goblin. Two of the tracks from the album ("La danza" and "Notte") were however used on the soundtrack for the George A. Romero 1978 horror movie "Martin" (known internationally as "Wampyr").

"Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is the first Goblin to feature vocals (at least traditional singing with lyrics), which are performed by guitarist Massimo Morante. He has a pleasant voice and can sing both melodic, theatrical/paatos filled (in the typical Italian tradition), and a little more raw and hard rocking when that is called for. Considering this is his first vocal performance with Goblin he does a great job here.

Stylistically the material on "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is symphonic progressive rock. An organic and well playing rhythm section, both electic and acoustic guitars (and some very well played guitar solos), and loads of synths and keyboards. I hear influences form artists like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis here and there, but Goblin manage to create a relatively distinct sound. Goblin bring a few electronic elements, a couple of saxophone solos, and a disco beat to the table too, but those aren´t dominant elements, and the music here is predominantly early 70s influenced symphonic progressive rock.

One of the great assets of "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is the warm, organic, and detailed sound production, which does exactly what the best sound productions are supposed to do. Present the material in the best possible way for the listener to enjoy. So upon conclusion "Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark" is a high quality release by Goblin and one of the few musical adventures they took outside making music specifically for movies ("Roller (1976)" is the other example and of course also the 1975 album they released under the Cherry Five monicker before changing their name to Goblin). It´s a bit of a shame they didn´t expore this sound a bit more, but the fact that the album was mared by poor album sales probably didn´t give them much motivation to continue down this road, when they could make money making soundtrack music. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Il Fantastico Viaggo is one of the best Goblin albums when it comes to pure music. The music is creative and well executed. We hear occasional vocals by Morante which is not a terrific added value but does not insult either. Thankfully, Goblin abandoned the cold experimenting from "Suspiria" and sticks to real music. This time, it is primarily a keyboard-driven progressive rock. Fusion is less present, I'm neutral about it because although I like fusion a lot, it could be a bit distracting from the typical Goblin soundtrack music. Goblin excels in crafting symphonic prog ("Terra di Goblin", "Un ragazzo d'argento") and delivers some really quirky complex prog with "La Danza". There are less successful moments like "Opera magnifica" with theatrical vocals but nothing that needs disposing of. If you're looking for a non-instrumental prog album by Goblin, then start here.

For many Goblin fans, this one falls through the cracks and many never run across it. Like Roller, it is one of their rare non-soundtrack albums. This time it is a concept album based on the life of Mark, a beetle who trundles through life, an allegory for heroin addicts of that era in Italy-1978? ( 'Bagorozzo translates to roughly worthless person in slang.) The music is excellent throughout, and the album finishes with what is perhaps one of their strongest pieces in their catalog, E Suono Rock. For those who only have heard Suspiria and Profondo Rosso, there's nothing here that is too drastically different, but the addition of Massimo Morante's vocals can be a sticking point for some who are used to the all instrumental output of the band. Overall, this album is very strong from front to back, and is woefully undernoticed by Goblin fans. While it is not as overtly creepy as some of their soundtrack work, and can be downright cheery at times, My best way of describing Goblin to the uninitiated is 'a possessed Mike Oldfield'. It is recommended for prog fans of all stripes. four stars (Goblin is currently touring America winter 2024 so check local venues)