The name Morricone Youth is obviously spun off from Ciccone Youth, the Madonna-cover Sonic Youth ‘side project,’ but their sound is closer to that of movie-soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone than Kim and Thurston.
Apparently, these gimmick-heavy New Yorkers started off as a film-score cover band, playing tracks from spaghetti westerns and horror films in hip bars, dressed in sleek suits and perhaps a splash of irony, that coveted quality these days. From there, they recruited some new members, including a female singer whose voice occasionally evokes Beth Gibbons of Portishead, and started composing originals.
The result is Silenzio Violento, a title that evokes the nightclub scene from Mulholland Drive and sounds as if it could score its own David Lynch film. It starts with opening titles that belong in their own Leone western, travels through “Monster” and “Super Villain,” the “Black Forest,” a “Heist,” and a chase theme, to the end credits. Their lounge-y, midtempo music is one step more attention-grabbing than the soundtracks they worship, but still mellow and sexy enough for background music. It’s a pleasant trip, backed by excellent musicians and singers with otherworldly voices, and it’s fun to try and picture the film they had going in their heads when they put together the record.
Still, it might be too gimmicky for most. But it’s fun to see where people can find musical inspiration.
