When I first saw that the title of this project was "Morriconez" and the the artwork indicated some kind of western feel, my first though was "you've got to be kidding me." Turns out, they're not. Now, the press release indicated to me that this artist was formerly known as Jjango Cleefworth Morriconez, as well as about fifteen other monikers, though it all stems back to one guy, a Mr. Jeffery Wentworth Stevens, who appears to be quite the fan of spaghetti westerns. But enough about semantics, let's get down to the music.
Now, I first want to mention that, while I initially thought the goal of Morriconez was to rip off recognizable elements of the legendary Ennio Morricone and turn them into some kind of 'cowboy-wave' internet sensation, it became clear that Morriconez is actually just a guy from the Southwest who was inspired by his surroundings and their culture, and was therefore naturally drawn to Ennio Morricone. And while I didn't hear any whips cracking or horses trotting, what I did hear was actually rather enjoyable. Morriconez uses tons of live drum loops, which is a really cool way to use electronica style composition and still sound as organic as possible, and the result is a backbone that sounds both analog and digital, magical and scientific, half man half machine.
While Morriconez does evoke images of the west, deserts, tumbleweeds, and peyote buttons, it is actually the other side that sticks out to me as the strength of this record. Leads that sound somewhere between horns and strings, vocal effects that sound robotic, and reverb that doesn't quite sound warm enough is actually what pushes Cloud of Dust, Cry of Death above and beyond the average 'experimentalist' record and into the void of memorable, unique, records from 2012.
[Morriconez Bandcamp]
[Stream/Buy Cloud of Dust, Cry of Death from Wil Ru]
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