Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - Rome

I rarely connect instantly with albums these days, it seems that ever since perusing an unhealthy lust for house the part of my brain designed to gobble up as many new musical experiences as possible has been rented out and replaced by an invariable 125 bpm thud. But after reading a feature on songwriter, musician and producer Brian Burton (Aka Danger Mouse) I became intrigued about his latest musical endeavour; Rome. Having made the transition from an amateur ‘bedroom’ producer working part time in a London pub to being one of the most sought after producers in less than a decade, all eyes are on his latest release - which has a particularly personal and nostalgic edge to it.

Rome is the result of five years of collaboration between Burton and Italian musician Daniele Luppi, who both share a passion for mid 60’s Italian film composers such as Ennio Morricone and Riz Ortolani. These composers or ‘Maestros’ were tasked with creating film scores capable of matching the unconventional and often bizarre movies that were being produced in the film studios of Rome at the time. The most famous of these ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ being Sergio Leone’s the man with no name trilogy, which you almost certainly would have seen at some point in your wonderful lives. Burton and Luppi’s initial objective - to draw inspiration from the soundtracks - seems to have been expanded upon and the duo have gone much further with this album in paying homage to the Maestros. Not being satisfied with simply using the same studio as their predecessors, no detail has been overlooked in creating an authentic collection of works. By using the same analogue recording equipment, microphones and even musicians (some now being elderly men), Burton and Luppi’s passion has flowed through this album throughout its production and I have to say it sounds just bloody lovely. The three stand out tracks for me have to be Season’s Trees, Roman Blue and the Gambling Priest as these in particular seem to ooze with Latin spirit and would certainly be perfect listening if you plan on sipping a large cocktail on a sunny terrace somewhere this summer...

Instantly refreshing and very approachable, Rome has almost pulled off what it was created to do, and it will remain one of those ‘every now and again albums’ that sit somewhere amongst the middle 3^rd of my CD rack... (who am I kidding? I don’t have a CD rack)... but you get the gist. The added involvement of Mr Jack White and the beautiful Norah Jones on a number of tracks give a ‘soundtrack’ album a few notable ‘proper songs’ and something for the mainstream to grasp on to with their grubby fistfuls of dollars. In reality however the compositions on Rome fall short. They don’t sound as raspy and as strange as the music they are trying to replicate and they are ultimately nowhere near as good. Coupled with Burton’s almost perfect production this album just doesn’t sound like it was made in a dingy, smoky Italian studio in 1966, obviously. But that’s okay, we always knew it wouldn’t......and it’s still worth a listen...