Ennio Morricone — Morricone Kill

“Morricone Kill” brings together a selection of tracks from various Spaghetti Western soundtracks composed by Ennio Morricone between 1967 & 1973. The collection offers up a mixture of tracks from the more known soundtracks such as A Fistful of Dynamite and The Big Gundown, as well as more obscure & lessen known Spaghetti Westerns too.

The compilation/ collection offers up eighteen tracks in all, and the selection takes in tracks from the following Spaghetti Westerns:  1969’s Tepepa(Blood & Guns), A Fist Full of Dynamite(Duck You sucker) from 1971,  1967’s I crudeli ( The Hellbenders), My Name is Nobody(Il mio nome è Nessuno) from 1973, The Big Gundown from 1966,  1970’s Lets Go & Kill, comrades, and A Professional Gun (Il Mercenario) from 1968.

The tracks go from mean, moody & dust blown, to romantic & mysterious, to galloping & dramatic, through to playful & quirky. From track to track there’s a nice variation in mood, pace & instruments used. Of course there’s the expected twanging  guitars,  lonesome whistling,  dramatic & moody horn fanfares, and the martial percussion elements. But there are also a few unexpected moments  too such as the buoyant & squelching Perrey ‘n’ Kingsley like electronics  meets bright folk strummed guitar & quirky female vocalising of   “Il Mio Nome E Nessune” from My Name Nobody soundtrack.  Or the doomy & discordant guitar scuttling & throbbing on/off  bass line meets sudden gloomy risers of doomed orchestration of “Un Uomo in Agguato” from Lets Go & Kill, comrades soundtrack.

So in conclusion this is another very worthwhile & consistent addition to the growing catalogue of  themed Morricone releases put out by Él/Cherry Red labels.