XLR8R - logo    • Filed under: Review   • 10/11/2012  Chrome
Canyon Elemental Themes  The self-directed video for Chrome
Canyon's "Memories of a Scientist" says everything one might
need to know about the Brooklyn artist and recent Stones Throw
signee. In the five-minute clip, Chrome Canyon (a.k.a. Morgan Z)
paints himself as a frizzy-haired madman, albeit one who's
producing funky sonic experiments with vintage analog synths and
mountains of old recording equipment in lieu of explosive
chemicals and glass test tubes. The sound and look is a little
goofy and dated, but it's also an excellent study of synth
masters from decades past—he draws heavily from Vangelis' Blade
Runner score, Wendy Carlos' work on Tron, and Giorgio Moroder's
film soundtracks. Sharing their penchant for grand compositions,
his debut full-length, Elemental Themes, is a collection of
cinematic epics, all of them begging to be set to the kind of
cult retro-futuristic sci-fi films he so admires.  Elemental
Themes begins where our own world