Mike Patton Mondo Cane

Mike Patton is many things to many people, but regardless of whether he's singing, scatting, acting, growling or swearing, he's a Renaissance man in the truest sense of the word. From his teens spent with genre-defying alternatives acts like Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, his various collaborations with avant-garde musicians, the deconstructed-pop music he created with Peeping Tom and currently cultivating a career as a film composer as well as roles in popular video games, there seems to be no limit to what Patton can, will or might do.

2010 saw the release of his self titled Mondo Cane project. Mondo Cane is a collection of old Italian standards recorded with a full orchestra and sung in Italian. While Patton is known for a employing a wide variety of incarnations, Mondo Cane is unlike any of his previous projects. First, and most obviously, Mondo Cane is an Italian language release. Secondly it finds the singer paying homage to other songwriters, a first for the frontman.

Discussing the 11-song album, Patton explained "My purpose in revisiting these pieces is not to relive the past, not for nostalgia, but more to illustrate through modern and adventurous interpretation exactly how vital and important this music still is." The evocative collection includes works by The Blackmen ("Urlo Negro"), a late 60's song about the Civil Rights struggle, Gino Paoli's "Senza Fine," made famous by Connie Francis, and Patton's beloved Ennio Morricone who penned "Deep Down" for the film Danger: Diabolik in 1968.