Times A Changin’
Look at Erick Morillo.
Landing strip faux hawk? Down syndrome aviator glasses? College-lettered t-shirt? Fishing boat?
Dissecting such a strong collection of questionable content usually merits the use of italics and exclamation points, but this photo’s general absurdity will suffice.
The millennium’s recoil from the rave scene underwent a meteoric rise in poppy, funky, and most importantly, accessible, stadium house, and with it Mr. Morillo’s prolific rise to the limelight of the international dance community. Banging and loud, labels like Subliminal, Defected, Cream, and Skint cranked out hits for club kids and swarms of European festivalgoers. The release of Subliminal Session 10, for which this photo is the marquee image, brings to light nearly over 5 years of Ibiza-saturated stadium house that has lost momentum.
For the most part, the genre of banging 4 am club tracks has had the same look and feel for the past 5 years, from the music to the websites to the fonts, packaging, and graphic design. Eventually, change must come in some form, proactively or otherwise. “You can kick and scream all you want, but…. it’s, it’s gonna happen….”
Revamping one’s image can be a necessary step for maintaining career longevity amongst fickle fans and harsh cultural critics, so to see Morillo shed the cashmere turtle neck for something a bit more contemporary was not particularly shocking. However, rounding a corner in Manhattan to see a wheat-pasted wall of Erick Morillo looking like the bassist in some OC emo band defied all expectations.
Where are Morillo’s publicist/stylist/manager/loved ones? Who suggested his new hipstertrash pastiche image?
Who knows? Maybe Erick will prove me wrong. Maybe Erick’s new image will draw the youth back on to the dance floors and rejuvenate a scene that has been all but dead since the beginning of the millennium. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
