Il Buono | Crookers

Tracks like “Italia” and “Bella Ciao (Rework)” swap distorted bass for analog synths, field recordings, and acoustic samples. There’s accordion. There’s whispered Italian poetry. There’s even a bossa nova detour. Why the change? In interviews, Barbaglia described a growing fatigue with “bangers for bangers’ sake.” After years of festival sets built on drops, he began collecting sounds from his childhood — old film scores, cantautori like Battisti and De André, the echo of train stations in Milan.

In the chaotic pantheon of late-2000s dance music, Crookers (the alias of Italian producer Francesco “Phra” Barbaglia) was cast as the villain. His sound was a jackhammer — a brash, fidgety, bass-driven collision of blog-house and punk electronics that tore through clubs with “Day ‘n’ Nite” (the Kid Cudi remix that became a global anthem). He was il cattivo — the bad guy of the booth, the one who turned melodies into stuttering glitches. crookers il buono

But a decade later, something shifted. With the 2021 project Crookers didn’t just make an album — he staged a quiet, genre-defying redemption. The Concept: A Spaghetti Western for the Dancefloor “Il Buono” plays like a sonic parable. Where his early work was aggressive and hedonistic, this LP is measured, cinematic, and unexpectedly tender. The title itself is a wink to Sergio Leone — but instead of Clint Eastwood’s stoic gunslinger, Crookers’ “good” is an artist finding warmth in machinery. Tracks like “Italia” and “Bella Ciao (Rework)” swap