Amon Tobin - Foley Room
(CD/2xLP) Ninja Tune ZEN121/ZENCD121, 2007-03-05
Review :
Hey kids what about a little christmas gift? It's Sunday, December 24th and on this freezy xmas eve I got the chance to listen to the new
Amon Tobin album... I must admit I really don't endorse the whole xmas shebang but here I am, taking this listening session as a nothing less thand a supa-cool gift.
Hum...
Amon Tobin, supa-cool?? Ain't that the thing you'd rather put along with some
Will Smith character or some
Bart Simpson joke? Hell yeah. But what the heck - the best christmas movie ever is in my eyes
Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and I'm an Amon-addict ever since the second album, so this "Foley Room" one is just the perfect thing for today.
Ever heard of a foley room? It's s the place where the sound effects are recorded for films. I can already hear you thinking: "so after the '
Splinter Cell' soundtrack
Amon Tobin has finally found his niche is horror movies and videogames scores?". Thankfully you'd be totally wrong. This title only implies that the artist has widened up the scope of his sound, recording lotsa real-life sounds and sound effects from all over the world with high-sensivity mikes.
So has he gone all minimal like a big part of the German scene? Nope. No house or techno stuff here, we stay in pure
Amon Tobin soundscapes and structures. If a comparison had to be made, I'd say for example that if sound-manipulator
Herbert is 10% genius and 90% rock'n'roll, then
Amon Tobin prefers to stay focused on the first 10%.
Take the first single, "Bloodstone", which opens the album with guests
The Kronos Quartet. It feels like their tuning session is what Amon recorded, deconstructed an reconstructed in an
De Vinci kind of perfectionism! The "Big Furry Head" track is another god example, with its roaring lions, melancolic strings, industrial textures and jungle sounds, all perfectly fitting together as an obvious thing you could never have thought of.
Overall, the album sounds even more an otherwordly mashing-up of styles than before, with musique-concrete and drum'n'bass clashing over psychedelic effects, cinematic chords, rock riffs, hip hop and jungle beats, angelic backgrounds... the list goes on and on, but don't think for one second you'll get lost in a maze of music. This is forward-thinking at his best, with
Amon Tobin pushing the boundaries of his art in uncharted territories, for his best and most consistent album yet... again!
Djouls
Tracklisting :
01. Bloodstone 4:13
02. Esther's 3:21
03. Keep Your Distance 4:48
04. Vanilla's the Killer 4:14
05. Kitchen Sink 4:49
06. Horsefish 5:07
07. Foley Room 3:37
08. Big Furry Head 3:22
09. Ever Falling 3:49
10. Always 3:39
11. Straight Psyche 6:49
12. At The End Of The Day 3:18
Links :
amontobin.com
ninjatune.net/ninja/artist.php?id=1
myspace.com/tobinamon
timec.net/ninjatune/index.php/Amon-tobin
Strictly Kev/Openmind Artwork
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Yppah - You Are Beautiful At All Times
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