Amon Tobin - Dark Jovian (2x12")

  On 1/25/2014 at 4:59 PM, Philip Glass said:

 

  On 1/23/2014 at 8:52 AM, ghOsty said:

I'd like to hear him combine the glitchy beat driven sounds of Out From Out Where with the abstractions of Foley Room/Isam if he can find the balance between the two sounds and drop the abstract dubsteppy sound it could be truly great.

 

It's called the Splinter Cell soundtrack!

 

The Chaos Theory soundtrack is definitely underrated, I haven't ever really even played the game tbh but that soundtrack is amazing.

Chaos Theory is my favorite album of his tbh imho. Perfect blend of the whole sound design thing and his older mood.

imho tbqh

The reasons and ways an artist changes through the years can give possible insight into future output. Squarepusher for example, the way his music changed during the "pre-public" years is very organic and experimental, in that album themes and vibez were different, yet coherent within themselves and still maintaining something inherently "squarepusher" about them. "Post-public" years, is sort of now time, after he decided to put lights on his face, due to sp coming to public recognition by inadvertently seeping out of underground culture by means of hipsterdom. His own reaction to the public reaction to Shobaleader One- I fink- dictated a "return to form" with Ufabulum. Mainstream reaction to his output has basically been linear throughout the years, with praise generally being about the same sort of stuffs. In that sense, I feel there is good chance that he will further return to a type of sound that got the old schoolers interested in him in the first place-- less cosmic, more ravey and underground street.

A change of praise for Amon Tobin- and non-linear praise- is possibly where his output has been influenced. Amon Tobin started off like some post-- DJ Shadow, DJ Food et al-- a lush beatsman of sorts. After Supermodified, everyone was in love with the depth of the chill vibes and the beaty of the beatz. But after Foley Room, the praise went not towards his conceptual execution of emotional abstraction or beat skillz; but rather his conceptual execution of technicalities (recording). ISAM was highly regarded as an audio+visual masterpiece (i.e. somewhat artsy fartsy). And so- inadvertently or organically- Amon Tobin has continued on this route; someone who had rough dots but told you where they went, to someone with highly refined dots in areas where the listener is more free to decide their form. So due to the type of public praise received in recent years, I imagine Amon Tobin now believes and sees himself to be an artist of high conceptual and technical quality, where superficial aspects of abstraction have slightly more worth than concrete emotional substance (if wishful dreaming means anything with regards to how we eventually craft ourselves, telling from now, I imagine he'd always wanted to be like Richard Devine (a HIGH goal for anyone starting from DJ splice roots, btw)).

If DJ Nate had some opportunity to record a footwork album with a live orchestra and some well known jazz quartet, it's quite possible that a few albums later, the booties and feet that were originally rocking lightning from his original output, would be rocking less hard; he'd eventually be discussing frequencies and sipping espresso and shit with some wanker with paper accreditation. 'Tis the nature of growth and self-realization, I suppose. Or perhaps that's the transformation power of the idea that technicalities can contain substance (illusory bullshit-- HEART is everything, folks).

  On 1/27/2014 at 7:24 AM, ghOsty said:

 

  On 1/25/2014 at 4:59 PM, Philip Glass said:

 

  On 1/23/2014 at 8:52 AM, ghOsty said:

I'd like to hear him combine the glitchy beat driven sounds of Out From Out Where with the abstractions of Foley Room/Isam if he can find the balance between the two sounds and drop the abstract dubsteppy sound it could be truly great.

 

It's called the Splinter Cell soundtrack!

 

 

The Chaos Theory soundtrack is definitely underrated, I haven't ever really even played the game tbh but that soundtrack is amazing.

 

I played the game just to hear the soundtrack in action. it's a good game in its own right, of course.

the chaos theory soundtrack is imo one of his worst works, it sounds very much like a modern videogame soundtrack, bland, uneventful forgettable and for using a lot of jazz and break samples it sounds way too clean and polished, again another characteristic of modern video game soundtracks. I remember a halfway decent few tracks with a loose drum solo feel but ultimately it just kinda fell flat for me, also weird how they released it in 5.1 on DVD, when the surround mix on it is weak as hell, almost just sounds like a stereo mix

  On 1/27/2014 at 5:20 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

it sounds very much like a modern videogame soundtrack

nah. it sounded like no other video game soundtrack at the time, nor does it have that much in common with them even now. most big-budget franchise-game soundtracks strive for a cinematic sound developed by a solo composer, not a subtler, multi-layered jazzy sound created using an ensemble of musicians, as was the case with Chaos Theory.

*drinks himself into a coma*

yea i rank that chaos theory record very high in my amon tobin likings

i don't play video games, so whether it is common or uncommon for games is lost on me, i just dig the tunage

  On 1/27/2014 at 5:30 PM, usagi said:

 

  On 1/27/2014 at 5:20 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

it sounds very much like a modern videogame soundtrack

 

nah. it sounded like no other video game soundtrack at the time, nor does it have that much in common with them even now. most big-budget franchise-game soundtracks strive for a cinematic sound developed by a solo composer, not a subtler, multi-layered jazzy sound created using an ensemble of musicians, as was the case with Chaos Theory.

 

*drinks himself into a coma*

 

i guess it just had too much of a 'sound library' type sound to me, that reminded me of videogame music production that uses a lot of fake sampling library orchestral stuff. It seemed almost like it was intentionally trying to be in that mold a little bit. Plus i barely play any videogames, the last one i liked both the soundtrack and the gameplay for was Katamari. I have no patience for most console videogames, they have become so homogenous it's very painful for me.

it does stand as one of the most pointless 5.1 surround sound music releases of all time though, it was an early one ( i think when it came out there were maybe only 5-6 'electronic' surround releases) but even still you'd think the guy responsible for such an impressive body of work would actually play with the 5.1 channels in a clever or interesting way, it just sounds like stereo +

  On 1/25/2014 at 6:41 PM, Antape said:

Yeah but you assume there can be a difference between saying "please Go Plastic 2" and "Bricolage was better than ISAM" don't you ?

 

Absolutely, I am rather arguing against the first type of people. Because I really would have stopped listening to any of the mentioned artists (Ae, SP, Tobin etc. pp.), if they would have stuck to one particular style / sound for the last ten years. I don't like the Rolling Stones approach in music (in any art for that matter).

  On 1/27/2014 at 5:30 PM, usagi said:

 

  On 1/27/2014 at 5:20 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

it sounds very much like a modern videogame soundtrack

 

nah. it sounded like no other video game soundtrack at the time, nor does it have that much in common with them even now. most big-budget franchise-game soundtracks strive for a cinematic sound developed by a solo composer, not a subtler, multi-layered jazzy sound created using an ensemble of musicians, as was the case with Chaos Theory.

 

Absolutely agree. At that time it was massive and quite out there.

  On 1/27/2014 at 9:36 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

it does stand as one of the most pointless 5.1 surround sound music releases of all time though, it was an early one ( i think when it came out there were maybe only 5-6 'electronic' surround releases) but even still you'd think the guy responsible for such an impressive body of work would actually play with the 5.1 channels in a clever or interesting way, it just sounds like stereo +

 

Also agree with you. I think Amon is a bit of a technology nerd being interested in technological possibilities. At that time 5.1 didn't make sense at all. He also did a 7.1 club gig in Berlin for Foley Room which besides being a DJ set only (even if a very good one) was completely pointless sound-wise.

I would have loved to have a 5.1 release for ISAM and Foley Room though. They had the potential for that sort of experience.

  On 1/20/2014 at 4:15 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i just hope that it doesn't sound like field recording/experimental bro-step

 

i would be okay with this

ooooooooooooo

ISAM is not his worst album... not great 4 me, it's not new 4 me, but it's the one i'm not in. ISAM is not an album 4 me, but i agree ISAM Tour... Fuck yeah! awesome! ;-)

yea, there is a difference between studio & live version...

Amon suddenly has a few tour dates announced for Nov/Dec.... presumably to debut some of the new material he's been working on?

Fuck yes. ISAM was too clinical indeed but the great emotional bits like Journeyman and this one were god-tier :

  On 10/27/2014 at 8:44 PM, Perezvon said:

Fuck yes. ISAM was too clinical indeed but the great emotional bits like Journeyman and this one were god-tier :

 

Agreed!

He wasn't touring almost all of 2014 so I'm surprised to see these 2 dates suddenly show up.

He will be back in Montreal for sure. Never knew what Aphex, Luke and Squarepusher thought of Amon. Back in 1996 with Cujo, my opinion is that he was ahead of them in many departments. And then with the first two Amon, he really became a trailblazer with a sound of his own. Very excited about a new album! This guy is one of a kind.

First time I came on Watmm I actually was quite surprised to see Amon Tobin wasn't a featured artist eh.

  On 1/20/2014 at 5:24 AM, logakght said:

I agree. ISAM was technically impressive but there wasn't emotion at all... ISAM Tour was fucking awesome though.

were you there in the studio when he laid these tracks down? who are you to say he wasn't feeling emotional in the process of crafting them?

lol

lol

  On 10/28/2014 at 11:00 PM, Perezvon said:

First time I came on Watmm I actually was quite surprised to see Amon Tobin wasn't a featured artist eh.

I agree. I mean, Clark is here but not Amon Tobin? I know, life is absurd, but still...

  On 10/28/2014 at 11:05 PM, PhylumZunami said:

 

  On 1/20/2014 at 5:24 AM, logakght said:

I agree. ISAM was technically impressive but there wasn't emotion at all... ISAM Tour was fucking awesome though.

 

were you there in the studio when he laid these tracks down? who are you to say he wasn't feeling emotional in the process of crafting them?

 

lol wtf I wrote that? lel

aye, I would agree that Amon has done more to be "featured" than Clark. and I love Clark btw. but I'm quite happy with Amon not being FA-status here. he doesn't really fit the super-IDM roster, his music has always been more jazz/dnb/jungle driven.