Amon Tobin | The Foley Room Recorded Live In Brussels

January 16th, 2009 Stu

Brazilian Amon Tobin has been targetted with a lightning bolt of generosity and is giving away a full-length live album on his site at amontobin.com. ‘The Foley Room Recorded Live In Brussels’ documents last year’s tour in support of the recent Ninja Tune album, in which Tobin dropped his usual reliance on vinyl sample sources and set about creating his own sound library, recording fx or ‘foley’ from unique sources such as roaring tigers, wasps and “falling chickpeas” (?). Although in danger of tumbling into the Matthew Herbert trap of chin-strokingly lovable ‘musique concrete’ – tracks that raise a smile on the first listen, yet become unlistenable after the third spin – ‘The Foley Room’ album was something of a triumph: thrilling, innovative and destined to become one of his career highlights.

In the live space, as is evidenced on this album, Tobin is not content to replicate and represent the finished product, quite the opposite. His love for drum’n'bass (and hardcore d’n'b at that) remains high on his shopping list, the nuances and subtleties give way to a more visceral and energetic experience. And it’s not all Tobin originals either – he blends Kelis, Spank Rock, Boxcutter and Autechre into the mix, along with cuts from his new Two Fingers project.

In the accompanying booklet, Tobin addresses the lack of visuals on the 2007 tour, explaining that “every last penny” was sunk into the sound system. “This show had nothing to do with stage antics after all,” he says. “It’s all about the sound and the shared experience of being immersed in waves of bass, while dissonant collections of rhythm and melody move, confuse, annoy you a bit, and then move again.”

amontobin.com was relaunched last year, and now features unreleased original material that Tobin is selling direct to fans – some of which comes via a ‘track of the month’ series. There’s also more free downloads, mixes, wallpapers and archive cuts: all in all, a great site (if a somewhat heavy load time) that speaks volumes about Tobin’s relationship with his audience.

Amon Tobin – The Foley Room Recorded Live In Brussels | zip

In 2007, I interviewed Amon about ‘The Foley Room’ album – download the podcast here.

img | Ronn aka “Blue” D’Aldaman

Tags: amontobin, brazil, ninjatune

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The Long Lost | Woebegone (Flying Lotus’ Luckiest Charm)

December 18th, 2008 Stu

When Alfred Darlington is not making late-night booty calls on his Casio under the Deadelus alias, it seems that he’s dolling himself up in turn-of-the-19th-century attire and making sweet, acoustic peans to love with his wife Laura. Whilst it might sound like something he should be doing behind closed doors, it is in fact the story of The Long Lost – a project that has been through various stages of gestation over the last decade and is now priming its debut release, ‘Woebegone’, on Ninja Tune.

Cut across the spectrum to this year’s ‘Los Angeles’ release from Flying Lotus, or back to his ‘1983′ album, and you’ve already infused Laura Darlington’s beautiful vocals on ‘Unexpected Delight’ and ‘Auntie’s Lock’ respectively – and there’s also a not-unexpected turn on the closing track of this year’s Deadelus album ‘Love To Make Music To’. Given this long-standing relationship with Mr Fly-Lo, it’s only fitting that he return the favour with two remixes of ‘Woebegone’, one of which drops below. Dovetailing relationships aside, this drifts in like a prize off-cut from ‘Los Angeles’, all shuffling percussion and rising arpeggios, and Darlington’s light lilt draped over the top like wafer-thin gold-plate.

The Long Lost – Woebegone (Flying Lotus’ Luckiest Charm) | mp3

Buy ‘Woebegone’ from Ninja Tune. A second single from the Santa Monica duo, titled ‘Amiss’, is due in February featuring versions from Tuung (described as a “clog stomper” of a remix), Fink and Computer Jay, and a full album lands in March.

Tags: flyinglotus, ninjatune, thelonglost

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