Review Summary: Grand Theft Audio
It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness. Surely there can only be so many good samples one can appropriate and fit together into weird and wonderful new jigsaw puzzles? This generation has seen so much thieving going on it’s a wonder that there’s anything left in the shop. Premier and the Bomb Squad broke in first and nicked all the good ***, whilst Shadow cleaned up hard on their heels. Even the polite young Australian gentlemen clearing up stuffed their pockets with the sweets that remained.
What’s left? Some discarded odds and ends lying forgotten in dark corners; scraps of bread and rotten fruit, all destined for the garbage heap of history. Yet out from out here a hungry Amon Tobin steps in, gobbles up the mess and then ***s out pure gold. Again
Although the majority of
Out from Out Where is made up of wonderfully obscure samples, for the first time in his career Tobin drops in his own pre-recorded parts. This not only avoids complicated clearance issues but also adds a complete new set of colours to his palette, ensuring that this gorgeous work is the centrepiece in his gallery of sounds. Complementing the usual break beats and acoustic instruments are a surfeit of synths that Tobin splashes around the way a maddened Pollock hurled paint at canvases. Chopped up vocals are thrown into the mix to spice things up on funky single
Verbal, whilst the delectable bitches brew that is
Rosies brings the swagger back so hard Excision, Datsik and Usher
all felt compelled to write a song about it.
You’d think that after a triad of fantastic albums the Tobin machine would be running out of steam. Not a chance;
Out is as intense and focused as a laser beam. It flows like the serpentine Nile, around dark temples and pyramids of sound from where the hushed voices of eons past emanate before merging with lush tropical breezes, creating spiralling dust storms of sound that envelop cities, continents, worlds.
But I digress. Put simply,
Out from Out Where is yet another astonishing album from one of the most consistent, singular and downright brilliant producers of the last twenty years.
Now get it and get out from out here
