Review Summary: "They teach you there's a boundary line to music but man, there's no boundary line to art."
Anyone who has ever been to an Amon Tobin concert can tell you that it manages to be both hypnotically complex and visually dazzling at the same time. The same description can also be applied to his music which seamlessly manages to combine old jazz and blues samples with breakneck Drum n Bass beats until the resulting wall of sound overwhelms listeners and still has modern audio engineers scrambling around. Basically he finds a way to make old jazz and blues music sound fresh again with nothing but a keyboard and a sampler.
The sounds he manages to coax out of reordering these old records is made even more baffling when you realize that he has no prior experience in music other than a harmonica he used to busk with on the streets while at university. He has spoken of blues and jazz as expressions of the times and his unique and skillful reinterpretation of them is another rebuttal to those who scoff at sampling as an art.
This is the sound of a city alive at night while its denizens waste the hours till morning smoking away in jazz lounges, it’s also the sound of old noir detective films made nowhere more apparent than on the opening track with its smooth saxophone sound familiar to anyone who has ever played an old Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis tune except with a new spin on the familiar patterns and break beats until it manages to sound invigorating again.
By sheer virtue of its use of prerecorded material taken from his collection of old records, many might be put off by how complex some of the arrangements are compared to similar albums in the genre although even they pale in comparison to some of his later work . The album flows in way that makes it seem to almost breathe with layered beats running alongside the sampled jazz and blues sound , none of the songs ever outside although on first listen a few might sound alike further plays reveal enough variance to go around.
While later records would show more experimentation and a willingness to include more complex patterns, a wider array of samples from different eras and even field recordings all of which further served to make this record almost humbling in comparison, this is still a great example of a virtuoso musician with an amazing talent for sound design. If you have never heard any of his work before this is a great place to start although not his best its still evidence of an artist who was willing to look forward. The attention to detail and methodical care put into some of his recent live shows is evident early on even here.
