Amon Tobin: Brazil's Finest

Album: Foely Room
Artist: Amon Tobin
Genre: Electronica/Drum N’ Bass
Year: 2007
Label: Ninja Tune

I have a hard time conceiving of composing music. I love music, but the idea of laying down individual notes to make even just one piece is sort of incredible to me. After all, you have to have an idea of how any given instrument sounds corresponding to the notes, and that seems incredibly difficult. This is why Amon Tobin can’t be human. How do you compose music from samples? How do you compose music with a car engine? Or a bee buzzing? Or water dripping? Granted, there are real instruments throughout the album, but just as frequently there are non-instruments clanging, booming, screaming and ripping. Amon Tobin is an Electronica artist from Brazil and his latest album Foely Room is comprised entirely of field recordings. Armed with highly sensitive microphones, Tobin gathered sounds from all over the place with the intent of making the non-musical musical. He also recorded with artists such as the Kronos Quartet and Sarah Page for some actual musical samples. The entire album isn’t just a collage of random field recordings; every track is very musical. This is what impresses me. After all, how does someone in their head take a field recording of an engine rumbling and think “yeah, that’ll go great with some piano.”

It’s really stunning just how musical the album is. Every track sings in its own way. My favorites include tracks like “Keep Your Distance” which features a Les Claypool-esque Bass driving jungley drums and the epic “The Killer’s Vanilla” which features the Kronos Quartet at some of their finest. I remember one time I was sitting in a car while it was raining, listening to that track. It was night and a street light was shining through the windows, causing everything in the car to look like it was moving because of how the rain was running over the surface of the windows. It was one of the trippiest things I’ve ever seen in my life and the effect was dramatically augmented by the music. Another great track is “Kitchen Sink.” You know that joke about throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the mix? Well, it looks like Tobin did just that as this track sounds completely aquatic in its atmosphere. Tobin, along with Aphex Twin and Massive Attack, ranks among the best Electronica artists I’ve heard recently and you would do yourself a favor to get this unusual album.