Amon Tobin – Foley Room site (2007)
web.archive.org
web.archive.org
His stuff with the London Symphony Orchestra is bonkers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggl_pWkbEoc).
All of his recent stuff isn't quite my cup of tea, but that's just the nostalgia factor speaking. I guess anyone who discovers a musician during one of their eras may not necessarily like their other eras...which is more of a condemnation of the listener, rather than the musician, perhaps :)
I do prefer the original, electronically-produced version, because I think Amon Tobin is more talented as a producer than as a composer per-se, and I think a lot of the non-"classical" sounds in At the End of the Day are really well selected, like the electric guitar. It adds to the "James Bond"-ness of it all. This is the original, AIUI:
But it seems that it was a flash site (of course), and archive.org seems to replace Flash Player with "Ruffle" [1]. Either that, or someone of Tobin's team replaced Flash with Ruffle >= 2019.
Doja Cat has a programmable music video: https://dojacode.com/
Tobin did a really wonderful interview in 2008 that made me really appreciate electronic music more when I read it regarding how drum and bass is truly avant garde given its manipulative use of samples rather than simply looping beats or lifting long samples because they need a saxophone somewhere: [2]
> Rusty: It seems like now, your more recent music has been more synthetic, more digital and less samples? Is that correct? Or are you just tweaking the samples so much?
> Amon Tobin: It's really just about manipulation now. Like I said, back in the early nineties, it was interesting just to take samples as they were and see what you could do with them. And now, the technology has advanced so much more and there's a lot more room for maneuvers between synthesizers and synthetic processes applied to recorded material and sampled material. So there's much more of a hybrid going on now as far as I'm concerned and so my music is maybe now a little bit less easy to define in terms of is it sampled best or is it synthesized or is it just, you know, I guess, electronic, really.
> ...
> Rusty: I know. I was going back through some of my older CD's from that period, which I hadn't listened to in a while, and I was like "That was really good." I mean, it's super stylistic, so you tend to burn out if you hear a little too much of it.
> Amon Tobin: Well, the interesting thing about drum and bass is that it was, to me it felt like it was a genuinely forward-thinking type of music. People were really trying to do new things. They weren't trying to be nostalgic or relive some golden era of music in the seventies. It was all about 'Let's try and make something truly futuristic and do things with production that had never been possible before.' And that spirit still remains, as small as the genre is. It's influenced a lot of other types of music which are much more in the forefront now. So, you know, I think it's normal. These things go in cycles. Things become, you know, they become very much in the spotlight.
A very modernist take, pushing boundaries for its own sake. Contrast with pop music which is exactly the opposite, being rearrangements of standards.
Somehow I find his music is perfect for working with code. It feels like it really meshes with my mind in a way I've never found with other artists.
Also was sad to see he recently retired from live shows, but am glad I got to see him live several times several times in San Franciso. He shows were always mind-blowing and it's such a pleasure to see a master at work. Plus I respected how humble he was; his talent is far far beyond artists who are more financially successful, and he avoids the spotlight. I wish there was more available about how his mind works, because it must be very unique.
I did not know his music was used on Cartoon Network, I watched a lot of that back in the day.
I don't know why anybody on this site accepts this sort of Reddit-esque upvote pandering bullshit comment.
Am I the only one who <incredibly common opinion>
Does anybody else have the unique intellectual capacity to recognize that <obvious piece of information>
The issue is, the training and support for similar projects in JS and CSS took such a long time (and honestly is still nowhere near the ease of use of Flash) that by just a few years later interactive websites became a throwback anyway. Now, if anyone were to do that, it would carry a dreadful air of nostalgia.
That said, perhaps they would have carried on if not for Adobe basically refusing to fix Flash, but I think by the time Steve Jobs' note was published it was already out of vogue. The end of skeuomorphism and the era of "flat design everything" was concurrent, and these were easily accommodated by contemporary web technologies without Flash. I think that's also an important point, there was an era where such websites as Amon Tobin's were considered basically old-fashioned and lethargic, and everyone was genuinely very excited about turning everything into flat design.
His music is great (Long Stories, Out From Out Where, Supermodified)
The website experience is neat.
This is the second musician I see making an ambitious computer project.
The other being that game Neil Cicierega made.
I jokingly pick Slowly by Amon Tobin to be the soundtrack for when they do the lethal injection thing to me.
It's one of the few artist in the electronic frontier that imho manages to consistently make musical songs with state of the art tech. In contract to newer stuff from for example Clark or Amon Tobin where it feels the intresting sounds are the song instead of intresting sounds making the song.
Next to their usual stuff/albums there is a plethora of remixes out there. Can recommend this fan-driven youtube channel for an overview:
Forest Swords is the artist that comes to my mind for newer stuff besides the old Warp artists although I wouldn't call that IDM at all. I am not even sure what I would call Forest Swords.
I might even put Forest Swords up there with all the old Warp artists but its like he came to play the chill out room at 8am and everyone had already left the party.
Through his DJ mixes I discovered Tipper, Noisia, Frank Riggio.
+1 to Hidden Orchestra which someone else mentioned. I also really love what Stimming is doing.
Besides electronic music, I listen to a lot of jazz these days, and jam bands like Vulfpeck. I mention this because Amon Tobin's early records are what originally got me into jazz.
Reeto von Gunten (https://www.reetovongunten.com/index.php?nav=music&content=s...) has a pretty good collection that I've found a lot of good tracks / artists on.
What's so strange is that when I listen to this music now, I get nostalgia, but it's not for anything that was shared. It was a frame of mind in a moment, and not a memory of people. This music was a weirdly private experience.
Boards of Canada - Music has the right to children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJj24t6nOn4
Emancipator - Soon It Will Be Cold Enough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXaeQw96Fx4
Tycho - Sunrise Projector https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Ycsu_yvFk&list=PLPaztBWnat...
Beats Antique - Beauty Beats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJcU3NjovKg
And then that all lead me to Saafi Brothers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb4JFsfOkLk
And then Carbon Life forms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9pgIVcB3rk
All started by Amon. I know this because I downloaded a backup of my grooveshark db before it shut down :) RIP
I don’t want to say I’m disappointed with his output, because I’m not. His creative and artistic self is far beyond what most people are willing to invest and endure of their life force into, and I appreciate knowing a person like him is out there.
I suppose I’m mostly heartbroken that we’ve had a golden decade of some incredible music from this person and he has essentially disappeared into an abyss of soundscaping. I think Foley Room was the transition period and then ISAM really went all out.
Parallels can be made with bands like Autechre, but that’s a different discussion.
I just want Amon Tobin back.
If you don't know, go listen to Mr. Scruff, The Herbaliser, Fink, Coldcut, Kid Koala, Bonobo, Blockhead, Talvin Singh, and almost countless more.
Truly a case in point for the value of record labels, imo.
Also: footless, and fancy-free, think how happy mom'll be...
[0] https://www.platformer.news/why-pitchfork-died/?ref=platform... [1] https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/25-years-of-...
Way way later, I found the commercial's footage on archive.org, but it didn't feature the song, which was a shame.
His more recent stuff is interesting as well.
I love Long Stories, made on a broken Omnichord (see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38563627 )
It's a really different sound from "back in the day" and likely to be rejected by a lot of the people who grew up on like, bonobo and dj vadim. But the label plays the same role, favoring experimental & alternative groove-based musicians.
The "original" ninja tune artists were so influential that key elements of their sound just became part of the main stream of pop and hip hop today. The current crew is similarly disproportionately influential on other musicians, and I'm nearly certain it will play out the same way.
They had a predilection for releasing zillions of compilation albums with heavily overlapping track lists, which kind of fatigued me on the label, but I'm still fond of the early releases of theirs that I bought.
Funkjazztical Tricknology FTW!
Easy Muffin has to be my favorite song of his as well as Get Your Snack On.
Works in Firefox though.