AMON TOBIN
Foley Room
Ninja Tune
· Legendary Brazilian beatsmith Amon Tobin and the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet are let loose in a unique sound laboratory.
Amon Tobin creates sonic environments, not songs. Since the release of his breakout Bricolage album in 1997, he has pushed the boundaries of what listeners would call jazz or jungle or electronic music by sampling sounds from just about every imaginable source. Up to now, he has used his keen ear to rework snippets of bop horns, manic drums and powerful basslines into complex sound collages. In Foley Room, he visits an elaborate sound effects studio reminiscent of old AM radio shows or silent film – giving a nod to the audio/visual post-production pioneer Jack Foley.
Ever the audiophile, Mr. Tobin strives to find the perfect noises that describe the cinematic atmosphere he is trying to capture. The best examples of this are "Bloodstone," the album’s opener and "Foley Room," the title track. The companion DVD to the album, Foley Room: Found Footage, artfully shows the immense production that was involved in the making of the album. Every creak, bump, bark, click and piano splash was isolated and carefully layered. Contemporary chamber musicians, the Kronos Quartet, who are featured in a number of film scores including Requiem for a Dream and The Lord of the Rings, provide weavings of string arrangements throughout the album, as dictated by Tobin.
At times, the tracks are forgettable due to the overall lack of melody or because the sound is too busy as a result of the layering of dozens of samples. Thankfully though, Foley Room lets us know that Tobin has left woefully insipid material, like 2005’s Chaos Theory – Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack behind and still has many interesting tidbits left in his sonic stockpile.
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