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ISAM

by Amon Tobin

supported by
Jordan Vauvert
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Jordan Vauvert S'inventer et se réinventer : Amon Tobin portait son attention à tous les objets du quotidien sur Foley Room sans les hiérarchiser ; sur ISAM, il est temps de grandir. Sons qui s'étiolent pour mieux refaire surface ("Lost & Found"), balbutiements de bambin ("Dropped from the Sky"), il a l'attention d'un enfant — éphémère mais intense. Appliqué à nous faire vivre une série de petits rêves, il nous met dans l'optique du jeu. Musicalement, c'est révolutionnaire !

Invented
Sounds
Applied to
Music Favorite track: Bedtime Stories.
Kehlim
Kehlim thumbnail
Kehlim An album, that climbs, at night, through your bedroom window and asks you to watch the approaching, glowing red comet with them. Favorite track: Dropped from the Sky.
Christopher Moklebust
Christopher Moklebust thumbnail
Christopher Moklebust A cascading tapestry of electro-acoustical energy plummeting toward a spatial terminus, Amon Tobin's ISAM is the demonstration of such phenomena. It is the musical representation of auditory collapse and reconstitution - built upon the continual resonance of that which came before it. ISAM exists only on the subatomic level, filled to the brim inside the dichotomy of collision and separation. Favorite track: Piece of Paper.
Jesse Butterfield
Jesse Butterfield thumbnail
Jesse Butterfield Amon Tobin has always been way ahead of his time, pushing what electronic music can be. I really wish I had gotten to see this live rig when it existed, but I was pretty late to the game. Favorite track: Lost & Found.
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  • Amon Tobin - ISAM CD + MP3 (ZENCD168)
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  • Amon Tobin - 'ISAM' LP [ZEN168]
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of ISAM via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Journeyman 06:38
2.
3.
Goto 10 04:20
4.
Surge 02:05
5.
Lost & Found 04:54
6.
Wooden Toy 02:25
7.
8.
Calculate 01:33
9.
Kitty Cat 04:16
10.
11.
Night Swim 05:56
12.

about

What is “ISAM”? A transmission from a distant planet? A gateway into an alternate reality? A codename for a new psychotropic? A freshly discovered planet? A secret swinger’s network? A liberation theology? A soundtrack to the ultimate snuff movie? Nonsense? The only sense in town?

Re-drawing and blurring the lines between psychedelia and sci-fi, between art and entertainment, between sound design and melody, Amon Tobin has created the finest, most intense work of his very considerable career, an extension and refinement of everything he has achieved thus far, a crowning achievement in the process that he describes as “re-ordering the things around me.”

Tobin’s earliest work, in his own words, “took bits of existing music from old records and tried to find new contexts for them.” This led to albums like “Bricolage” and “Supermodified” (the clues being in the titles). Gradually, though, the samples “got smaller and smaller and more processed until they became less about context or reference and more like a physical reincarnation of sounds.” This led to the next stage in Tobin’s development, his last album, “Foley Room,” where he followed a Cage-ian tack and “looked at all sounds as potentially musical,” ending up using his own field recordings of lions, wolves, bees, factories and so on. With “ISAM” Amon started with field recordings but then synthesised the sounds and built them into actual playable instruments. With these instruments he then created the album. The vocals are Amon Tobin's for the first time, synthesised and gender modified. “It’s by far the most exciting development in my personal quest for some control over nature,” Tobin explains. “Anything from a grain of found sound to my own voice can be transformed into something new.”

The result is a record of uncharacteristic depth and richness (intellectual, emotional and aural), one which sets your synapses crackling with dread and beauty, reminiscence and speculation, or just the pure apprehension of sound, accomplishing most of the hopes and dreams of dubstep, for instance, without even bothering to limit itself to having to be dubstep (which isn’t to say it doesn’t have some of the most terrifying bass rumbles your sternum will feel this side of Hell). Rarely has a piece of music made the listener feel so completely immersed in a new world, with all the strangeness, excitement and, occasionally, fear that entails. Once you begin listening to “ISAM,” anything written about it becomes redundant. A truly outstanding piece of work, it should establish once and for all Amon Tobin’s well-earned right to sit at the very top table of electronic music making.

credits

released April 19, 2011

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Amon Tobin Los Angeles, California

Amon Tobin has been lauded throughout the world as a major figure in electronic music over the past two decades. New trends in electronic music come and go, but his music has stayed uniquely relevant and timeless, creating new ideas instead of following the old ones. ... more

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