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You may know from all his previous albums on Ninja Tune, but particularly Chaos Theory - The Soundtrack To Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (with a remix coming version coming out this year), the world of Amon Tobin (aka Amon Adonai Santos de Araujo Tobin) is a strange complication of found sounds and dark noise rhythm.

Surely, they must be simpler and quicker ways of making music like this, there must be, but that would be missing the point as this ‘control of nature’ approach works for him; and with the emergence of dubstep since his last album in 2007, there’s definitively an influence on ISAM - organic dubstep if you like.

‘Goto 10’ is possibly the best examples but ‘Lost & Found’, ‘Mass & Spring’ and ‘Dropped From The Sky’ are not far behind. And it’s not all doom and gloom. ‘Wooden Toy’ and ‘Kitty Cat’ are quite light and upbeat for him (his Daedelus meets Beach Boys period?) as is the pocket calculator interlude of ‘Calculate’ and my favourite, the almost Indo-chill of ‘Night Swim’.

‘Surge’ is an odd mush of Formula 1/twisted tape type noise and ‘Bedtime Stories’ is no lullaby as it’s stuck in the middle of noise/dubstep and twee!

This album came out last month and I found it a bit disturbing (especially as the opener ‘Journeyman’ doesn’t tie in with the beautiful artwork of the cover which is a show in itself, see links below) but as I was going to see David Rodigan and miss the ‘3D Tetris’ live show at the Roundhouse on the same night (and miss Easy Star All-Stars at the same time), it was time to give this album another go as it’s just another angle on bass music (along with others this week as varied as Bootsy Collins’ Tha Funk Capital Of The World, Wiley’s record of the week 100% Publishing (on Big Dada) and Soul Jazz Records’ Invasion Of The Mysteron Killer Sounds by The Bug and Stuart Baker - all very different but all connected to the same branch.

Even so, people are already asking, ISAM, his best album?

Reviewed: Amon Tobin - ISAM (Ninja Tune) Cat. No: ZENLP/CD/DNL168 Release date: 23rd May 2011
Tracklisting:
1 Journeyman (6:39)
2 Piece Of Paper (2:40)
3 Goto 10 (4:20)
4 Surge (2:05)
5 Lost & Found (4:54)
6 Wooden Toy (2:25)
7 Mass & Spring (4:16)
8 Calculate (1:33)
9 Kitty Cat (4:17)
10 Bedtime Stories (3:44)
11 Night Swim (5:57)
12 Dropped From The Sky (7:11)

Links:
amontobinisam.comamontobin.com
ninjatune.net
Amon Tobin & Tessa Farmer ‘ISAM: Control Over Nature’ with the release of ‘ISAM’, Amon Tobin has come together with highly respected Saatchi Collection artist Tessa Farmer on a revolutionary, collaborative installation. ‘Control Over Nature’ .
The collaboration perfectly captures the themes surrounding ‘ISAM’: sensory deprivation, disorienting situationism and the mechanisation of natural things.
29th May - 5th June The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston Road, London NW1 2BA
13th - 23rd June, L’Espace Art Roch, 18 bis rue Saint Roch, 75001 PARIS France
Dates are also being confirmed for Brussels, Berlin, and North America later in the year.
‘Control Over Nature’ combines Amon Tobin’s sound design and elements of ‘ISAM’ alongside Farmer’s trademark sculptures (constructed from bits of organic material, such as roots, dead insects and bones). Hovering with a rarefied, jewel-like beauty,Tessa’s tiny spectacles resound with a theurgist exotica: their specimen forms borrow from Victorian occultism to evolve as something alien and futuristic.
Rodigan’s Reggae - The official website of Reggae DJ David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan www.rodigan.com
www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com