Amon Tobin

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Amon Tobin

Amon Adonai Santos de Araujo Tobin, better known as Amon Tobin, is a Brazilian musician, DJ, and producer of electronic music.[1] He is best known for his use of sampling to produce drum and bass and "trip hop" albums.

Tobin has released seven major studio albums since 1996 under the London-based Ninja Tune record label. In 2005, he created the musical score to Ubisoft's critically successful video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. He is also noted for his field-recorded album Foley Room, released in 2007. His music has been used in numerous commercials, promotions, and major motion pictures including The Italian Job and 21. Tobin has created songs for several independent films, most recently the Hungarian horror film Taxidermia.

Biography

Early Career (1995-1997)

Amon Tobin was born on February 7th, 1972 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he spent most of his early childhood. His Irish surname Tobin comes from his stepfather. At the age of 9 he left Brazil to live in Morocco, Netherlands, London, Portugal and Madeira Island before settling as a teenager in Brighton, England. Brighton would remain his permanent residence until 2002.[1][2] There he began producing songs in his bedroom with samplers and other electronic audio equipment, although he was "not really involved in the [music] scene" at that time.[3] While taking an editorial photography class at a Brighton university, he answered a promotion in a magazine for the London-based Ninebar record label asking artists to send in demos of their songs. Ninebar signed Tobin to the label in 1996 after hearing his early work, and he traveled between his home in Brighton and the studios in London to produce his first tracks.

The original cover art of Amon Tobin's first full-length album Adventures in Foam

Under his original moniker Cujo, taken from the Stephen King novel of the same name, he released a series of drum and bass remixes on 12 inch vinyl which were well-received locally.[2][4] AllMusic.com, in a review written after Tobin had obtained more critical success, called them "head-turning," and compared him to popular electronic musicians Luke Vibert and Squarepusher.[5] Many of those tracks were later included on his first full-length album Adventures in Foam, released in 1996 by Ninebar. Only 5,000 copies of Adventures in Foam were originally produced, but over the course of its production the album has been reviewed favorably. Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork Media said that its break-beat style "got totally out of hand," but that it "never fails to let the listener know who's in charge."[6][4] His work on that album prompted the larger Ninja Tune record label to sign Tobin in late 1996, this time under his real name "Amon Tobin".[7] Ninja Tune was gaining populartity at the time with help from a number of their successful artists in the emerging "trip-hop" genre such as DJ Food, Coldcut and The Herbaliser.[8] Later that year, Ninja Tune says that Adventures in Foam had been re-released without permission by the American record label Shadow. They say that this unauthorized version of the album had only 7 of the original songs, different cover art, and that several of the tracks were titled incorrectly.[9] Tobin then re-released the album under Ninja Tune in 1997 with permission from Ninebar. This new version included the original album in its entirety, and a second disc containing both tracks published under Ninebar and previously unreleased material. Ninja Tune released the album for a third time in 2002.[2][5]

Defining Albums (1997-2002)

Over the next several years, Amon Tobin released two albums that were well-received, but that went largely unnoticed by the larger electronic music scene. Bricolage, released in 1997, was the cummulation of two projects Tobin had started after his debut album earlier that year. His third album Permutation was released in 1998. Tobin says that his focus during this period was about reordering the break beats from jazz and blues music into "something new."[10] In the late 1990's, sample-based music was becoming more popular with a wide range of emerging and developing genres such as "trip-hop" and "drum and bass," but Tobin himself was still largely unknown. The "instrumental hip-hop movement," as he termed it, helped Permutation gain some attention. Despite this, the two albums went largely ignored and under-promoted by Ninja Tune because of their more popular artists. Tobin was "caught in the middle," because his style of music was not seen as definitively belong to one genre or another.[11] The few critics that commented on Bricolage and Permutation gave them positive reviews and they are often mentioned, in reviews of his later albums, as some of his best works. Pitchfork Media acclaimed the use of jazz instruments, comparing him to famous composers Quincy Jones and Miles Davis.[12] In a 1999 review, they wrote of Bricolage that it was "one of the most inventive records of the decade."[6]

Tobin released his fourth album Supermodified in 2000. He says that his aim was to "out-do the big beat scene," The "big beat" genre of music grew with the help of commericialy successful electronic acts like The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim.[13] The album continued the theme of manipulating jazz and blues breaks, and Tobin says that the tracks were largely an extension of the skills he developed on his previous two albums.[10] John Bush of Allmusic said that he had "made great strides in his production skills." [14] SplendidZine.com noted that while some tracks sounded similar to the big beat and techno genres, most remained distinctly original. They went on to say that they were "impressed with [the] diffrerent musical directions it took," but wished Tobin had "pushed the genere even farther" than his previous albums.[15] Regarding the success of Supermodified, Tobin said he believes the timing of the release has just as much to do with an album's success as its content. He describes it as a "seminal moment" when potential listeners and critics happen to be looking for his style of music when an album is released.[16]

Montreal (2002-Present)

In 2002, Amon Tobin relocated to Montreal, Canada where he had spent time previously at Ninja Tune's North American Headquarters.[2] His current residence as of 2008, Tobin lives in the industrial area of Old Montreal to avoid noise complaints from neighbors after dark.[17] There he produced his fifth album Out from Out Where which was released that same year. This was his first album created primarily in a professional studio and not in his bedroom.[10] Tobin says that he didn't want to create another "smooth jazz affair," referring to the now established "trip-hop" genre made popular by the Mo'Wax record label along with Ninja Tune.[18][19] In a later interview with SolopsisticNation.com, Tobin called the album "a strange one," adding that he wanted to produce "something with a little more integrity" than his previous works.[20] Otis Hart of Dusted Magazine said that while the album might have fallen short of "heightened expectations," Tobin's style of producing had come into its own. He acclaimed Tobin's "refined sense of tempo" compared to his previous albums.[21] His use of original guitar notes as samples on Out From Out Where marked Tobin's first step toward creating samples first-hand, instead of relying entirely on those taken from his record collection.[22]

File:AmonTobinSplinterCell.jpg
The cover art of Amon Tobin's Chaos Theory - Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack

In January 2004, not having produced a major work in two years, Tobin was contracted by video game company Ubisoft to compose the score for the third installment of their critically successful Splinter Cell series, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Tobin says that he composed the soundtrack as if it were a cult horror film of the 1970's and did not think about the score as belonging to a game.[19] To facilitate the music's use in a video game, where the level of action or plot can change continually, each track was broken down into 4 distinct but similar parts based on their level of intensity. The game's developers could then use each section to provide music based on the actions of the player.[23] The album continued the trend Tobin started with Out From Out Where, as he used more original samples of traditional instruments during production.[24] Musical elements from the countries that the game takes place in were also used to provide a theme from some tracks, like his use of Japanese flutes for the sections that occur in Japan.[19] Tobin later said that he "really dove into it," composing the album for close to five months in 2004. In addition to being included with the game, Ninja Tune released the score as an individual album in 2005, titled Chaos Theory - Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack, several months before the game's release. It was recieved well, benefiting from a wider audience of reviwers in both the music and gaming industries. Ben Hogwood of MusicOMH.com applauded Tobin's use of melody and texture, adding that he controlled the sounds with the "clarity of a classical orchestrator."[25] In Los Angeles, he later recorded a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound version of the album with audio engineer Bobby Azinsky in a dedicated Solid State Logic studio.[26]

The attention that he received from Chaos Theory helped the success of Tobin's sixth studio album Foley Room, released in 2007. The title references the "foley" rooms used by recording engineers and "foley artists" to record sound effects in the movie industry. On this album, Tobin concluded his transition away from pre-recorded source material that started with Out From Out Where. All of the samples used for production were recorded by himself using an omnidirectional microphone.[27] He reportedly recorded 500 megabytes of digital samples in Montreal, San Francisco, and Seattle from a wide range of sources including motorbikes, tigers, insects, and water falling from a tap.[28]. Also contributing to the album were the string quartet Kronos Quartet, drummer Stefan Schneider, and harpist Sarah Page.[29][30] Foley Room's use of field-recordings was used to help promote the album, including two official pre-release trailers posted to YouTube. Nate Dorr of PopMatters.com called it a "smooth, natural progression" from his work on Supermodified.[31] The first single Bloodstone was released to the iTunes Music Store months before the rest of the album. Ninja Tune also published a DVD titled Foley Room: Found Footage which documented the recording proccess.

Musical Style and Influences

Amon Tobin does not come from a musical family, although he experimented with various instruments growing up. He has no formal music training, and in retrospect, says he would have liked to learn about music theory in school.[18][3] He did not "take music seriously" until receiving a sampler and started to produce drum and bass music in his bedroom.[18] "[It] made more sense to what I was into," Tobin later described.[3] In music sampling, the technique he is best known for, a small section of a previous recording is taken, or sampled, and then looped or manipulated to produce a new sound.[32] Until his most recent album Foley Room, Tobin aquired almost all of the samples that he used to produce music from his personal collection of vinyl records. He says that he focuses on the manipulation of the various samples, rather than making them easily recognizable to the listener.[33] Guido Farnell of InTheMix.com, writing about his use of the technique, said that he has "taken the art to new and dizzying heights."[24] During his early career, specifically his first three albums, his songs primarily took elements of blues and jazz music and to put them into a new context.[7] Tobin's use of sampling has changed since then, and by his fifth album Out From Out Where more focus was put on the manipulation of sounds rather than just rearranging their order. His techniques began to branch into technical sound design, taking break beats or single instruments, modifying specific frequencies, and producing sounds that are very different from the original.[20] During the production of Foley Room, a process that he described as "indulgent," he says that It did not matter where the source material came from anymore, that he could create new sounds from anything. Speaking about the creativity of sample-based music compared to traditional styles, "creative input is how you edit and manipulate the sounds."[33]

Tobin says that although he enjoys elements of Bossa Nova and Samba, genres that Brazilian performers are often compared to, he didn't feel that he could contribute to them in a traditional way. This was because, in his words, "I wasn't from that time and I wasn't from that culture." "Of course it influences you," he said about that music, "but so does everything else." By creating music from samples he was able to take those elements and do something he felt was relevant to him. He said that he is fascinated by the way cultures take elements of other cultures and incorporate them.[18] Despite his indirect connection with Brazilian music, Tobin collaborated with a number of artists on Bebel Gilberto's 2000 bossa nova album Tanto Tempo.[34] Drum and bass music appealed to him originally because he did not understand how it was being created, that it "sounded like nothing else." He see his music as a "genuine" expression of the time that he lives in, just as he says blues, jazz, and Brazilian music were expressions of the 1960's.[35] Tobin's albums are often compared to movie soundtracks, and he says that movie directors like David Lynch and Roman Polanski also influence his music.[18]

Live Shows

Amon Tobin performing live in Luxemburg

Amon Tobin has toured in countries all over the world, most recently for his Foley Room album in 2007. His shows generally contain tracks that he has produced over his career mixed with modified songs from several other genres. The soft-spoken artist says that during his live performances, he wants to take the emphasis away from him and the stage and put it on the music[33][17] He usually makes us of a Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound speaker system which, in his words, "make a different sonic environment for people to visit."[33] Before the advent of advanced live production software, Tobin would create dubplates, or custom vinyl records, before each show with material to play. Now he says that a laptop and products like Final Scratch replace a lot of his preparation work.[26] Speaking about his surprise at the number of people who attended his performances during the Foley Room tour, he said that "you don't really know how many people are into what you do," because of the popularity of internet file sharing.[33]

Tobin's 2003 live performance in Melbourne, Australia was used for the fourth album in Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series because Tobin was not available to record a studio mix at the time.[26] Many of the tracks that he says he wanted to be included could not because of the copyright issues with the original artists, including Destiny's Child.[24][36]

Discography

Amon Tobin has released seven major studio albums:[2]

In addition, his body of work includes 21 singles which contain several B-sides each, a live album for Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series, new material for various compilation albums, and original tracks available as free downloads on his website.[37][38][38]

Amon Tobin's music has been used in several major motion pictures and commercials including The Italian Job (2003) and 21.[39][40] He has also produced tracks for a number of independent films such as The Last Minute.[41] He has produced production music for the BMG Zomba comnercial library which is used in various films.[42] Most recently he scored the soundtrack for the Hungarian horror film Taxidermia which was made available as a free EP on his website.[43]

In 2008 he began collaborating on a hip-hop oriented project with electronic artist Double Click. Under the name Two Fingers, the pair have released several singles.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b Vaz de Castro, Nana (2001-04-26). "Amon Tobin, Brazilian star in the electronica scene". AllBrazillianMusic.com. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Ninjatune Artists - Amon Tobin Biography". Ninja Tune. 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  3. ^ a b c Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:12:30. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:05:40. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b Cooper, Sean. "Adventures in Foam Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  6. ^ a b Schreiber, Ryan (1999-12-31). "Cujo: Adventures in Foam". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  7. ^ a b Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:01:31. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Dare, Christopher (2002-10-24). "Amon Tobin Out From Out Where". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  9. ^ "Adventures In Foam" (Press release). Ninja Tune. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  10. ^ a b c Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:31:19. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:18:40. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Schreiber, Ryan (1999-12-31). "Amon Tobin:Bricolage [Ninja Tune]". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  13. ^ "Big Beat". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  14. ^ Bush, John. "Supermodified". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  15. ^ Zahora, George. "Amon Tobin Supermodified". SplendidZine.com. Retrieved 2008-10-02. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 11 (help)
  16. ^ Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:35:50. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  17. ^ a b Nasrallah, Dimitri. "Where I Play: Amon Tobin". Exclaim!. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  18. ^ a b c d e Roozendaal, Dave (2002-09-13). "Amon Tobin: interview op KindaMuzik". Kindamuzik. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  19. ^ a b c Thorsen, Tor (2005-01-26). "Q&A: Chaos Theory composer Amon Tobin". Gamespot. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  20. ^ a b Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:41:35. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  21. ^ Hart, Otis (2002). "Dusted Reviews: Amon Tobin". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  22. ^ "Out From Out Where Press Release". Ninja Tune. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  23. ^ Micallef, Ken (2005-04-01). "UNDER A MICROSCOPE". Remix Magazine. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  24. ^ a b c d Farnell, Guido (2006-12-06). "Amon Tobin: Enter the Foley Room". InTheMix.com.au. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  25. ^ Hogwood, Ben (2007-02-07). "Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory (Ninja Tune)". MusicOMH.com. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  26. ^ a b c Gilbey, Sam (2005). "PIXELSURGEON - Interviews - Music - Amon Tobin". Pixelsurgeon. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  27. ^ Cooper, Sean (2007-03). "Amon Tobin Bugs Out". Wired. 15 (04). Wired. Retrieved 2008-10-09. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ "Foley Room" (Press release). Ninja Tune. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  29. ^ Maher, Dave (2007-01-05). "Amon Tobin Meets Kronos Quartet in Foley Room". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  30. ^ Hitchings, Craig (2007-09-09). "What are the weirdest instruments used in modern music?". MusicRadar. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  31. ^ Dorr, Nate (2007-03-08). "Amon Tobin Foley Room". PopMatters. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  32. ^ Whelan, Marina (2006-10-20). "United States: The Legal Smack Down On Music Sampling: Is The Age Of Hip Hop Over?". Mondaq.com. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  33. ^ a b c d e Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). Amon Tobin (Adobe Flash). San Fransico: Current TV. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  34. ^ Rego, Luis. Let's Go Brazil 1st Edition. Published by Macmillan. p. 34. ISBN 0312320043. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  35. ^ Bruno Bollaert (Interviewer), Amon Tobin (Subject) (2007-09-15). solipsistic NATION No. 82: Amon Tobin (Mp3). SolipsisticNation.com. Event occurs at 00:25:10. Retrieved 2008-09-29. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  36. ^ "Press Release". Ninja Tune. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  37. ^ "Ninja Tunes Releases - Ninja Cuts Funkungfusion". Ninja Tune. 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  38. ^ a b Thill, Scott (2008-07-17). "Amon Tobin's Homer is a Serious Head Trip". Wired. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  39. ^ "Music From The Motion Picture 21 [SOUNDTRACK]". amazon.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  40. ^ "The Italian Job SOUNDTRACK". amazon.com. 2003. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
  41. ^ "Amazon.com: Last Minute". Amazon.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  42. ^ Jones, Chris. The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 383. ISBN 082647988X. Retrieved 2008-10-09. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  43. ^ "Taxidermia" (PDF). Cannes Film Festival. p. 4. Retrieved 2008-10-01.

External links


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