Amon Tobin Write-up

Amon Tobin is a Montreal based Brazilian musician, DJ, and producer of distinctive sample-based music comprised of elements of Breakbeat, Drum and Bass, Trip hop, Hip-hop, Ambient, Blues, Samba and Jazz. According to Mary Anne Hobbs no one on the face of this planet achieved sonically what he is doing.

Biography

Amon Adonai Santos de Araujo Tobin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He acquired the surname Tobin from his Irish stepfather. After travelling back and forth between Brazil and Portugal, he eventually relocated to England at an early age, where hip hop, jungle, blues and jazz caught his interest. He released four EPs and an album, Adventures in Foam, under Cujo moniker which he borrowed from a Stephen King novel, before he signed with Ninja Tune in late 1996. He has since released six critically acclaimed albums under his own name. He is well known for his song "Saboteur", which was featured as the main theme for the 2003 movie The Italian Job, along with the opening credits theme 'Slowly' in éS Footwear's 2000 skateboarding epic Menikmati.

After a three-year hiatus from releasing any major original work, he was contracted by video game company Ubisoft to compose the soundtrack for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, released in 2005.

Techniques and Releases

Tobin is perhaps best known for his creative use of sampling. He uses everything from old recordings to motorcycles (Foley Room) and even the acoustics of buildings (Out From Out Where) and stretches and skews them often beyond recognition. Resonances, delays, reverbs and a wide variety of sound effects also contribute to transform what was once familiar into something grotesque and unnatural. Psychedelic ambiences are frequently blended with retro-jazz beats, creating a barrier of apparently incoherent sound layers. This uniqueness and complexity make the task of categorizing his music a difficult one. Each of his albums introduces new polyrhythms and soundscapes. In his live shows, Tobin uses vinyl emulation software, Final Scratch, in order to access all of his altered samples quickly and efficiently.

Live Shows

In his live shows, Tobin is mostly concerned about the sonic experience rather than the stage performance. Thus he uses a 7.1 surround system, which works only indoors. By layering different textures to the respective channels, he makes his records sound superior to the ones on the albums. His typical set list, apart from the enhanced versions of his album tracks, involves remixed third-party tracks that were the source of inspiration for the newest album. He is fond of Boxcutter, Spankrock, Noisia, Mayhem and Upbeats. Also the latest unreleased tracks can be presented on special occasions.

Trivia

The following trivia comes from various interviews and the answers posted by Amon Tobin himself in "Ask Amon" section on the official forum. Actual references are hard to point out as the forum has been temporarily shut down.

• Music had been his passion since early childhood. He would make his own TOP40 for his school radio every Monday by recording Sunday's TOP40 and editing the tapes on a twin cassette deck.
• In his youth worked as a street tout.
• His first sampler was from Casio.
• The names of his tracks are sometimes secret messages to his friends, otherwise they may point to the source of the sampled material.
• Has a girlfriend and a dog.
• Lives in an industrial area of Montreal in order to avoid noise complaints from neighbors.
• He is a chain smoker.
• Although he lived most of his life in England, he definitely regards himself as Brazilian.
• His stepfather has a PhD in linguistics.
• He has performed in front of more than sixty thousand people.
• Usually, at least one of his tracks is used in the British motor show Top Gear.