How Do You Spell Tape Again
To be an Amon Tobin completist would exist something similar a full-time occupation, but despite his array of releases every bit Stone Giants, Figueroa, Only Child Tyrant, etc., the appearance of a new album under Tobin's own name is something of an event. Last heard with 2019'south double assault of Fright in a Handful of Dust and Long Stories, Tobin makes albums that are usually one-half-familiar merely possess utterly alien dazzler, and How Do You Live is no exception.
For its first few moments, the seesawing intro of the opening title rail sounds similar a distorted harmonica, perhaps blended with an organ earlier evolving into a kind of sweeping, grandiose sound that seems to hint at a more than conventional, Vangelis-like tape than Fright… or Long Stories. Just of course, that's a red herring, and presently thereafter the track begins to unfold in a diverseness of unpredictable, kaleidoscopic means and unidentifiable sounds, as fans will expect. In fact, Tobin remains at the top of his game, not least because, for all of its peculiar inventiveness, "How Do You Live" is kind of catchy and accessible. Some Amon Tobin albums are better than others for sure, but from the alien trip-hop of Ninja Tune-era albums like Bricolage and Out from Out Where to the drove of ambience omnichord pieces that made up Long Stories, the Brazilian musician has a history of making music that on paper seems difficult and unconventional, just is nevertheless rarely hard to absorb or enjoy.
Recent single "Rising to Ashes" is a archetype example; somehow combining all of the preoccupations he brings to his various projects, rich with recognizable sounds, but smeared into a whole that is utterly otherworldly just never cold or inhuman, densely textured but never airless or suffocating. "Sweet Inertia" features Tobin's vocal alter ego Figueroa and it's an odd runway that begins sounding vaguely like east Asian folk music but apace becomes an intense, multilayered psychedelic song that wouldn't accept been out of place on concluding twelvemonth'due south The Globe as We Know Information technology, but sits but fine here too, although the vocal itself is perhaps a lilliputian incongruous in the context of an Amon Tobin anthology.
The moody, menacing "Phaedra" is amend, a typical fractured sound-collage that nonetheless somehow hangs together as a memorable piece of music. That sense of collage has ever been central to Tobin'due south music, and on How Do You lot Alive it's every bit perfectly realized as ever. The glitchy, organic sounds that make up "In a Valley Stood the Lord's day" are tantalizing in themselves, simply perfectly organized into a whole that is atmospheric and enigmatic. At this point nevertheless, the album does start to lose its momentum a little. "This Living Hand," which follows "In a Valley…", feels like and is peradventure a little overlong, only there'southward real beauty in its subtle creation of mood and typically, looking for reference points, the only thing that springs to mind is other Tobin music. "Push button Down Way Bow" takes this awkward, jittery sound most as far as it can go, and in the procedure, it loses its shape and again feels a lilliputian overlong, but in its five-and-a-half minutes information technology has a dynamic section that seems about to take the vocal in a different direction, but sadly doesn't. Still, in its depth of audio and details alone, the track remains a fascinating piece.
"At present Future" picks things up again, an indescribably eccentric barrage of allusive sounds, but crucially, molded into a whole that has a sense of structure and direction, it feels similar Blade Runner; not the soundtrack, but the flick itself, put into a blender and served upwards as a few minutes of music, with all of its wonder and melancholy intact. "Blackness as the Lord's day" is clattery and percussive but imbued with a kind of shiny, expansive sci-fi grandeur, while the ambience, slightly Aphex Twin-similar "All Things Burn" brings the anthology to a somber, mysterious shut.
At this point, it's hard to recollect what could be a great leap forward in Tobin's piece of work, and indeed How Do You Alive isn't quite that. Just it's not at all disappointing either. Given how prolific he continues to be – and it's worth remembering that since that Figueroa tape terminal year, he's also released the first-class Rock Giants album – it's astonishing to note that on How Exercise You lot Live, his relentless pushing of the sonic envelope, which began over a quarter of a century ago, continues. The results that are mostly superb and — despite that slight sag in the eye of the album — never less than fascinating. How Do You Live is the sound of one of the swell musical artists of our time, still at the top of his game.
| Summary Amon Tobin easily maintains his position as master of restless sonic experimentation, even if he doesn't quite surpass his own achievements | % Ear boggling |
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Source: https://spectrumculture.com/2021/09/23/amon-tobin-how-do-you-live-review/
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