Amon Tobin
Amon Tobin |
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Amon Tobin (born Amon Adonai Santos de Araujo Tobin on February 7, 1972) is a Montreal-based Brazilian musician, DJ, and producer of sample-based music.
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.
In his adolescence, he would prepare his version of the top 40s that he recored and mixed on a twin-cassette deck.
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 gained a wider recognition by the song "Saboteur" in 2003, which was featured as the main theme for the 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.[1]. Subsequently, Amon scored the music for the Hungarian film Taxidermia experimenting with samples.
Recently in a radio interview, filmmaker Luc Besson briefly discussed his upcoming film Transporter 3 and talked about how impressed he was with Tobin's music (most notably the album Supermodified and his work on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory soundtrack), thus hinting that he could be scoring the upcoming Transporter sequel starring Jason Statham. The film is due for a 2009 release.
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.
Live Shows
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Amon_tobin_luxemburg.jpg/300px-Amon_tobin_luxemburg.jpg)
In his live shows, Tobin is mostly concerned about the sonic experience rather than the stage performance.[2] 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.[3] 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.
Discography
Aside from the albums and collaborations, Amon Tobin has also produced the composition to the Hungarian film, Taxidermia. Amon Tobin's music has also been used in other movies as well as advertisements. A three-track single "Bloodstone" was released in January 2007. On February 20, 2007, the iTunes Music Store released an exclusive pre-release for the "Foley Room" album.
Albums
- Adventures in Foam (Ninebar, 1996) (as Cujo) (Re-issue, Ninja Tune, 2002)
- Bricolage (Ninja Tune, 1997)
- Permutation (Ninja Tune, 1998)
- Supermodified (Ninja Tune, 2000)
- Out from Out Where (Ninja Tune, 2002)
- Chaos Theory - Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack (Ninja Tune, 2005)
- Foley Room (Ninja Tune, 2007)
Collaborations & Live Recordings
- Verbal Remixes & Collaborations (2003)
- Solid Steel Presents Amon Tobin: Recorded Live (Ninja Tune, 2004)
- Peeping Tom (Ipecac, 2006) (An album by Mike Patton. Amon Tobin is featured on the track "Don't Even Trip".)
- Two Fingers - Untitled (2008). A new production collaboration between Amon Tobin and Doubleclick featuring MC Sway[4].
Singles & EPs
- Curfew (1995) (as Cujo)
- The Remixes (1996) (as Cujo)
- Creatures (1996)
- Chomp Samba (1997)
- Mission (1997)
- Pirahna Breaks (1997)
- Like Regular Chickens (Danny Breaks & Dillinja Remixes) (1998)
- 4 Ton Mantis (2000)
- Slowly (2000)
- East To West (2002)
- Verbal (2002)
- Angel Of Theft (2004) (as Player)
- The Lighthouse (2005)
- Bloodstone EP (2007)
- Kitchen Sink Remixes (2007)
B-Sides/Other Tracks
- Shiny Things (From Creatures)
- Daytrip (From Creatures)
- Tabukula Beach Resort (From Mission)
- Piranha Breaks (From Piranha Breaks)
- Sub Tropic (From Piranha Breaks)
- Hot Pursuit (From Piranha Breaks)
- Melody Infringement (From Ninja Cuts: Funkungfusion compilation)
- Yards (From 4 Ton Mantis)
- Bad Sex (From Slowly)
- Down & To The Left (From Xen Cuts compilation)
- East To West (From East To West)
- Sirens (From East To West)
- Cougar Merkin (From Verbal)
- The Whole Nine (From Verbal)
- El Chimi (From Verbal)
- The Last Minute (From The Last Minute Soundtrack)
- Here Comes The Moon Man (From Bloodstone)
Trivia
![]() | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (February 2008) |
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.
- In his youth worked as a street tout.[5]
- His first sampler was from Casio.[6]
- The names of his tracks are sometimes secret messages to his friends, otherwise they may point to the source of the sampled material.[7]
- Lives in an industrial area of Montreal in order to avoid noise complaints from neighbors.[8]
- Although he lived most of his life in England, he definitely regards himself as Brazilian.[9]
- He has performed in front of more than sixty thousand people.[10]
- Usually, at least one of his tracks is used in the British motor show Top Gear.
References
- ^ Ninjatune Releases - Chaos Theory - Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack
- ^ Current TV interview
- ^ Current TV interview
- ^ MySpace.com - Two Fingers - Hip Hop - www.myspace.com/2wofingers
- ^ Amon Tobin official forum: answer in linguistic question topic
- ^ Nuziq 2007 interview
- ^ Amon Tobin official forum: answer in question topic
- ^ Current TV interview
- ^ 4DJ interview
- ^ 2007 radio interview
External links
- Official Amon Tobin Website
- Official Amon Tobin Forum
- Royal Artist Club - Official Mobile Blog
- Official Amon Tobin at Ninja Tune
- Amon Tobin Official Mailing List
- Amon Tobin's Management Company / Envision Management + Production
- Template:Amg
- Template:Last.fm
- Unofficial Complete Amon Tobin / Cujo Discography at pe7er.com
- Amon Tobin at MySpace.com
- Two Fingers (Amon Tobin & Doubleclick)
- Two Fingers at MySpace.com
- Interview with GameSpot about the Chaos Theory soundtrack
- Early Amon Tobin Introduction
- Interview and retrospective mix of Amon Tobin's music
Video links
Interviews
- Foley Room era interview by Current TV
- Foley Room era interview shot in Nuziq 2007 by myspace.com/db1233
- Out From Out Where era interview by Faction Films for 4DJ