..::Amon Tobin - Foley Room::..
Posted by Arnie | Posted in Amon Tobin, Documentary, DVDrip | Posted on 6:47 PM
In 1997 a fresh faced Amon Tobin released his debut album, 'Bricolage' (NJT29),on Ninja Tune. The unsuspecting public did not know what hit them. Since then Amon has continued to release forward thinking electronic music to a largely excitable fan base consisting of music critics and punters alike. 10 years on and Mr. Tobin is ready to drop his latest masterpiece, 'Foley Room', into the ether; and much like his first album, the ripples will be felt for years to come.
Over the past decade Amon has been fine tuning his production skills. With an innate understanding of the art of sampling he was able to mutate sounds scrounged from dusty vinyl into a true expression of his artistic vision. Nearly flawless in it's execution, his last official album, 'Out From Out Where' (NJT70) placed Amon at the top of his game; with a desire for new challenges.
This brings us to the 'Foley Room'. A sound proof room used to create sounds named after Jack D. Foley, a pioneer in the world of motion picture sound effects. This is where Amon spent many a night recording various toys, tools, and musicians behaving badly to get new and unique sounds to add to his palette. This was his first real step into the found sound realm of "music concret" after a decade of manipulating recorded sound exclusively, but his experiments didn't end there. Armed with vintage recording tools of the highest caliber and a helpful crew of friends he traveled far and wide in search of as many interesting recordings as possible; wildlife, insects, machinery, kitchen utensils, musical instruments and musicians were all recorded with calculated objectivity in order to then be brought in to the studio and treated simply as raw material. Everything from a rock falling to the mighty Kronos Quartet was painstakingly archived on to tape then processed and shaped into new musical forms.
The process was an interesting one, so the whole affair was filmed and a humble record of the proceedings is available as a bonus DVD with the release; narrated by Amon to help give a greater understanding of the 'Foley Room'. Jack would be proud.
