Farther away from drum'n'bass and closer to big-beat techno (with a little turntablist mayhem thrown in), Amon Tobin's third album for Ninja Tune breaks out with a devastating opener, "Get Your Snack On." The track turns out to be just one of the highlights on Supermodified, a dense, plunderphonic kaleidoscope of an album with giant, noisy jazz breaks and groovy electronic synthwork. It's got quite a bit of the retro-sounding sampling of Permutation (orchestra strings, jazz combos, groovy ps...   [ read more ]

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Amon Tobin's jazz-jungle fusions as Cujo (for upstart label Ninebar) earned him many props, but that began to change with his debut for Ninja Tune. Blurring the already vague line that separates jungle's rhythmic meditations from those of the hottest jazz (Elvin Jones, say, or Jaco Pastorius), Bricolage manages a difficult hybrid of heart, soul, atmosphere, and brain-bending plunderphonics that loses neither perspective nor direction over the course of the albums. Like his ...   [ read more ]

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While the great majority of jazz-junglists look no farther back than the mid-'60s for inspiration (and samples), Tobin took his bag of tricks back into the swing era to come up with more (and more interesting) variations on the form than most anyone else. More Buddy Rich than Roy Ayers, Permutation sees leagues of different drum samples -- all of them found sounds-- with nary an Amen or Apache break in sight. From the detuned vibes and piano loops that drive the opener {&"Like Regular Chickens"...   [ read more ]

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