Isam (Vinyl) [Import]

A new Amon Tobin album is a cause for major celebration. He spends a lot of time working on each album, putting more thought into every overlapping layer of sound than anyone else I know of. And while many of my favorite albums by my favorite artists get worn down by repetition, I continuously find new angles to explore Amon's tracks, on everything from Adventures in Foam to Isam.

And here it is - Isam. In ways it resembles the orchestration of environmental sounds that highlight Foley Room. At times the menacing depths of Chaos Theory emerge suddenly and threaten to suck you in. But these comparisons are shallow and really only serve to get you to buy it. Now.

And once you have sat in a dark room, with your finest headphones firmly attached to your cranium, and listened to every last drop, you'll confirm for yourself what you probably already know. Amon Tobin never sounds like anyone or anything else, and crafts each album in such a way that it is an entity with a life of its own, designed to capture an era in his life and to become the soundtrack for an era of your own.

Amon Tobin's recent work can be divided into two realms: Groovy, music-sample-based videogame soundtrack albums, and foley-sample-based musique concrete (or whatever the electronic version of musique concrete is). For whatever reason, Tobin's soundtrack music is his most inspired work, while his "serious" music albums tend to be fun-free affairs. For example, "Foley Room" was rather plodding (though good) compared to the much more enjoyable "Chaos Theory" soundtrack to the Splinter Cell video game.

Now here we are again: Tobin's recent videogame soundtrack, for "inFAMOUS," is fantastic (unfortunately, it is not available on CD). His "Monthly Joints Series" tracks (also not in album form) are similarly great, in the mold of classic Amon Tobin along the lines of his "Bricolage" and "Permutation" double-whammy. You'll have to dig around online to find them. Meanwhile, Tobin's new "proper" album, ISAM, is a thick, cold, and slow-tempo slab of frustration.

ISAM seems to stand for Indexed Sequential Access Method, a data method developed by IBM for mainframe computers. Perhaps this is Tobin's way of saying he's getting back to basics and keeping it simple? Much of the music reminds me of the sounds that might be made by giant slabs of metal computer components landing with a "thunk" in some ethereal otherworld.

Almost every track goes something like this: (whooshing, eerie sounds...) THUNK! (more distant, echoey sounds....) WHOMP! (circular, mysterious guitar-like noodlings....) BASSY KER-PLONK! Form, structure? Forget it -- this is totally free-form.

If you're looking for music that has a driving, infectious rhythm, this is not it. Nor is it evocative in a smooth, hypnotic Brian Eno way -- there's too much up-and-down, soft-and-loud, nerve-racking randomness for that.

This music is closer to sonic soundscapes or paintings. At times it has a bit of a jazzy flair, but only in the most experimental sense. (A couple tracks are distantly reminiscent of '70s Brazilian musician Egberto Gismonti.) Imagine John Cage chance operations filtered through the electronic sounds of Jega, built from samples of Harry Partch homemade instruments, put together like Sun Ra at his weirdest, while channeling Aphex Twin at his most esoteric and un-danceable -- and then crisply produced to the max.

To me, it often feels like a bunch of B-sides, but many of the tracks have grown on me....not endearingly, but more like sticky fungus. If Tobin had integrated some more catchy elements and rhythms, or even included just 2 or 3 fast-paced tracks, I might have really dug the album, instead of it making me imagine C3PO's diarrhea. I wanted to jam to this in my car, and it is NOT the album for that!

TRACK SUMMARY:
01/Journeyman -- The most accessible piece, with bells and shimmering high points, big beats, and a few passages that seem like callbacks to Tobin's early work. The down-tempo, noisy-then-distant feel sets the tone for the album.

02/Piece of Paper -- Super-experimental, with thumps, cymbal samples, elongated vocal samples, helicopter-like whirring, and other noodling.

03/Goto10 -- Big, angry squonks, thumps, and bonks! The sounds in this track seem electrified, as if a power pole had fallen over and the sparking lines were whipping around at your feet.

04/Surge -- Lots of computery sounds, mechanical foleyism, and static whooshes, all slammed together with shifting edits.

05/Lost & Found -- One of the better and more memorable tracks, with a mysterious, slightly noirish/melancholy feel. A series of guitar-like plucks creates something almost melodic! (A rarity on this album.) Angelic voices blaze through the airscape while a slow, clanking rhythm pounds along. Makes me think of a robot riding a horse across the desert.

06/Wooden Toy -- Has a nostalgic, childhood feel along the lines of Stars of the Lid, with a sing-songy, simple repetition of guitar plucks, and a youthful voice singing a wordless (or at least not-legible) little melody.

07/Mass & Spring -- Another of the more memorable tracks, this one built around a series of three big, whomping sounds, which sound like a gargantuan creature taking three stomping steps. Along the way, a voice sings "Whoooooooo-ooooo" as if riding atop that gargantua. The guitar or electric harpsichord or whatever gets in its licks. Probably half the time it's backwards, and later effects make it sound like a stopped-up sink drain.

08/Calculate -- Clinkety-plink, bloopety-blonkety blinky-blink! Computery skink, dinkley blinkely splink! (short track)

09/Kitty Cat -- The only track with recognizable words, two of which are "kitty cat"! It sounds like Amon Tobin's childlike ode to his pet. A child's voice sings something about "dirty worms" and "dirty songs." This reminds me a little of that time Aphex Twin sang about the milkman's wife. There's a mellotron-like melody that is just slightly reminiscent of early King Crimson or something. This song is just quizzically goofy enough to have a Legendary Pink Dots psychedelic vibe, but too restrained to rule. Plus, it gets annoying.

10/Bedtime Stories -- This segues appropriately from the previous childlike track. This begins with a cute pattern of twinkling, bedtime bells. Then electrified "bzz bzz" melodies are layered over the bells. More effects are used, then pull away leaving the pure sounds, but then come back stronger. This is like Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds for Baby" minus the "soothing part." The track gets especially throbby and loud at the end -- approaching super-cool, if only Tobin had let loose with some rhythm!

11/Night Swim -- This is by far the creepiest, spookiest, and most free-form awesome track. Reminds me of a slow piece by Egberto Gismonti, if it were filtered through the backwards-looped methods of the gothy band Coil. This is one of the few tracks that is free of big, whomping (but slow) beats, and that's a welcome respite. This is one of the best tracks, with a late-night, Lynchian feel that makes me think of distant green lights seen through a dark forest. Or, if it's a "night swim" of the title, it's the sort of swim where you're worried about eels and Lovecraft creatures nipping at your toes.

12/Dropped From the Sky -- The final track sums up the album well: Plonks, clonks, thunks, simple sing-song, back-and-forth pseudo-melodies (there's not enough there to call it a real melody), drawn-out vocal samples, and a steadfast, inexorable march as if a series of enormous wind-up toys were toddling toward the ledge of a pit that descends into a giant swirling junkheap of discarded metal and children's toys.

I really have no idea what Amon Tobin was trying to do with this album. Whatever it is, I hope he got it out of his system.

I am the sixth reviewer for this album on this site which means that I read all the other reviewers' comments. I am listening to the album now for the fourth or fifth time overall but for the first time closely. I have been a fan of Amon Tobin for a long time, since Permutations. I have heard and seen him live and I have introduced his music to many people. He is certainly an icon for me but he is not the only one and many others have come after. I think he's one talented guy who has an amazing ear for sound, texture and mood.

Which brings me to ISAM. I agree with all five reviewers at some level and don't disagree with them when they are at their most critical. If I were to add something to what has already been said, I would say that ISAM is an album that requires utter attention. It is not jarring or difficult like Zs last album, and it is not engaging in any dance or beat-oriented way. It is a collage of enjoyable textures. It is, perhaps, art music. It is definitely very ambitious. In fact, I would like to see a modern dance performance or some experimental film set to ISAM - if anyone were to dare. Maybe some of the other negative reviewers were a bit harsh, expecting something akin to his previous work. The album has treasures like "Kitty Cat" or its follow-up "Bedtime Stories" along with some others that have already been mentioned. Is this is a transitional album?

If you want to enjoy ISAM, and there is lots to enjoy, sit with it in the dark with your best system. You must fall in. Otherwise, it'll just strike you as ploying and annoying.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 13 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars