Amon Tobin ‘Recorded Live’ (Ninja Tune)

The fourth edition of Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel series sees the Brazilian-born master of the fucked up beat, Amon Tobin take control of the playlist. While the previous releases, compiled by DJ Food, Hexstatic and The Herbaliser, were straightforward mix albums, Tobin brings a typical twist to proceedings.

Having spent the past couple of years touring the world with his incendiary live shows, ‘Recorded Live’ captures the results from one of the final dates in Melbourne. Tobin live is an uncompromising mix of his own material and other people’s records. The beats come fast and tough from the claustrophobic breaks of Cherrystones to the hardcore drum’n’bass of Silent Witness.

But the real fun is when he starts playing around with his own stuff. Using a special software package called Final Scratch allows Tobin to manipulate his music in a live setting and you can hear it early on in the set when he drags ‘Chronic Tronic’ to a halt while DJ Food’s ‘Dark Lady’ floats cheerily in the background. Meanwhile the superb ‘Nightlife’ is given a queasy Tiki twist, while there’s a brilliant three track mash-up towards the end, featuring ‘Proper Hoodige’, ‘Hey Blondie’ and ‘Four Ton Mantis’.

It’s enough to send the chin-strokers into fits of excitement but Tobin is more than just a technically adept software geek. He creates an exhilarating blend of hip-hop, breakbeat and jungle sending the dancefloor wild, with some Velvet Underground to end proceedings. Play this and imagine yourself in a hazardous, dark sweatbox full of gurning Australians. What could be better?

words: Colm Larkin

Have your say here