Customer Reviews

Out From Out Where

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are only two things that would make me come back and review an album here at Amazon.com. One is being offered money. The other is the release of a new Amon Tobin album. The former will never happen but, thank God, the latter recently took place.

If there's one thing I can say about Mr. Tobin, it's that his albums with Ninja Tune truly show artistic development. He started off with a solid jazz footing in Bricolage, but with Permutation, Supermodified, and now this fourth album, he's moved further and further away from that foundation. Heck, on this album, he pretty much abandons it.

When an album starts off like this one does, you know you're in for something good. "Back From Space" sets the tone, letting the world know that the master is back. Then "Verbal" (featuring MC Decimal R.) comes on, and proves to be the most straight-up fun tune that Tobin has put his hands on. Admittedly, the concept of cut-up vocals was previously done by Prefuse 73, but at least Amon admits it.

If you're wondering what would happen if "Get Your Snack On" and "Four Ton Mantis" got together and had a child, "Chronic Tronic" answers your question in style, baby. It's totally funked-up and danceable to boot. It segues into "Searchers, which is haunting to say the least. The mere thought of Tobin touching strings brings joy to my ears, so imagine how I feel when I hear the result.

Tobin then pulls a surprise from his hat with "Hey Blondie." It's like no Tobin tune I've ever heard; it actually sounds a fair bit like R.E.M.'s "Drive." "Rosies" comes next, and it's an album highlight; it starts off all innocent, but then it shows its true colours and compels you to bob your head along with it.

The next tune, "Cosmo Retro Intro Outro," is straight out of left field. A casual listener might think that this is an underproduced tune by The Chemical Brothers or Fatboy Slim. As it stands, it's quite a nice surprise to hear Tobin doing an overtly dancefloor-friendly tune. But that's where the friendliness ends...

"Triple Science" could have come straight from a horror movie - the part where you're in a haunted house and you're opening a creaky door which is hiding some pretty nasty stuff behind it. The effects and the drums give a sese of urgency, like something is about to happen. That something is "El Wraith," the nastiest track on this whole album. It's dark from beginning to end; if you previewed the first two minutes of this at the Ninja Tune website, you have no idea what you're in for.

"Proper Hoodidge" starts to bring a close to the madness, but it's no less eerie. It vaguely reminds me of "Saboteur," but without the clinking bottles. Finally, "Mighty Micro People" serves its purpose well as "ending credits" music; it's calmer than the preceding nightmare, but definitely not wimpy.

There aren't too many artists who can put out one brilliant album in the space of their careers. Witness an artist who, with "Out From Out Where," has put out FOUR (I haven't heard "Adventures In Foam" so I can't comment on that). I always worry that Amon won't be able to step up his game when he puts his next album out. I mean, when you set the bar so high with each release, to set it even higher is pretty much the equivalent of Jesus walking on water again. However, it's safe to say that Amon's got wet feet, 'cause with "Out From Out Where," that bar has been raised yet again. Simply put, no one does it better.

Amon Tobin has got to be one of Ninja Tune's most versatile artists (kinda tough to do on a label that boasts so much talent!); with his previous albums, he embraced the world of free jazz and breakbeat and neatly turned it on its head. Although I prefer his work as Cujo (Adventures in Foam has now been released by 3 different labels: Ninebar, Shadow, and now as a superior reissue by Ninja Tune!), I have to say that 'Out From Outwhere', while a stirring departure compared to his other works, is definitely another breakthrough album for Tobin. It still carries his trademark chaotic beats, but the atmosphere he creates is a bit more focused than on his earlier albums. Listen to it a few times, and you'll get what I'm saying. I won't try to tell you what the album 'sounds like'...that would be foolish. You just need to hear it for yourself. I'll just say that it's a wondrously symphonic piece of art.
I also disagree with the URB review; this is not an album for TV commercials, of all things. Albums like this are meant for your ears and feet, meant to be processed over and over again, and the images wrought from its synthesis in your brain are meant to be completely open to interpretation...I for one don't want to hear one of his songs and think of some automobile ad...do you?
Am I delving into his music too much? Perhaps. However, whether you agree or disagree with my opinions, it's hard to contest that Out From Out Where isn't worthy of the moniker "intelligent dance music". To my ears, Tobin has also reinvented that term as well.

I hate to rain on the parade by docking a half star from the uniformly glowing reviews offered up so far (well, one star, since Amazon.com doesn't allow halfs), but this feels like a crossroads. This isn't a bad thing by any means: a cursory glance at my cd collection would betray an arguable OVERvaluation of experiment. It's just that the "Verbal" single (specifically, the three extra tracks) seemed to point toward a continuation of "Supermodified"'s remarkable smoothing out of Amon Tobin's music without sacrificing the complexity of the overall structural framework. A lot of this was accomplished with beats dropped at greater intervals and tied together by sustained melodies and textures. I was disappointed with that album at first, so perhaps this one will grow on me as well. The hyperactivity of "Permutation" (still my favorite) is back on this new disc, to a certain extent. However, the furious chattering breaks are arranged in digressive clusters that incorporate more electro and edgy digital noise elements than before; whereas "Permutation" often built the rhythms up to a nearly absurd density before releasing into a dreamlike lounge haze. My extracurricular activities are much less "hazy" these days, so it's possible that my laser-like focus on the parts (over the whole) has created discontinuity through dissection. Still, this disc feels less of a piece than Mr. Tobin's earlier works. Of course, this also means that the seeds of future directions here are manifold. Remember my extra 1/2 star: it's still a stellar achievement from an electronica frontrunner whose past excellence set the bar so high.

Brazilian-born beatmeister Amon Tobin is untouchable when it comes to conjuring up a massive wall of sound from a sampler and turntables. Every piece of sound is meticulously chosen and placed to create a symphony.
"Out From Out Where" represents the fourth album (and fourth masterpiece) of Tobin's prestigious career creating albums for the forward-looking Ninja Tune label. After "Bricolage", "Permutation" and "Supermodified", this album comes across as less jazzy and more dense than the previous albums. It is simply a massive, cold black marble monolith of epic sounds and eerie textures. "Back From Space" is a simply genius sci-fi song that sounds more like going into space than coming back; "El Wraith" is akin to spaceships building the Egyptian pyramids (hey, we never know, right?); and "Searchers" is a hypnotic Asian car chase sequence. Even when Tobin plays it light, as in the intro to "Rosies", he quickly injects a mounting feeling of disarray and doom to the tune. Every song conjures fantastical images of space travel, alien landscapes and a surprising sense of isolation from the outside world.
By no means, however, is this album depressing. It is incredibly fun to listen to Tobin as he picks his samples and makes them fit in unexpected places. It is also interesting to pick up new sounds or elements with repeated listens. Listen to this on headphones (and preferably in the dark) to experience a truly hypnotic and exhiliaring ride through the dark recesses and magnificent wonders of space.

Even as one who tends to make it a point to avoid electronic music, I have to admit that "Out From Out Where" is one brilliant album. In fact, if not for the barely-listenable "Verbal," we might be looking at a five-star rating here. If you're in the mood for a mental workout that can also get your head bobbing, this is certainly a good place to look. It takes a few spins to appreciate an album this complex and eclectic, but it's more than worth the time and effort. In fact, the challenge of putting everything together is the principal basis for the album's appeal: having generally associated electronica with the mindless drivel that gets played in clubs, I was pleasantly surprised that the genre has produced some genuinely intiguing art.

So, you might ask, what does the album sound like? Okay, okay, I'm getting to that. The music on "Out From Out Where" is typically dark and intense, characterized by fractured rhythms and bizarre percussion sounds. Electronica may provide the foundation, but it's fleshed out with an almost impossible array of influences. Tobin is a master of tension and dynamics, creating constantly-mutating pieces that expertly mix contrasting shades of light and dark. Against a backdrop of ominous atmospheres, he unleashes a never-ending sonic onslaught of twisted, intricate beats, with a surprise always lurking just around the corner.

Perhaps most importantly, the variety on "Out From Out Where" is nothing short of incredible. In the space of a mere eleven tracks, Tobin manages to conjure up aural montages of so many different stripes it's hard to believe the same guy did it all. For instance, the opening "Back From Space" and "Chronic Tonic" are filled with otherworldly sound effects and jarring time signatures that will almost certainly make you move, but probably not in any conventional manner. Convulsions are a more likely result. "Searchers" is a harsh, creepy piece that steadily builds tension without offering any catharsis, instead burrowing its way into your psyche in a genuinely unsettling fashion. "El Wraith" is as ghostly and ethereal as its title implies, placing some chilling strings over a Middle Eastern-derived rhythm. "Proper Hoodidge" brings together a pounding, repetitive backbeat with a quirky landscape of electronic bleeps, sweeps, and creeps, and throws in some more Eastern accents just for good measure. In other places, as with the dizzying double-shot of "Cosmo Retro Intro Outro" and "Triple Science," Tobin just goes for out-and-out sensory overload. And while "Mighty Micro People" ends the album on a quiet note, it's still plenty creepy.

Hearing this album, I can't help but wish I'd been open to this genre earlier. And to think of all that time I spent listening to Creed and Pearl Jam that I'll never get back. Oh well. Anyway, if you're looking for some electronic music that will be suitable for your big brain, "Out From Out Where" is certainly worth checking out. So dig in.

This is one of the best cds I have ever heard. I listen to it nonstop. Many of the songs are as thick and lush as anything amon tobin has ever written. This is saying a lot considering the quality of his other albums. God, it is brilliant. The exotic multilayered ambiences that form the enveloping backdrop to his driving, abstract but oh so organic and rich rhythms are all encompassing. I listen to this cd on my headphones when I wander from class to class and as soon as I press play I am instantly transported into another world. His rhythms are not exactly d & b or typical break beats. He is into his own thing and he is exactly where he should be. BUY THIS ALBUM.

The FDA should look into the contents of this album. I suspect there's something woven into the morass of sounds here that should be considered addictive. Previous Tobin albums, although brilliant, neglected to incorporate a bit of "rest" - with repeated listens, the percussion tended to get over-zealous and the chaos a bit heavy.

OFOW feels as if it operates with 5x the analytical complexity of previous albums. The "muddy" texture of previous albums is gone but the same interest in collage, dissonance and chaos still holds center stage. This album pushes the envelope by incorporating silences and/or singular melodic passages allow the mind to better appreciate the next burst of dissonance. Also present here are a number of items that are new among Tobin's repetoire of sounds: voices and acoustic elements vye with the electronics to create a strange dark nostalgic mood. It's a brilliant acheivement made by an artist who continues to push the boundaries of what music can be. No one else comes close.

First, if you're debating whether or not to buy into the Amon Tobin hype and buy this CD, then you *might* want to consider his "Supermodified" disc. But honestly, you cannot go wrong with this one either. For just when I wondered what had happened to the man, whether he was going to come out with another disc at all let alone one that could hold up to his previous phenomenal sounds, he gives us OFOW, and I am humbled. I think his Supermodified disc is a little more accessible, a little more edgy but I've also played it a lot more than I have this new one - so far. I'll concede that it's possible I'll change my stance some day and suggest to any Tobin nooB to buy OFOW instead...

That said, what is this music like? Well, that's a real tall order, a very difficult question to answer. I'm reminded distantly of Underworld, but it's been a while since I've listened to them. The mood Amon sets is jazzy (thank Joe) and somewhat dark, science fiction enters into it at times, with beats a-plenty yet never ovebearing or tiresome, it's like the direction break-beat/jazzish/techno music is going, he's there first, blazing away, experimenting, knocking us over with his sonic methods. It's great headphone music, if you are so inclined. Hmmm, I told you this would be hard...

I'm tempted to complain how long it's taken him to get this new disc out but you know what, better he takes his time and gives us beautiful aural treatments like OFOW - I'll just play it that much more until the next track comes out of his massive brain ;o)

Let me start off by saying that Amon Tobin has to be one of the most consistent musicians working today. This guy really has ambition. He never puts out anything less than great. On this, being his 4th album, he not only goes further and deeper into the genre which he quietly has created for himself, but he also manages to put out probably the most original work of music released in the past couple of years.

This album is basically divided into two parts for me. The first half (tracks 1-6) and the second (tracks 7-11)

The first half of the album is my favorite. It contains "Back from space" , "Chronic Tronic" , "Rosies" and "Searchers" which are my favorite tracks on the record. The first half in general full of relentless breaks and incredible melody delivered with Tobin's trademark speaker-shaking deep bass.

The other tracks on the second half are very abstract and are hard to get into at first. But eventually, you'll learn to love it all.

The last Tobin album, "supermodified" is one of my favorite albums and I had very high expectations for this one. I'm so glad that he didn't follow in the footsteps of many artists and actually released a follow up that exceeds expectations.

By the way, if you're thinking of getting this as your first amon tobin album, I suggest you start with either "bricolage" or "supermodified" instead... this might be a bit too much for you.

Out From out Where, the follow-up release to Supermodified, is another example of why people see drum n bass as a dying genre. It's not because the album exemplifies that, but rather because it exemplifies what most drum n bass musicians dont do. Amon Tobin is an enigma, his music can be, and has been, categorized anywhere from techstep to acid jazz to idm. The balance in elements rolled into one song is on par, and the fact that he can seemlessly mix so many non-traditional features into a song is really a testament to artistic originality. It's almost a sin to call him a drum n bass musician, because it instantly paints a portrait of another dying musician who cant explore outside of the redundant beat patterns and occassional synth interludes.

The track is mainly d n b, however. The good kind. The only exception is Verbal, which is more of a breakbeat mixture, which took a while to grow onto me. The music isn't as experimental as in Supermodified, but it's more danceable, so it's good either way. Tobin has really evolved in so many ways from his earlier works, this album is just another stepping stone.