D&B Sans Frontieres
In my relationship to drum 'n' bass, I always take what I love about that music and incorporate it with things I love about other music, like jazz, hip hop, and blues. I try to make something of my own that will never be in Grooverider's record box or will never feature on the dance floor at Kemistry and Storm.
---Amon Tobin, interview in Remix, Sep 1, 2000
Brazilian-born Amon Tobin makes interstitial music. It fits in the gaps between genres and revels in the discontinuity of broken, distorted beats and pieces. His music is like a seamless, sophisticated puzzle that only children can unwind. After first releasing a series of 12" under the name Cujo, Tobin reverted to his real name and has arguably become the most arrangement-savvy composer on the Ninja Tune label. Permutation is Tobin's second LP released under his own name.
Permutation is unlike anything you've ever heard. It fuses dark, elegant jazz with spiralling drum and bass. Orchestral strings and ominous minor chords sweep throughout, and mad horn solos and piano loops slowly turn inward on themselves in an ever-tightening
gyre. Where Tobin's first album Bricolage was more schmaltzy older jazz apart from a few standout tracks, Permutation is working towards something new. It's especially evident on tracks like the pounding "Sordid" and the sweaty intensity of "Escape".That is not to say that there are the occasional moments of Bricolage - the creeping, noir piano of "Nightlife", or the samba-inspired "Fast Eddie".
Permutation shows that Tobin has the knack of mixing disparate samples together in a way that sounds like they were recorded together in the first instance, and programming drums that sound absolutely organic. His music sounds composed, sophisticated - and ultimately he has what so many other young junglists lack: a future.
Tracklisting:
01. Like Regular Chickens (5.16)
02. Bridge (5.56)
03. Reanimator (6.34)
04. Sordid (7.11)
05. Nightlife (6.29)
06. Escape (5.54)
07. Switch (3.49)
08. People Like Frank (6.04)
09. Sultan Drops (5.12)
10. Fast Eddie (7.38)
11. Toys (5.16)
12. Nova (4.42)