What I'm Listening To This Week
Right now, I'm listening to Amon Tobin, a drum and bass virtuoso who's major distinction comes from the layers of old jazz samples he uses to liven up old drum and base standards. He's been around for years, and I'm sure anyone who listens to any drum and bass has digested his stuff and moved on to the next big thing by now.
But for me, this is exciting, new, and intoxicating. Most techno based music seems too digital to me, too clean even, leaving it empty sounding. But this music has life. It has a soul. It has feeling. It also has ungodly bass (like all good drum and bass).
His music has all of the normal drum and bass staples: thumping bass, spastic synth, and layers, upon layers, of percussion. What ultimately makes his music so appealing to me is the warmth of the old, analog jazz sounds amidst the sanitized digital layers. They hook me in, and hours after I take off my headphones, I can still hear that instrumental hook.
Nowhere is this more evident than on "Nightlife," off Permutation. Find it, give it a listen, and see what you think. Another good choice would be "Switch," which swings along with piano, wails with lonely horns, bops with stand up bass, and is punctuated with some snappy brush work on a snare. They're all standard jazz bits that are mashed together, churned, washed, rinsed, and spit back out into a driving jazz-infused piece of pounding drum and bass.
Eh, I've babbled enough. Give him a shot. He brings the good shiznit. And as usual, I run out of things to say. I can't describe what you need to hear...I really just need to put headphones on your head and make you listen. Alas, I don't have the bandwidth for that...someday maybe.
Posted by Mr. Eff on 11/24/2004 || link
