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 amon tobin interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.The Brazilian DJ proves he’s up to scratch. If it’s true that music is a product of its creator’s environment then that might explain why Amon Tobin’s sound is so difficult to keep track of. Born in Brazil, this former resident of Brighton, who now rests his hat in Montreal, is seemingly as restless as his records. But Amon is no Andy Kershaw-style musical anthropologist picking the pockets of disparate cultures, for his music seemingly doesn’t come from this world at all. The complex rhythms and surreal sonics sound as if they’re being transmitted directly from some strange alternative dimension. “Everyone asks me about it but I don’t think travel influences my music at all,” Amon says. “I think it’s just something a lot of people who make music drone on about to make it seem like there’s more to what they do than there is.”  As enigmatic on record as in person, Amon’s three albums for Ninja Tune – the last of which, Out From Out Where, was released in 2002 – don’t so much feed the brain as pump it full of weird experimental drugs. It’s easy to see why the notoriously reclusive Chris Morris chose to collaborate with him on the hotly-sought after track Bad Sex, for in its own way Amon’s music is as dark and dense as any of Morris’ disturbing sketches on Jam. Puzzling it out is a challenge, and Amon has no intention of making it easy for you. “As far as interpreting my music goes, I’ve given up trying to work out what goes on in other people’s heads because most of the time that has nothing to do with my music anyway. Hopefully it’s dynamic enough to be understood in lots of different ways. But who can say where they get their ideas? Personally I think of frosted sugar lumps when I’m recording.” But if there’s one context in which it all makes perfect sense it’s in the middle of the dancefloor – the very environment which gave birth to his instalment of Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel mix series. Recorded live in Melbourne towards the end of the Out From Out Where tour, it’s an excoriating listen which veers from Amon’s own productions like 4-Ton Mantis, to the tenebrous breaks of T-Power, via Dizzee Rascal and even The Velvet Underground’s Venus In Furs. It attacks the very foundations of the DJ mix with a ferocity that makes most plate-spinners seem terminally timid.  Amon recorded the whole thing live and in one take, using Final Scratch – a piece of software that lets DJs manipulate MP3 and other files on a laptop and specially modified decks, thus enabling them to reconfigure and remix tracks from scratch rather than simply seguing two slabs of vinyl together. “I’ve always considered myself to be a producer rather than a DJ, but I started DJ-ing because it was my own alternative to a live band. Most of the music I make is about thieving from and manipulating vinyl, so it makes sense for me to play music like that rather than fabricating a live band set-up. Final Scratch lets you play your own versions of stuff without having to get dub plates cut, and getting it recorded was a good opportunity for people who haven’t heard me to hear what I do. Although it was all a bit last minute I love the bootleg feel of the recording with the crowd getting their raucous on, even if some of my cock-ups make me cringe.” But then, who said Solid Steel had to be stainless?
Paul Clarke
Amon Tobin – Solid Steel Presents…, released 12 July 04 on Ninja Tune.
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