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Amon Tobin Supermodified Released in 2001 8.9/10 Styles Drum n Bass IDM Trip Hop Song Highlights Get Your Snack On 4 Ton Mantis Slowly |
Amon Tobin's third album, "Supermodified", is a standout amongst the masses of unimaginative drum & bass albums to have come out in the past few years. In a genre where most artists simply churn out material that sounds like a clone of Squarepusher's less impressive work, Amon Tobin takes his inspiration from somewhere a little more unorthadox. While the vast majority of drum & bass artists derive their sound from jazz, Tobin pulls his inspritation from a a more unlikely source, using swing music as his base. It works remarkably well. "Supermodified" is as energetic as any Drum & Bass album you're likely to hear, but it's also very non-threatening to those who find the breakneck speed BPM of Squarepusher to be a little too intimidating. This is a CD that you can dance to, which is still as creative as anything from the British IDM scene. The opener "Get Your Snack On", is a near-perfect start. A fansatic start-stop synth loop opens the song up, before giving way to some of the catchiest percussion on the album. Throw in some clever samples and things are off to a very impressive start. Then theres "4 Ton Mantis", another great track. Starting out with the same energetic programming as the opener, it then alternates with some more relaxed, laid back programming, complemented by some terrific voice samples. The third track, "Slowly", is the albums real standout, and quite possibly the best song Tobin has recorded yet. Sublime ambience prevails in this one, with only occasional hints of drums, which always seem to drift back to sleep before they can get going. Some sampled piano and bass wrap it all up perfectly. So theres a brilliant 1-2-3 opening, but what about the rest of the album? Well, there are some impressive tracks in there, many of which would be standouts on other albums. The problem is that after such a perfect start, none of it quite measures up. One can't help but wonder if this would've been a better album had the track ordering been reworked slightly, with the standout tracks a little more spread out. None the less, "Supermodified" is a terrific album, which offers more originality than the majority of releases coming from similar artists. |