Amon Tobin
Bricolage

Amon Tobin is definitely my favorite artist in the new-techno field, or avant-garde electronic music, as you prefer. It's hard to label his music under a single genre. Born in Brazil, he moved to England as a child and now resides in Montreal where – as he says – there are plenty of interesting and old record shops.
A unique and worthy heir of Aphex Twin, he skillfully blends hip-hop, jazz, Latin rhythms, drum’n’bass to create yet another stroke in the art of electronic sampling.
"Bricolage" - his first album recorded in his name by Ninja Tune Records – breaks away from all preconceived patterns, dense with both surreal and real atmospheres at the same time, decidedly intriguing.

The sultry "Stoney Street" opens with a series of old-time strings moving immediately to jazz samples; drums and double bass set the rhythm, hinting right away at the experimental and avant-garde cocktail that dominates the entire album. In "Easy Miffin" and "Yasawan," he ventures into darker, denser visions yet not predictable. It’s a continuous mix of styles and sounds already heard yet new. As AT himself states, "Bricolage" is a process of elaboration that uses various materials (whether texts, chords...) to create new concepts, forms, a new rhythm that didn’t exist before.
"Creature" follows the path of the previous tracks allowing drum’n’bass to merge with tight jazz, chimes, and magical sounds evoking almost mystical atmospheres (someone is getting high here).
"Chomp Samba" – and with the title I've already said it all – proceeds marked by drum’n’bass and samba mixed together, worthy of the best artists in the electronic field.
With "Defocus" and the subsequent tracks, we return to the darker and more fascinating recesses of the mind, a violin sets the path to thoughts that slide slowly, intensely to return to reality with "One day in my garden," where the Brazilian rhythm dominates, and the whole world seems to flow quietly in a momentary oasis.
In short, beyond the pure contamination of genres that the musical landscape offers, AT debuts with an amazing album, proving to be one of the most attentive and visionary contemporary artists around today.

I recommend visiting the minimalist official site, built with the most advanced technology for interactive websites (in one section, the PC keyboard transforms into a MIDI keyboard with loops and sounds to mix together).