i . l o v e d . t h i s . s h o w

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Isam when it was released. In fact, after Foley Room, I was very disappointed. This isn’t made for listening, I thought to myself, Tobin’s getting too glitchy and scientific. At a certain point experimentation is too much. Some months later I had to put my foot in my mouth. Isam is definitely not a listening album, because it’s not a real album, as I naturally came to learn, it’s a soundtrack.

I stood in the GA pit at the Fox in Pomona, staring wildly at the massive speakers that hung above my head. At this point I still wasn’t expecting the music to sound great, I was only expecting the visuals to look amazing. Fortunately enough for me the visuals and the music exceeded my expectations. The music only made perfect sense to my brain while watching the story of Amon Tobin.

I felt like a child when the show started. Like my Nintendo wasn’t working properly and I had to keep fiddling with it, anything I could possibly do to get the visuals up. When I finally got it right… there it was… this amazing spaceship. It stands above you humbly yet perfect. This isn’t a screen of a giant ship, it’s an actual ship that just landed in front of you. You wanna know what the best part is? He gives you a tour of the engine room. Tobin then takes you on a fantastic ride through space and time. How does one pilot a ship across the universe? What does one do to pass the time? What happens when you travel so fast that you ascend time? Tobin takes you through physical dimensions to explain these questions. And I’m not saying this to be creative, he actually does.

Aside from playing with the 2^nd and 3^rd dimensions of our natural perception by way of the massively impressive, cubed set structure, Tobin really plays with higher dimensional math and science in the easiest way the brain can understand it, visually. To get to high speeds he displays an astounding calculation of direction around the stars and maps his route through the universe. Once he finally reaches his comfortable level of speed and his calculations are set, he leisurely gazes upon the universe and even travels at such high speeds one is unable to perceive the universe outside of the basic of basic perspectives, the grid. And Tobin’s grid puts Disney’s to terrible shame.

To pass time in space Tobin does what we all do, gaze outside the window and look inward at the self. At times you see how beautiful the world and imagination of Tobin is. You experience the inspiration with him. When Tobin is chilling in space, what does he listen to? What would you listen to? Amon Tobin, duh. He appears in his box and you see him from the outside, traveling through time and space, moving his body to the most romantic rhythm of Slowly.

What happens when he’s out there so long that he begins to look deep into himself? All you can do is experience the demons inside and let it run its course. The end of such a course is the essence of creation. Your inner demons are still you so you might as well work with them. Once you hold yourself back, any part of yourself, you are not truly being the creative individual you are.

You finally arrive at Tobin’s destination only to learn that his journey wasn’t just as simple as a cruise through space. This definitely is a video game. And not just any video game, this video game is Galaga. Or at least my mind feels so. Tobin puts on the breaks and drops directly into a battle. Never once do you see the battle outside of Tobin’s ship. Instead, you experience the battle as the ship. You feel the constant attack, the fighting back, the damage done to the ship, and how well it continues to hold together. Tobin comes out of the battle victoriously and you can’t help but feel pride that you had the best fighter pilot that you could possibly get to battle those Demons of Death.

When the journey’s finally over the show continues and Tobin takes you in to play. Remember those little blocks you learned math with? Do yourself a favor and click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67tCZnC33k&feature=share . Visually learning math back then wasn’t too difficult, right? And I know you know you had lots of fun with it. Who didn’t?

When the show ended it took me some time to come back to reality. Nothing is more amazing than experiencing the imagination of someone else, especially if that someone is Amon Tobin. Even though I have finally found my way back to my own reality, I’ll never look at any other show the same way. No one can raise the bar on Amon Tobin except Amon Tobin. He has definitely shown me that Isam raised the bar on Foley Room, which raised the bar on Out From Out Where, which raised the bar on the previous album, and so on and so forth. I can now listen to Isam and truly enjoy it. I sit with myself and relish in this music. Reminiscing on such a wonderful trip. Knowing that Amon Tobin isn’t a musician nor a composer, he is an artist. 

(Source: amontobinhq)