Foley Room

 (19 customer reviews)

I guess it always was going to happen. Amon Tobin's past releases basically took record sampling as far as it could go. With Foley Room he and a team took to the streets with high-sensitivity microphones to capture source sound to use as the main components to process into the 12 tracks here. They include actual instruments like strings, drums, piano but also lion roars, motorcycle engines, agitated wasps and on and on.

His last album proper (I am maybe wrongly hesitant to call the soundtrack he did for Splinter Cell a true album) 'Out From Out Where' sounded just as the title suggested, from outer space and very sci-fci. 'Foley Room' sounds much more organic, surely in large part to his molding sounds from actual instruments and our environment. But believe me, you would have a hard time placing all the sounds on this album to their actual source as he (as in past releases) molds these samples into sound that rarely has any similarity to that of the original...Read more

I had great expectations for this CD but found myself disappointed.

Tobin has in the past constructed his music from sampled segments from other people's records, but this time set out with mike in hand to widen his sound palette by using 'found' sounds. Insects, motorcycles, tigers, robots, pots and pans all make the mix. However, Tobin has also thrown in some musicians, including the Kronos Quartet.

For me, this is a case of "more is less". I am more a fan of the beat-driven, rhythmic and melodic parts of Tobin's work. This CD is Tobin at his most abstract to date. Yes, there are beats, but they often dissolve into a landscape of sound. Tobin often manipulates his source material with distortions and tweaking, but I never found myself really being engaged by the end result.

Tobin's sound has often been innovative, and this album delivers plenty of atmospheric soundscapes, but doesn't measure up to other true 'found sound' classics such as Eno &...Read more

While continuing to elude many entrapments associated with serious, long-term electronic artistry, Tobin has also perhaps alienated some older supporters by constantly straying from his drum-and-bass bread and butter. No matter though. If FR is Tobin at his anti-melodic, uncompromising best, than it is only a testament to the dense production and sampling reverence that keeps him high on the A list.