Amon Tobin - Fear In A Handful Of Dust (Album Review & Catalog In Brief)

After 8 years without a studio album, he's finally back! Though not delivering what I would've expected after such a long break...
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Listen: open.spotify.c...
Favorite Tracks: On A Hilltop Sat The Moon, Vipers Follow You, Pale Forms Run By, Heart Of The Sun, Velvet Owl, Milk Millionaire, Three Different Hat Sizes
Least Favorite Track: Dark As Dogs
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
All ratings based purely off of personal enjoyment at the time of this video's upload and either end in .0, .3, .5, or .7. Take nothing I say too seriously.

[@SuperChexmixer]

Great review man, much appreciated!! I am really into this side of Amon. I am glad he is challenging his listeners as you are saying, peace man

[@Unifono2012]

Thanks for reviewing it, great video! I love this artist so much! I was not the biggest fan of ISAM (I should give it more listens still), so I was a bit sceptical with the new album. Even more so, when I recognized it's completely drum-free, since Amon's drums were always outstanding. But it's such a grower. It gets better every time I listen to it. Just beautiful. Full of melodies, great sounds and moods!

[@BrapAllgood]

Okay, stopping halfway to try and help you through this album, cuz it's *really* not worth wasting. First...try to imagine that every single thing you are hearing is being played by his fingers in real-time. Surely tracked out, not all *at once* ...but I'm not actually sure of that, from what I hear, what I know how to do myself, and the clues all over. He's got some *really* badass controllers now. Extremely expressive and...to control other stuff. The other stuff is now crazy AF, too. What he can do in real-time would astound you. I hope I'm right and that he's going to base his next tour on very live performance, not in a box waving and smoking.... We'll see, but try to imagine it's like a man and his piano, but Amon Tobin and GODMACHINES instead. Try. Cuz I can. I go very similar places with very much cheaper equipment and only as a hobby, really. Secondly, there's some REAL fun you seem to have missed here. I sit between two gorgeous vintage Klipsch speakers my mother gave me when she 'upgraded'. I also sit in front of two beautiful JBL near-field monitors. I have it balanced in a great way, such that most of what I get from the Klipsches is feeling in the body, not sound itself per se-- when in this chair. I leave the chair? Lovely fun follows me...but sitting here, it's about feeling, and makes it very fun to play myself. You need to *feel* this album, best as you can. Highly recommend getting baked, too (duh), but there's some frequency fun here. This is not your standard tuning. It's a massage, most especially Velvet Owl, which I think might be my favorite song ever. It feels like wings. It made me shake and cry (I wasn't that high and work in a cannafactory, hello). it did something no other song had ever done, said easiest. I also did not care for the singles, considered them so light as to be ignored. I didn't expect to like this album, but I started at Out From Out Where (which I hated the first listen, which made me eagerly listen again to figure out why cuz Spanners taught me to) the week it came out and have lapped most of it up since. I get in Amon Tobin moods, said easiest, after all of these years. What I got from this album was so far beyond expectation, it's impossible to not love it. I played it maybe 50 times in a row, it's so short and the weekend was so long. The energetic stuff was less powerful by a magnitude with each, but the happy memories it gave me on the first listen linger forever. It's the most thoughtful album I own. I own a lot of freaking albums. Also, I really want to compliment you on your selection for the thumbnails for these videos. Imagus expands them to real pics on hover and I *always* get what you feel about something before watching the video. That's a good trick, credit where credit is due, yo.

[@NMROSTA]

WORD!

[@BrapAllgood]

@@NMROSTA :) Happy Sunday.

[@SuperChexmixer]

I think this album is stellar. I have listened about 30 times

[@bobrolander4344]

On an equal level of sheer beauty - and if you ever liked listening to Edgar Varesé or György Ligeti - you will love Amon's album _Electronic Music for the Sydney Opera House._ Lot's of aeletoric rhythms combined with alien synth fx.

[@lukas_jay243]

10 months on from Fear, I'm still intoxicated by it. It has a depth and a kind of unease that is quintessential Tobin. Even the tumultuous, energetic Heart of the Sun, reaches serenity that I can not experience from any other artist.

[@leiferickson1467]

Probably my favorite artist period! New album is fucking beautiful tho.

[@The_Isaiahnator]

I had to listen to this one several times in order for it to stick. His classic albums were something I could almost immediately resonate with upon first listen, but albums like _ISAM_ and _Fear in a Handful of Dust_ are admittedly more challenging. Even though there was initial disappointment and depression after listening to this one, it didn't throw me for a loop nearly as much as _ISAM._ I think that has more to do with the fact that I had eight years to acclimate myself to his new style by repeatedly listening to _ISAM,_ the _Dark Jovian_ EP, _Machine Gun (Remix),_ _Hesperium_ and _Ode to Morricone_ (both of which are singles from his boxset). As with _ISAM,_ the tracks can really only be appreciated within the context of the entire album. And, even then, I had to see _ISAM Live_ to gain a fuller appreciation for _ISAM._ Something tells me this new album is similar. What's interesting about this album is that every track seems to have at least one companion piece, in that they share a similar sound: • _On a Hilltop Sat the Moon_ and _Vipers Follow You_ both share plucky strings buttressed by warm synths. • _Freeformed_ and _Milk Millionaire_ are both highly abstract tracks with minimal melody to give them structure. • _Pale Forms Run By_ and _Fooling Alright_ both combine nostalgia and melancholy through beautiful, yet off-kilter melodies. (Amon actually said that _Fooling Alright_ was a callback to "1950's Americana, which [he finds] creepy as fuck.") *Source of the quote:* www.magneticmag.com/.amp/2019/04/watch-amon-tobin-video-new-single-fooling-alright/ • _Heart of the Sun_ and _Dark as Dogs_ both simmer in a dark haze of ominous synths, almost like something you'd hear from a Cyberpunk movie scene shot at night. They actually remind me of _Io_ from _Dark Jovian._ • _Velvet Owl_ sounds like a hybrid of _Heart of the Sun/Dark as Dogs_ and _Pale Forms Run By,_ combining dark, hazy synths with readily recognizable melodies. (This one reminds me of _In Your Own Time_ from _Dark Jovian)._ • _Three Different Hat Sizes_ sits in a class of its own, and sounds the most like classic Tobin.

[@cjjones258]

One of my favorite artists in electronic music. Fell in love with his music after I bought and listened to The Foley Room CD then years later on vinyl. Never heard a project by him I did not like.

[@TripleFede]

Happy to see someone review this album. Btw, would like to see your thoughts on the new Caterina Barbieri album

[@fabril2673]

Bricolage is a 10/10 for me

[@mikebailey783]

On the cover art, the green & red light coming through the openings and the two figures standing, remind me of the mask of the Ninja Tune logo, and Zool (remember that game?!)

[@BrapAllgood]

It is not for passive listening until you've given it MANY active listening spins. Trust me. Think like Ah-tekker.

[@liamarunbennett8282]

This basically sums it up, an artefact of artistic masturbation “I really wallowed and indulged in the prettiness of things in this record" quote from electronicsound.co.uk/amontobin/

[@telephonontv]

I hope you can talk about the Two Fingers project on 2020. I discovered Amon through the remix of Vigilante back on Outer Edges(Noisia). I wonder if you love that remix he did?

[@shinyshinybucket6595]

Are you going to be reviewing the new Meat Beat Manifesto album?

[@TheWonkyAngle]

depends on how much I have to say about it

[@mihai6129]

Great video man! 👌👍 (Also first I guess)

[@knobsbuttons2632]

Subbed awesome channel

[@Dr.Anomaly]

I would agree with this review. I just dont get this album as much as the others.

[@stephencauchi5110]

Do a review on bassnectar shut up and dance and chase and status they are all great electronic albums cheers mate

[@RotcodFox]

My name a Jeff

[@baronvonbeandip]

I was actually not impressed by this album. It sounds synthetic like ISAM/Foley Room but without the weird detours and soundscapes. Its almost an ambient album sans one track.

[@DavidMGiles]

I know it is a bit late, but any chance of an Apparat LP5 review?

[@TheWonkyAngle]

a chance, yes. that one did catch my interest before there's been a LOT of new releases this year that caught my interest in some way but I never got to so we'll just have to see lol

[@brunovaz]

I was kind of disappointed with this album, sounded like a less creative and risky version of ISAM

[@krzeselko]

I love his old shit but he's been slowly loosing me with his recent releases which i find pretentious and non enjoyable... he's trying too hard to be ahead of the curve...