Album Details

• Artist: Amon Tobin
• Album: Permutation
• Label: Ninja Tune
• Year of Release: 1998
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: digitalbath on 2008-02-25

After having broken himself from the typical trip-hop crowd with Bricolage, Amon Tobin returns with a darker album in his 1998 release Permutation. The album is a sensible progression from Bricolage in that his style maintains the same, but the mood simply gets dark enough that his once coffee-shop friendly persona has been erased forever.  Permutation would eventually reveal itself as one of the better albums produced by Amon Tobin next to his 2000 release Supermodified.

Amon starts off the album on kind of a dull note with “Like Regular Chickens” and “Bridge” but David Fincher fans will be happy to notice a reference to one his films in “Like Regular Chickens.”  Both songs emulate the jazz feel of Bricolage but once again seem to have been tinted to suit Tobin’s current mood.  The album starts to get even more cryptic with “Reanimator” and “Sordid” which both feature melodies that give you goosebumps listening to.  The following track, “Escape” escape’s the jazz feel without losing the jazz instrumentation in the reoccurrence of a whining saxophone sample throughout the course of the song.  The album continues on this dark and dreary note up until it’s final note which has it’s own creepy undertones.

Permutation is definitely a fine progression from Bricolage in that it maintains the jazz feel that Amon Tobin is loved for sampling while bringing the album into a much darker place, allowing for more musical creativity on the part of the producer.  This album should be cherished your music collection and listened to—frequently.

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