How Do You Live

Album review

Still furiously throwing out albums since the launch of the Nomark label in 2019, the Brazilian producer has returned under his better-known alias Amon Tobin. He had already adopted a new pseudonym just this summer, Stone Giants, which took a more rocking turn with the album West Coast Love Stories, released in July 2021, and for which he brought in Figueroa, his other "folk" alias created in 2020. And while these two projects had an intimate side, here we find Amon Tobin as we knew him before, fascinating and grandiloquent, still pushing bass music to its limits. It starts with the opening How Do You Live, which kicks off a storm of drone sounds, blazing a path for the future of dubstep. Throughout the record, the Brazilian builds delirious soundscapes, from the zombified folk ballad Sweet Inertia to the incredible Button Down Fashion Bow, which gives the listener the impression of being immersed in the belly of a living organism. But the masterpiece of this album is surely Phaedra, which mixes Neil Young-style riffs with guitar noodling. Stunning. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz