Great excitement here at SBM as you can buy a new digital single from our beloved Amon Tobinat iTunes! Entitled BLOODSTONE it includes 2 tracks from his upcoming FOLEY ROOM album and a non-album single based on TAXIDERMIA. The single will be available to all for download on 1/22.

Of course we couldn’t wait, and eschewing any other means of music appropriation, we paid our $2.97 and downloaded — it is a pleasure to support an artist you really enjoy. If you just want to sample, you can go hereclick on the album cover and then click on the song titles in the pop-up window. We’ll wait while you listen.

For FOLEY ROOM, Tobin went out and recorded many samples in the field, from motorcycles to animal sounds. He also enlisted people like the Kronos Quartet. Both elements are audible on “Bloodstone” the first single. After a few listens we can only say…well, it is not what we expected, and yet somehow we expected that. Tobin got his rep as a beatsmith of drum ‘n’ bass who mixed in jazz, samba and classical elements. With his CHAOS THEORY video game soundtrack he started composing and the results were as unmistakable as his purely electronic sounds. With every album he has changed and grown, while keeping his signature k-hole drum beats and late night sci-fi movie melodies.

For this album? It’s no crowd pleaser, but a real challenge of experimental noise — the signature sounds are there but buried beneath am ever changing surface that seems to be trying to find its way to…something. It’s restless and disjointed, but the haunting beauty comes out of the restlessness.

Or to put it more succinctly: for a long while we’ve been suspecting that Amon was going loco, and for sure he is…but in the best way possible.