Best Drum and Bass you'll find
I love this guy, but I find his later work kind of fatiguing. His music is so brilliant and amazing that sometimes I have a bit of trouble taking it all the way through (laughs). I found his debut, Bricolage, fantastic. While it may not be as brilliant in other senses, this is the best form of the drum and bass sound. It doesn't have the mindless repitition of it, but still has those rhythms that I love about D and B. He does go to other beats as well to, but a lot of chaotic drums are intact that go like ________ peanut butter and jelly over everything else. On top of that, when you add Tobin's still great use of, uh, everything else he sticks on top of the rhythms, this is why Bricolage is so great when I give it a whirl.

Song wise? Wow, where to start. Stoney Street features jazzy rhythms and samples, and you can just visualize a dark city, or maybe a light city, or maybe a city through the eyes of a drunk. Easy Muffin has brilliantly soothing electronic warmth that reminds me of Autechre (like Amber), and of course, the drums. Yasawas starts with single chimes, and builds with a throbbing bassline, cool textures, and looping breakbeats vs. Drum and Bass. Creatures is another delicious drum groove with ether sounds and creepy noises. A great ode to the creatures of the night. Chomp Samba is a drum and bass tour de force. There's a groove of jungle dense drums right after thumps of percussion, and it fills with dark, dark, dark ambiance.

The New York Editor impresses with a unexplainable pulse of a beat, a jazzy shuffle. I won't get started on why Defocus is bad@$$, but take the title of the song into context. Bitter and Twisted? Wires and Snakes? Listen to those tracks and their drums. One Day In My Garden, with it's light brazillian rhythm, evolves into more of the drum and bass mayhem, and once again brings you out on a breezy note. Dream Sequence is very abstract goodness, and One Small Step is the best drum and bass song ever. Finally, we get Mission, that takes the whole thing down (and I swear that I hear the flute from Sequent C from Phaedra).

So even with Permutation and Supermodified, this album stands out on it's own. Reccomended. Like, now. I would say this album is a drum and bass tour de force. That alone is enough.

10/10

HELP
Help! I've been sucked into Amon Tobin's records--Bricolage included, though also Supermodified, Permutation, and Out from Out Where--and I can't get out. I can't imagine that, once I finally do crawl out of this swamp (if I ever do), I'll want to get back into it all that often, but maybe I will. I typically don't care much for music like this ("music made from music," as Tobin once put it--Bricolage indeed); I don't like the Avalanches too much or most of DJ Shadow, and I am too old, I guess, to care too much for most rap. But Tobin could well be a genius of a sort, a whole nother thing. I've never heard music stitched together so well, so inventively, and so interestingly. This, by the way, seems like some ideal roadtrip music, a groove by which to drive to Alaska. I'd like to try out that theory sometime.

Quirky, deliciously different avant-garde d'n'b Jazz!
I first discovered Tobin while listening to a co-volunteer's radio program at KSVR-FM in Mount Vernon, WA.

Tobin is decidedly different in his down-tempo, semi-lounge, avant-garde Jazz style, blending electronic production and sampling with a layering of drum'n'bass raunchiness that is very eye-opening if you've come expecting traditional or soft Jazz.

Not a "happy" album, not a "relaxing" album, this work definitely has niche appeal for those of us who consider ourselves electronic music fans, with occasional Jazz crossover. I've yet to throw this disc in the CD carousel at a social gathering and not have the whole room stop dead and say, as a whole, "Who is this?!?!"

Some love it. Some do not love it. Me? I love it. Both this, and the later disc, "Permutation". I've featured Tobin on my radio programs at both KSVR-FM and KSER-FM, and will always recommend Tobin to anyone bored with the usual pop Jazz or traditional Jazz offerings.

Something Everyone Should Listen to.
Some people may brand him as electronic, but I have to thoroughly disagree. Have you ever wondered what it was like to watch a movie completely visualized in your head by means of musical influence? This, and most other works by him will do the trick. There are so many sounds and emotions going on that you can picture a scene for every song. It's not just a composition, its a visualization. The intensity levels can peak to a point you wouldn't think could be reached by music. The way he explodes the combinations into a structurally accurate form amazes me. He fuses Jazz with Drum and Bass with Ambience with Jungle with just plain creepy noises, and it feels as though you are somewhere. Being a musician, I have a deep respect for music that takes you somewhere just through your ear drums. This does the trick. This creation in particular has a lot of creepy, desolate, isolated sounds pouring through your speakers while at the same time exploding with some form of insane serenity. You can't classify this guy, he is all over the place. If you are for anything vocal, he is not for you. BUT, if you are into instrumentals, much like I am, and ORIGINAL sounding instrumentals, this is perfect. The spectrum of music is displayed within this work of art. It's not just music, its art. Its a display of what you can do musically if you really sit down and THINK about it. Listening to it leaves me speechless. It's truly a vacation in musical format, and I highly reccomend it. If you don't at least ive it a shot, I think you are missing out on a potentially epic piece of art.

Entertaining, but lacking a style
This CD starts with a track (Stoney Street)that is completely off track from the rest. Overall, the best track is the second (Easy Muffin) and afterwards it somewhat flows, but never really finds on overall style between jazz overtones and dark dub-step. Still enjoyable to listen to, but only randomly in a large playlist. It seems a little rushed to production.