[HN Gopher] Amon Tobin - Foley Room site (2007)
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       Amon Tobin - Foley Room site (2007)
        
       Author : hyperific
       Score  : 122 points
       Date   : 2024-01-25 20:08 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (web.archive.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (web.archive.org)
        
       | hyperific wrote:
       | I don't know about you all but I miss the websites of 2007. There
       | was so much variation and unbridled creativity. I remembered
       | stumbling upon this page in 2007 while looking up Amon Tobin's
       | soundtrack to Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I can't remember the
       | last time I saw a musician launch such a beautiful interactive
       | site for their album release. And here it is in 2024, lovingly
       | preserved and still functional on Internet Archive.
        
         | misterS wrote:
         | I was amazed that the site still runs, apparently still using
         | the same engine.
         | 
         | But it seems that it was a flash site (of course), and
         | archive.org seems to replace Flash Player with "Ruffle" [1].
         | Either that, or someone of Tobin's team replaced Flash with
         | Ruffle >= 2019.
         | 
         | [1] https://ruffle.rs/
        
         | vitalurk wrote:
         | Canibus had a cool web player! You could make your own version
         | of his music (Mentioned in
         | https://theoutline.com/post/6977/canibus-internet-mic-club)
         | 
         | Doja Cat has a programmable music video: https://dojacode.com/
        
         | nullify88 wrote:
         | Spliter Cell: Chaos Theory introduced me to Amon Tobin. Top
         | Gear also heavily played Amon Tobin when showcasing cars, until
         | the BBC had enough of Jeremy Clarkson. Whoever picked the music
         | for the show was a big fan.
        
         | sevagh wrote:
         | You are the only one with this opinion. Nobody else on HN has
         | ever expressed nostalgia for the old internet before.
        
           | bowsamic wrote:
           | I don't think that's right, I've seen a lot of people do that
        
           | andybak wrote:
           | I suspect sarcasm but without any context I'm just guessing.
        
         | bowsamic wrote:
         | It's sad, but unfortunately it's kind of like the whole
         | "vulkan" issue: allow a great tool to degenerate that people
         | can actually easily use (Flash) and then replace it by much
         | more difficult to use and/or less well supported technologies
         | (HTML5)
         | 
         | The issue is, the training and support for similar projects in
         | JS and CSS took such a long time (and honestly is still nowhere
         | near the ease of use of Flash) that by just a few years later
         | interactive websites became a throwback anyway. Now, if anyone
         | were to do that, it would carry a dreadful air of nostalgia.
         | 
         | That said, perhaps they would have carried on if not for Adobe
         | basically refusing to fix Flash, but I think by the time Steve
         | Jobs' note was published it was already out of vogue. The end
         | of skeuomorphism and the era of "flat design everything" was
         | concurrent, and these were easily accommodated by contemporary
         | web technologies without Flash. I think that's also an
         | important point, there was an era where such websites as Amon
         | Tobin's were considered basically old-fashioned and lethargic,
         | and everyone was genuinely very excited about turning
         | everything into flat design.
        
       | tobinfekkes wrote:
       | Neat! I don't see Tobins everyday, especially not on HN.
        
       | worldsayshi wrote:
       | No sound though :( Or is it just me?
        
         | alexdunmow wrote:
         | I've got no sound either. :(
         | 
         | Works in Firefox though.
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | No sound for me either; Firefox 120.
        
       | schmeichel wrote:
       | I honestly had to do a double take when I saw this make the front
       | page. Never thought I'd see Amon Tobin top HN!
        
       | ricardobayes wrote:
       | Neat. Had some of his stuff on vinyl. At some point he was almost
       | mainstream, even composed the OST for a Splinter Cell video game.
        
       | BMSR wrote:
       | Amon Tobin on HN? Wow
       | 
       | His music is great (Long Stories, Out From Out Where,
       | Supermodified)
       | 
       | The website experience is neat.
       | 
       | This is the second musician I see making an ambitious computer
       | project.
       | 
       | The other being that game Neil Cicierega made.
       | 
       | I jokingly pick Slowly by Amon Tobin to be the soundtrack for
       | when they do the lethal injection thing to me.
        
         | captn3m0 wrote:
         | He also did the soundtrack for one of the Tom Clancy games
         | (Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory). While I've never played the
         | game, I really enjoyed the music.
        
           | cityzen wrote:
           | Def one of the top VG soundtracks ever!
        
           | luluthefirst wrote:
           | This is how I discovered Amon Tobin! I remember when the
           | 'Theme From Battery' kicked in, I put the controller down and
           | listened to the whole track before going on Google to find
           | out who did this.
        
         | andrewmutz wrote:
         | I was a big fan fifteen years ago. I'd love to hear from other
         | fans of Amon Tobin back in the day, what are you listening to
         | these days? What contemporary music should I check out if I was
         | an amon tobin fan 15 years ago?
        
           | kkapelon wrote:
           | Yoshi Horikawwa, TOKiMONSTA (her old stuff), ESKMO and maybe
           | Metaform and Komodo
        
           | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
           | I can't answer your question, but music-map has helped me
           | find similar stuff to my favourite artists before.
           | 
           | https://music-map.com
        
           | giraffe_lady wrote:
           | mononeon, death grips, robert glasper, thundercat, 100 gecs,
           | kamasi washington
        
           | tclancy wrote:
           | Interesting question. I only recently went back to listening
           | to stuff like that during work and am struggling to find
           | stuff from post 2010 or so. I think I've kind of used things
           | like https://open.spotify.com/album/2bu7BrEuunURavjRY9qkyR?si
           | =caf... as a replacement, wholly instrumental or foreign-
           | language albums that won't distract me from flow state.
        
           | 105424 wrote:
           | Plaid. Every album so far has been on the edge of the music
           | landscape as it released. The last album, among other things,
           | combining real and physical modelled instruments in
           | electronic soundscapes against a AI/generative backdrop, The
           | previous one incorporating gamalan structures and rythems
           | among advances in sound design. Back in the day they where
           | also using generative rytems, virtual voices, all kind of
           | digital sythesis techniques when they just became aviable.
           | 
           | It's one of the few artist in the electronic frontier that
           | imho manages to consistently make musical songs with state of
           | the art tech. In contract to newer stuff from for example
           | Clark or Amon Tobin where it feels the intresting sounds are
           | the song instead of intresting sounds making the song.
        
             | tmerse wrote:
             | Love that someone signed up for this comment :). Seeing
             | them performing the polymer album at a small venue (where
             | some instrumental parts where performed live) right after
             | Nils Frahm is a fond memory of mine, and I agree that there
             | is not really much out there that compares to their unique
             | sound.
             | 
             | Next to their usual stuff/albums there is a plethora of
             | remixes out there. Can recommend this fan-driven youtube
             | channel for an overview:
             | 
             | https://www.youtube.com/@ThePlaided
        
           | camtarn wrote:
           | Have a listen to Hidden Orchestra. They do (did?) a great
           | live show with sequenced tracks plus live cello and twin
           | drumkits. Night Walks is a wonderful album.
        
           | majkinetor wrote:
           | Lorn !
        
           | saint_yossarian wrote:
           | I'm still really enjoying most of his recent work, check out
           | all the aliases on Nomark Records if you haven't yet.
           | 
           | Through his DJ mixes I discovered Tipper, Noisia, Frank
           | Riggio.
           | 
           | +1 to Hidden Orchestra which someone else mentioned. I also
           | really love what Stimming is doing.
           | 
           | Besides electronic music, I listen to a lot of jazz these
           | days, and jam bands like Vulfpeck. I mention this because
           | Amon Tobin's early records are what originally got me into
           | jazz.
        
           | shlomme wrote:
           | Pierre Rousseau, Grandbrothers, Christian Loffler.
           | 
           | Reeto von Gunten (https://www.reetovongunten.com/index.php?na
           | v=music&content=s...) has a pretty good collection that I've
           | found a lot of good tracks / artists on.
        
       | zer00eyz wrote:
       | Amon Tobin does great stuff.
       | 
       | His more recent stuff is interesting as well.
       | 
       | I love Long Stories, made on a broken Omnichord (see:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38563627 )
        
       | throwaway77384 wrote:
       | Old Amon Tobin was just the best. At the end of the day, Slowly,
       | Journeyman...some of the best music I have ever heard.
       | 
       | His stuff with the London Symphony Orchestra is bonkers
       | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggl_pWkbEoc).
       | 
       | All of his recent stuff isn't quite my cup of tea, but that's
       | just the nostalgia factor speaking. I guess anyone who discovers
       | a musician during one of their eras may not necessarily like
       | their other eras...which is more of a condemnation of the
       | listener, rather than the musician, perhaps :)
        
         | boringg wrote:
         | That song is a gem - deep in rotation back in the day. Never
         | knew London Met did it. Grazie.
        
         | FooBarBizBazz wrote:
         | Oh man, that's exactly the song I was thinking of (though I had
         | the original, electronically-produced version in mind). The
         | glissando string part, which comes in at 2:28 in your
         | recording, is this cinematic, unapologetic, swaggering thing,
         | like a sweeping helicopter shot of an Aston Martin zooming
         | across Tunisia.
         | 
         | I do prefer the original, electronically-produced version,
         | because I think Amon Tobin is more talented as a producer than
         | as a composer per-se, and I think a lot of the non-"classical"
         | sounds in _At the End of the Day_ are really well selected,
         | like the electric guitar. It adds to the  "James Bond"-ness of
         | it all. This is the original, AIUI:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mjnHPFS-qw
        
         | agency wrote:
         | Foley Room is my #1. I don't mind some of his more recent
         | stuff, even the bass-ey Two Fingers stuff, but I do prefer the
         | early stuff too. Though it's not as much up my alley I'm kind
         | of intrigued by the album he put out under the Figueroa name,
         | which is kind of psychedelic-folk or something. Take a quick
         | listen before reading the next part
         | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWiXC_O_EVo). Here's the crazy
         | part: Other than his voice, _every_ sound you hear in that song
         | is synthesized and programmed with midi, including the
         | "acoustic" guitar. He said in an interview if you were starting
         | from scratch it would have been easier to learn to play the
         | guitar, but I guess if you've spent your life devoted to
         | mastering electronic production...
        
       | what-the-grump wrote:
       | OOO we are doing Tobin on HN:
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/XqyEZ0GwS3E?feature=shared&t=2491
        
         | hyperific wrote:
         | Beautiful projection map! I wonder if they're using
         | TouchDesigner for this.
        
           | soylentcola wrote:
           | Yep! They actually feature photos of this setup on their
           | site.
        
       | cityzen wrote:
       | I'll never forget working at skateboard.com back in 2000 and
       | watching eS: Menikmati and Slowly was the opening track. I didn't
       | even care about the video, I just wanted to know what the music
       | was...
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQnXa2rg58Y
        
       | chrisweekly wrote:
       | "Chocolate Lovely" (from Supermodified) is one of my favorite
       | tracks in this or any genre:
       | https://open.spotify.com/track/1vBoAGHCyteNYVnODrBuLK?si=ksz...
        
       | octagons wrote:
       | I wonder if there are any MonkeyRadio fans lurking around HN?
        
       | p0w3n3d wrote:
       | Should there be any music? I only can hear a starting sound. It's
       | hard to get anything of it?
        
         | tclancy wrote:
         | I had to drop to the low-res version. Guessing whatever they
         | used for detecting high-bandwidth connections is failing to
         | grasp the values a decade-and-a-half later.
        
           | p0w3n3d wrote:
           | I tried the HQ too. Need to re-check
        
         | hyperific wrote:
         | You have to navigate around to find different critters that
         | play music clips. The minimap in the top left tell you where
         | they are in your vicinity.
        
       | 666666666 wrote:
       | Ninja Tune record label used to have pretty good stuff
        
         | sitzkrieg wrote:
         | ninja tune, warp records and somafm struggling on dialup, take
         | me back
        
         | giraffe_lady wrote:
         | Still does. Kamasi washington, thundercat, louis cole, kadhja
         | bonet, laurel, haitus kaiyote are all at the top of their game
         | and signed to ninja tune.
         | 
         | It's a really different sound from "back in the day" and likely
         | to be rejected by a lot of the people who grew up on like,
         | bonobo and dj vadim. But the label plays the same role,
         | favoring experimental & alternative groove-based musicians.
         | 
         | The "original" ninja tune artists were so influential that key
         | elements of their sound just became part of the main stream of
         | pop and hip hop today. The current crew is similarly
         | disproportionately influential on other musicians, and I'm
         | nearly certain it will play out the same way.
        
           | finnh wrote:
           | I didn't realize Kamasi Washington is on Ninja Tune!
           | 
           | They had a predilection for releasing zillions of compilation
           | albums with heavily overlapping track lists, which kind of
           | fatigued me on the label, but I'm still fond of the early
           | releases of theirs that I bought.
           | 
           | Funkjazztical Tricknology FTW!
        
             | giraffe_lady wrote:
             | Actually I think he's on flying lotus's label, which ninja
             | tune distributes or something like that, which may be the
             | case with some of these others too. The alt-
             | electronic/jazz/hip-hop/fusion label situation right now is
             | way beyond my ability to comprehend. But I still see the
             | ninja tune logo on a lot of vinyl that I like.
        
       | ggrelet wrote:
       | Weird, I saw this article about Pitchfork being merged into GQ
       | [0], which points to this stats page on Pitchfork [1] only to see
       | Amon Tobin is one of the select few to receive a perfect 10 for
       | Bricolage in 1997 to then having him reaching the front page of
       | HN. All that in the span of 30 minutes.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.platformer.news/why-pitchfork-
       | died/?ref=platform... [1] https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-
       | and-guides/25-years-of-...
        
       | jayrot wrote:
       | All hail Ninja Tune!
       | 
       | If you don't know, go listen to Mr. Scruff, The Herbaliser, Fink,
       | Coldcut, Kid Koala, Bonobo, Blockhead, Talvin Singh, and almost
       | countless more.
       | 
       | Truly a case in point for the value of record labels, imo.
        
         | psd1 wrote:
         | Talvin Singh's album "OK" is jaw-dropping sober. With ketamine,
         | it's apotheotic.
         | 
         | Also: footless, and fancy-free, think how happy mom'll be...
        
       | whoswho wrote:
       | Amon Tobin might be on here even, who knows.
       | 
       | I don't want to say I'm disappointed with his output, because I'm
       | not. His creative and artistic self is far beyond what most
       | people are willing to invest and endure of their life force into,
       | and I appreciate knowing a person like him is out there.
       | 
       | I suppose I'm mostly heartbroken that we've had a golden decade
       | of some incredible music from this person and he has essentially
       | disappeared into an abyss of soundscaping. I think Foley Room was
       | the transition period and then ISAM really went all out.
       | 
       | Parallels can be made with bands like Autechre, but that's a
       | different discussion.
       | 
       | I just want Amon Tobin back.
        
         | colordrops wrote:
         | I went to his Two Fingers show a couple years back, it was mind
         | blowing.
        
         | throwaway77384 wrote:
         | Yup, I couldn't agree more. His music from back in the day is
         | so incredibly unique and nobody has made anything like it
         | before or since. It's impossible to find anything like it.
         | Unfortunately he seems to no longer want to make music like
         | that. If I was a billionaire I'd write him a blank cheque to
         | make more music like his old stuff. But, I'm no musician, maybe
         | he literally can't anymore. I don't know how it works, or how
         | insulting the mere notion would be to him.
        
       | ElCapitanMarkla wrote:
       | I came across this guy doing a Bridge drum cover the other day -
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gChXOOqA8gg
        
       | joshu wrote:
       | fyi Two Fingers == Amon Tobin https://ninjatune.net/artist/two-
       | fingers
        
       | locusofself wrote:
       | Bricolage is my personal favorite. Been a fan forever
        
       | edkennedy wrote:
       | He's been posting some really interesting 3d art and composition
       | on Instagram, where he also announced he was retiring from DJing.
       | Glad to see him explore his art the way he sees fit instead of
       | turning into a music factory.
        
       | everyone wrote:
       | I tried 3 browsers and didnt get audio in any of them. Only
       | occasional fractions of a second of audio. I tried the high
       | quality and low quality options.
        
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