Amon Tobin recently collaborated with Sony’s music team and composers Jim Dooley, Mel Wessen, Jonathan Mayer and Martin Tillman on an incredible score for the new open-world game, Infamous. The game, created by Sucker Punch Productions, combines elements from Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown and Assassin Creed all set within a modern metropolis after a devastating explosion to the center of the city. The hero, Cole McGrath, not only survives the blast but walks away with superhuman powers.

Now Cole is on a mission to destroy a gang of wraith-like creatures who also inherited super powers. The players can decide whether to use Cole’s powers for good or to go on a destructive rampage, destroying literally everything and everyone in sight. There are countless side missions and objects to collect throughout. The game is packed with violence, mass destruction, secret packages, hallucinations and lots and lots of electricity.

In order for the score to work, the team decided to create fresh recordings of city sounds, found objects, stringed instruments and metal scraps. Cello bows were used as drum sticks while terra cotta pots were used as drum heads. Musical elements were made non-musical and vice versa. An example of one of their sounds was a bungee cord wrapped around a bass drum, covered in dry beans. When they snapped the cord, the beans reverberated on the drum head, creating an awesome gritty rumble.

The soundtrack is great alone but I bet it’s 10X better during game play. This isn’t Tobin’s first crack at a video game soundtrack either. In 2003, he created the score for the game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. The score turned out to be a huge success making him one of the most desired video game composers. In 2006, he created an original score for the Hungarian short film, Taxidermia.

At the end of June, Tobin will begin a tour throughout Europe and North Amerca. To keep up to date on new projects and tour dates, visit Amon Tobin on MySpace.

MP3: Amon Tobin & Jim Dooley – Meet the Reapers

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On Friday night, I may have seen my last Nine Inch Nails concert ever. Trent Reznor announced that this will be the final tour. In addition to getting engaged to Mariqueen Maandig, the singer of West Indian Girl, he had been thinking of calling it quits for some time now, but decided to give it one last go for the 20 year anniversary of his first album, Pretty Hate Machine. And what better band to go on tour with than Janes Addiction? Both bands got their start around the same time playing the first Lollapalooza show in 1992.

This final tour “Wave Goodbye” is a must see for old fans. The show is raw and spontaneous and the energy of the band is through the roof. They’re performing many of the songs they never got a chance to play before including “Heresy,” “The Downward Spiral,” “Mr. Self Destruct,” “Metal,” “Physical,” “I’m Afraid of Americans,” “The Becoming,” “The Way Out Is Through” and “Last.” Since the set-list changes up every night, fans are attending as many shows as they can afford. Janes Addiction then close out the night with an explosive performance. Unfortunately, the US tour is almost over. Tomorrow the band is performing at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. Tickets are still on sale so I’ll probably catch this one too. Then, my youth will officially feel over. I think we can all sympathize with nin.com forum member, Shitfuckdamn, who posted “Might as well named it the ‘Goodbye Forever and Get Your Razor Blades Out’ tour.”

Video: Nine Inch Nails – Mr. Self Destruct (Irvine, CA 2009)