It’s finally here and it’s every bit as good as the write-ups have said it was—although definitely not Tobin’s “most accessible” work to date. ISAM is aural heaven, extremely overwhelming, a journey to a distant world, your worst nightmare, a day in the park, the skip in your step, a sound designer’s wet dream and the icing on the cake.

The album’s available as a digital download or in a deluxe package with a book, double vinyl and CD. http://www.amontobin.com/store

Amon Tobin – ISAM (2011)

01. Journeyman
02. Piece of Paper
03. Goto 10
04. Surge
05. Lost & Found
06. Wooden Toy
07. Mass & Spring
08. Calculate
09. Kitty Cat
10. Bedtime Story
11. Night Swim
12. Dropped from the Sky
13. Morning Ms Candis
14. One Last Look

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It’s impossible keeping up with all the great tunes coming out this year. It’s one sick release after another. So this week we have a new Amon Tobin track from the Chaos Theory Remix Album, we finally have a legit copy Reso’s “Expansion Ratio,” and more from Think, Gemini, Pixelord and others. This is a diverse collection of dubstep, drum and bass, downtempo, electro and mixed styles. enjoy.

01. Reso – Expansion Ratio
02. Amon Tobin – Breaking Protocol
03. John Hughes – Filcut
04. Don Diablo Feat. Dragonette – Animale (Radio Edit)
05. Gemini – And You
06. Hybris – Of Two Minds
07. Fred V & Grafix – One of These Days
08. Pixelord – Flower Cannon
09. Think – Private Universe
10. Point Blank – Brutal

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I’m gonna keep this simple and let the music speak for itself.

This album is incredible. Go buy it, download it, whatever you need to do to start listening to it right away. And when you get a hold of it, listen to it on a decent set of headphones or a quality system. I’m listening through a pair of passive Mackie HR-624’s with a super flat response and it’s intense. The depth of each track is absolutely insane and the production is near perfect.

As for the music, it’s beautiful. The deep bass from Tertiary Noise and Wobble Factor is still present but toned down to make room for strings, bells, tablas and a wall of organic synths, basses and atmospheres. It most resembles the 2005 release, Surrounded, but surpasses it in every way. I’m gonna quote Abdullah from mtviggy.com here, “Broken Soul Jamboree will remain his finest work until his next album comes out.”

To hear other releases, check out our previous Tipper review. Or to support the artist (and Sawtooth.fm in a miniscule way), you can purchase Tipper music on iTunes.

MP3 1: Tipper – Herriot Method
MP3 2: Tipper – Tit For Tat
Mp3 3: Tipper – Big Question Small Head
Mp3 4: Tipper – Hourglass Infringement

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One of my favorite albums from 2010 is Eleven Tiger’s Clouds are Mountains, released by Soul Motive Records. It’s one of the few records that successfully spans all bass music genres including ambient, dubstep, garage, breaks, drum n’ bass and techno styles. The album shares similarities with Burial, Boxcutter, Kryptic Minds, The Orb and Gold Panda releases.

Definitely check this album out, I’ve been listening to it over and over. If you purchase the actual CD, you’ll get a beautiful fold-out poster and liner notes designed by Eleven Tigers (Jokubas Dargis).

To hear more tracks from Clouds are Mountains, check out Eleven Tigers on iTunes.

MP3 1: Eleven Tigers – Sparkles
MP3 2: Eleven TIgers – Stood Up

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Since we typically review new music at Sawtooth, I wanted to honor some electronic music of the past with occasional Sawtooth mixes. This first mix is a collection of tracks from the past 15 years encompassing trip-hop, breaks, electro, ambient, tech-house, industrial, downtempo, future jazz, glitch, post-punk, trance and some mixed styles. Among these selections are some tracks that I feel never got the credit they deserved such as FFWD and the Nine Inch Nails remix track “The Downward Spiral (The Bottom),” which was remixed by members of Coil—an experimental industrial group who helped shape the genre. The remixes on Further Down the Spiral include some of the best remixes I’ve ever heard. If you’re only familiar with the major NIN releases, you’re in for a surprise. They’re incredible works of sound manipulation, dynamics and composition. FFWD was an ambient supergroup made up of Thomas Fehlmann (Sun Electric), Robert Fripp, and Kris Weston & Dr. Alex Paterson of The Orb. This 1994 release was their only collaboration. Another highlight is Funki Porcini’s “16 Megatons.” This track comes from Fast Asleep, which is my all-time favorite downtempo album.

If you like any particular styles, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to incorporate more of it in my future posts. I’d like to get more reader participation on Sawtooth so if there’s something you’d like to see us do differently, please share. Enjoy the tunes!  ~ tom

Sawtooth.fm Mix 01

01. The Herbaliser – Goldrush
02. Rabbit in the Moon – Timebomb
03. Amon Tobin – At Work
04. FFWD – Hidden
05. Funki Porcini – 16 Megatons
06. Noisia – Seven Stitches
07. Kilowatts – Snakewinds
08. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)
09. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Rivers of Congo
10. Splattercell (with Charlie Clouser) – Multisplat
11. edIT – Laundry
12. Telefon Tel Aviv – Helen of Troy
13. The Tear Garden – Shelia Liked the Rodeo
14. The Future Sound of London – Quagmire / In a State of Permanent Abyss
15. Mr. Oizo – Erreurjean (Arveen and Misk Remix)
16. Font Line Assembly – Colombian Necktie (Grit Your Teeth Mix by Cydonia)

*Use the right and left arrows to navigate between tracks.

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