4 out of 5

Label: Nomark

Produced by: Amon Tobin

I mean, okay, I’m kind of somewhere inbetween tickled and annoyed over the art concept this is scoring, but I do love thinking about stewing in that uncertainty while Tobin’s music burbles in the background. That feels like a worthwhile experience.

And the music on its own is definitely that as well, sitting between Tobin’s Jovian ambience and ISAM-esque splashes, this 20-minute track burbles between the two modes, using some gorgeous beats in the latter mode to punctuate the burbling bits of the former. However, I can’t say I get an exact read on the visuals – it’s neither overly digital or organic sounding; it’s not the openness of Jovian; the cover art (by Shy1), which is like a cross between surrealism and art deco and cell-shading, seems about right in that sense, depicting vague plant shapes in that mentioned mish-mash of, once combined, seamless styles. But it’s also, obviously, too “inbetween” things to settle on a better definition. So goes the music, which also, perhaps owing to being background, doesn’t really have a peak, cycling through its modes a couple of times.

This all sounds negative, but it’s an ideal blend, lending structure to those two albums’ much more oblique approaches, while also very much sounding like Tobin.