3 out of 5

Label: Ninja Tune

Producer: Amon Tobin

I’m not a fan of live albums.  I’m not a fan of continuous mixes.  This album starts off well but does begin to bore me, but I’m tapping into my SECRET REVIEWER POWERS to step past personal bias and admit that this is a pretty impressive feat, technically, giving me an idea of what it must be like to see Tobin live, shuffling through recognizable tracks along with cut-ups of other artists’ works, and I can also accept that this is probably exactly how a live techno show should go.

So apparently, the Solid Steel series was born from the same roots that gave birth to Ninja Tune – radio.  I guess the pitch was to have these on-air sets where a particular DJ would just go to town, mixing and mixing and mixing, recorded and released by NJ.  Then Tobin altered the formula a little bit by doing it as an actual live show.  Not having heard the other entries in the series, I can’t say how that concept compares in terms of complexity of the audio or whatever, but the Allmusic review does make it sound like the radio sets are truly ‘mixed by’ DJ Food or Herbalizer of whoever, a showcase of selected tracks and the given DJs skills at mixing it up, whereas Tobin’s entry contains a lot of his original work, though kept at or above a danceable minimum to keep the flow alive.

The set stutters a little bit initially to tie tracks together, as Tobin smartly chooses some slower pieces to get the crowd moving, the pace picking up around track five, when he drops a remix of AFX into it.  Even though there’s some rough going in terms of transitions up to this point, the beginning works best for me as it’s stitched together a bit more like an album, and for a live set the sound is great, all of the elements ringing through the speakers clearly and yet with some depth that comes from it being piped out over a crowd.  The cuts from previous albums also include some impressive updates, and though Tobin was using software to make this happen, there’s definite energy coming across, even if it was all pre-mixed (but I doubt it).  Post the AFX track, it starts to get a bit monotonous to my ears.  The recording dips in fidelity, or perhaps our ears just get used to it, because things go into house mode.  I don’t doubt this was purposeful for the crowd, but the middle stretch of oomp-oomp-oomp continuous beats – with a couple moments to catch some breath – loses me, despite Tobin trying to tickle us with some recognizable tracks as well as some really cool stuff swirling about the audio aether…  But, yeah, continuous mix while you’re sitting in your office chair staring at a computer maybe isn’t the best match.

Right before he breaks the house trance, Amon cuts this awesome Dizzee Rascal mix, an artist whom I haven’t cared much about but the rhymes are given SUCH a cool vibe by Tobin’s hand that it snaps you right back into the album, just in time for him to cool things down (again, probably for the crowd’s benefit), slinking through some of his jazzier tracks before concluding with a slick mix of a Velvet Underground track.

There are highlights here that I love, and the rest of its harmless enough to tune out, but it’s a live set, not an album, so not Tobin’s best recorded work to my ears.  Though I’m sure you were mad happy and sweaty if you happened to be in attendance for the recording.