4 out of 5

Label: Ninja Tune

Producer: Amon Tobin

Dang skips, don’t let that 4 out of 5 mislead you – while a lot of Tobin’s albums get 5 stars (or whatever) from me, that’s because they have the benefit of sequencing and of being albums.  ‘Splinter Cell’ is one of the most complicated and awesome things Tobin has recorded – and certainly his most aggressive work.  But there are spots that segue away from the heart-pumping vibe established on about 70% of the tracks, and though these cuts are STILL excellent, they detract from the overall flow and make it apparent that, unlike his other scores – Infamous, Taxidermia – Splinter Cell is lacking in a central theme to tie the stylistically different tunes together.

Still.

Apparently Tobin employed a live band for this, and though who knows how and where, exactly, they were employed, there is something very pulsing and alive in the majority of these tracks that whatever Tobin did to piece it all together paid off in spades.  Opening cuts ‘Lighthouse’ – which gives us a great ambient build to an explosion of beats – and ‘Ruthless’ are tribal pounding tracks of glory, and who cares if you’ve never played the game, you’re ready to get out there and do whatever ‘Splinter Cell’ demands of you.  These songs are so head-spinningly great that when Tobin drops back into his more jazzy style for a couple tracks, the change sticks out a bit too much.  This trade off goes back and forth for the album, until the last track – appropriately titled ‘The Clean Up’ – demonstrates how to tie all of this together, getting all groovy and then getting all menacing for a thrilling conclusion.

Scores – and probably especially video game scores – are tough to string into albums because who knows how you’re composing this, whether it’s sequenced to particular cut-scenes or just a blank slate or whatever.  Apparently the game stitched together several elements from Tobin’s work for sections, which makes sense because I can’t imagine these tracks sitting still for long enough to score anything… which is part of the issue I mention above, of it lacking a central theme.  But whatevs dude, with songs this frick-frackable, themes be damned.