Beatbox and snow jocks

>>Amon Tobin's Montreal souvenirs

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

We last heard from Brighton-based, Brit-zilian beat merchant Amon Tobin around Christmas, when he came over to spin some tracks and soak up the Canadian character. He's returning for the Jazz Fest, so an update is in order. First order of business: new album. What's up with that? More of the sinister jazz-noir drum & bass of his last joint, Permutations, or something else entirely?

"It's hard to say--I don't want to be too specific about it," Tobin says as he lounges about his garden in Brighton. "I haven't done half of the album yet. I'm just doing things that I've really fancied doing with the records I've accumulated while touring, using little snippets that I heard a few months ago and thought, 'Oh, that'll go well with this,' and so on."

One thing Tobin picked up on his visit here was a recording of some human beatboxing (you know, like the Fat Boys, see?) by Mirror contributor Lateef Martin. "I've done this track now with Lateef, it's finished, but I'd like to do a whole load more--I love the sounds he makes and I've found them really interesting to work with. It's quite a unique sound, because I've put it through loads and loads of different processors and made a strange time signature as well with his breaks. So it all comes out in a very disjointed way. It's hard to describe, really, so I'll probably cut a dubplate of it, bring it over, play it out."

Another little piece of Montreal Tobin took home with him was that way rad snowboarding bug, passed on by Ninja Tune's Jeff Waye. "We went up for the first time when I was over at Christmas. That was quite funny, because we were both pretty crap. He's since been a lot more often, and is apparently shit hot. So it'll be quite a contrast, I reckon, next time we're up together."

Maybe not--Tobin's been taking DJ gigs in the Swiss Alps, which double as valuable "shred" practice. "I'm not exactly on my feet yet, I'm still falling over a lot, but I'm having a good time doing it."

With DJ Ram and DJ Maus at the Savoy (Metropolis), Sunday, July 4, midnight, $15