t was nighttime when I discovered Amon Tobin. The ominous, ghostly espionage of Permutation traveled through my headphones as I wandered through unfamiliar streets, walking at an increasing pace as the alternating skittering and pounding drum’n’bass rhythms frightened me to the point of paranoia. A few days later, with a masochistic desire to relive the terror of my experience, I purchased Tobin’s first album (under his own name), Bricolage. The jazzy inclinations, the eerie samples, and the crepuscular keyboards were still present, but the breakbeats rarely appeared, and were considerably diminished when they did, leaving a very minimal album. The record was equally satisfying, though, and even more frightening, so I needed to hear Supermodified.


The first few tracks on Supermodified are astounding in their unusual approach to the generally conventional big beat genre, and from there, the album slows down to an experimental minimalism that, while impressive, doesn’t grab me like most of his work does. Nevertheless, I was sure that Out From Out Where would take the unclassifiable sounds of Supermodified a step further, and I was hoping that it would be the consistent album Amon Tobin had been struggling to release.


That last part turned out to be true. While the first four tracks are probably the best on Out From Out Where, the album maintains a consistency that was sorely lacking on Amon Tobin’s previous records. However, in doing so, the album sacrifices the innovation and uncontrolled experimentalism one expects from Tobin. For the first time in his career, Tobin has released an album that does not push forward the boundaries of electronic music, an album that isn’t miles ahead of its peers.


In this case, this isn’t necessarily too bad a thing. Out From Out Where is an album that excellently refines Tobin’s sound, that accumulates many of the styles he’s toyed with over the last few years and assembles them to form a more coherent whole than any of his other works. “Back from Space” is the most traditional Tobin track, and an excellent start. The transition into “Verbal”, the album’s single, is impeccable. With its chopped-up vocals and ultra-phat beat, “Verbal” is Tobin at his coolest, and is one of the best songs on the album.


The more hardcore side of Amon Tobin is best seen with the driving “Chronic Tronic”, which packs an unbelievable amount of force into every beat. “Rosies” does the same with its heavy funk and Autechre-like mechanics, exploding into the most forceful song on the album, and intimidating the listener with a haunting chorus that enters with the presence of a freight train. “Cosmo Retro Intro Outro” works even more than “Verbal” as the record’s big dance number, hard-hitting and body shaking. “Triple Science”, subtler at first, kicks in the most frightful breakbeats and sound effects you can imagine after a bit, creating one of Tobin’s most intense songs to date.


The quieter songs are slightly fewer in number, but some noteworthy tracks that lack the vigorous jungle rhythms appear, including the sweeping album highlight “Searchers”, a track featuring archaic strings that lift the song with inspiring power. Also notable are the DJ Shadow-esque trip-hop of “El Wraith” and the aquatic electronica of “Chronic Tronic”, two of Tobin’s finer slow songs.


Ultimately, Out From Out Where is a very satisfying album. It succeeds where no other Amon Tobin release does in consistently engaging the listener (and its appeal extends to many more listeners than his previous releases do). However, it is slightly disconcerting to see Amon Tobin settle into a more comfortable position with this release; we can only hope that his intentions were not to continue to do so, but to perfect his previous sound before releasing more groundbreaking efforts.