been a weird old year for me and ninjatune/big dada. especially as for most of 2006 i was found to be listening to varients of electro, so the labels leftfield hip hop releases such as new flesh and the much loved by the media, spank rock didn't really make the sparks fly @ ireallylovemusic hq.

however, maybe i'm all electro'd out as recently i have begun to relisten to old instrumental hip hop records again. so much so, that records i recently overlooked, for example the recent album by the unpronounceable yppah began to make a lot more sense. however, such doubts were never on the horizon when i got to hear the latest results from amon tobin. these 3 tracks, bloodstone, esthers, here comes the moon man are tasters for the mans forthcoming album, foley room, (though it should be noted that the final track is exclusive to this release) and if these are anything to go by, then the album is easily going to be a heavy playlister.

for all the talk of field recordings, noise manipulation, and high sensitivity microphones a la press release these tracks taken on a pure enjoyment factor basis are fantastic. deep sonic production, thick in aural scope and ambient detail, the three tracks range from a dark cinematic score (well i couldn't avoid that word totally could i?), to straight up rocking guitars, all via mad frenetic jazz drums and revved up motor bike noises (which to these ears make the esthers track sound like an old hoodlum priest record - but i suspect i am the only one who will make such an association!).

of course, the true origins of these sounds may indeed mean that what sounds like a guitar, is actually a rare hummingbird hybrid song chorus that has been twisted and mutated via all manner of software trickery to sound just like a guitar, but hey does the listener really care about the mechanics of the creation of the music, or does the listener just want some breathtaking final results? to the detriment of the process involved perhaps, i definitely sit in the second category, but, as i said, even if you are completely oblivious to the cutting edge process that has gone into the craft this ep is a stunning showcase for the skills of amon tobin as the final results are incredibly special.

so does all this make foley room album of the year already ?

only time will tell, but in the meantime, get this download only single from the label website and make a note of the albums release date : 26th february.