Amon Tobin

Trustworthy sources say Anglo-Brazilian producer Amon Tobin sells more records than any other Ninja Tune artist. What makes this factoid surprising is the sheer strangeness of Tobin's music. Neither intended for chill-out rooms nor suitable for moving moneymakers, his tracks are the sonic analogue to Salvador Dali's paintings: maniacally detailed, profoundly disturbing and as surreal as your last Robitussin-inspired dream. On Out From Out Where, his fourth album under his own name, Tobin further cements his standing in the upper echelon of electronic music. The disc is one of his shorter offerings at 57 minutes, but the abundance of information herein is staggering. Add to this Tobin's unusual sample sources and inventive arranging, and you get a handful of wildly perverse classics. The opening cut, "Back From Space," sets an otherworldly tone with its lushly romantic strings and angelic voices hovering above spasmodic, intricate beats. Such hallucinogenic journeys into rhythmic and textural legerdemain peak on "Chronic Tronic," "Cosmo Retro Intro Outro" and "Triple Science." At once panoramic and claustrophobic, Out proves again that Tobin has few peers in creating music of sick originality.