Amon Tobin ISAM 2.0 at the De La Warr, Bexhill
Although I was aware of Tobin's performances I'd never actually listened to his music so did some YouTube listening. Good to see some video game soundtrack on his CV via Splinter Cell but it was certainly music that you would listen to rather than dance to.
His set started with a massive black curtain unveiling his white cubic set with projected visuals. I was reminded of Etienne De Crecy's cube visuals we'd seen years ago but Amon Tobin had taken it to the next level. His first half was the money-shot with a spaceship theme and cinematic electronic music. Tobin could be seen in the centre of the cubed wall with a clever switchable see-through screen whenever he wanted to show himself off. He completed the visuals with a spaceman suit. One highlight was the real-time projected light effect based on his piano hands movement. You could see him play an air-piano in front of a camera or something in his booth and the cubed-stage would mimic his hand movements. Very clever!
After Amon Tobin came out of his space pod to get a cheer from the crowd he went back to do a more dance-driven set that made some of the crowd goes nuts with his angular drum and bass sounds. His final encore started off very noodle-y and twinkly then built into a moody slow tempo but effective soundscape. With only a couple of minutes to go there was some random bloke who managed to invade the stage and walk up to Amon Tobin's booth cube to peer in. Eventually some stage technician grabbed the guy and handed him over to security who marched him out.
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