Two Fingers
Stunt Rhythms
2012
The second LP by Two Fingers displays the talent of Amon Tobin from Vancouver doing what he does at his best and better. Modern electronic music is as varied as the sounds the musicians create, and this talented artist chooses to drop deep beats and interesting constructions all while challenging sounds of yesterday and today.
The first LP was a ‘getting to know you better’ collaboration of great ideas and songs with the producer Double Click adding a particular sound and feel to their direction. This new record sounds like a mature and comfortable pallet wrapping around your ears and drilling deep into your gray matter. It fills your physical construct with brilliant sounds, quips and architecture that moves the room with wide bass, beating the whole shebang into your groove soul. The songs do their thing by developing a concept then bringing on the overall structure of soundscapes to fruition, finally finishing up without over staying their welcome. Playing deep beats and bleats that you enjoy having invited to your place and leave the warm fuzzies in your musical escapades.
Personally, I hear elements of classic Electronica such as Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire plus dance oriented synths like Mantronix and the odd environments that The Future Sound Of London displayed. There are current influences such as Dub-Step and Glitch-Hop but in smaller and acceptable doses. Amon Tobin is pushing his sound of classic to unexpected explorations while being mindful of the listenability in dance music. There are 21 songs and during the journey never did I feel there was filler such as outtakes or loose pieces. A strong sense of strength and knowledge made the mostly instrumental songs throb on with non-stop rockin’. Some musical releases leavethe impression that they’d work well in a mix with many other songs but the Two Fingers release made me want to turn to the next page, er…song each time ‘cause I could not wait to hear what was coming. What’s coming next is the groove and the groove is good.
On the Dancehall themed tune ‘Stude’ features the first rap delivery by Peedi Crakk and Chinko da Great who hold it down sufficiently. A couple tracks later there is a rippin’ female lyric dropped by Lady Pharroh that really moves. The 3rd of only 4 vocal pieces has a great bass hook that outshadows the lyrical content. This is an important release in the electronic dance music world because it broadens the range of perspective and does not follow any perceived rules. Amon Tobin pulls you in to wet your whistle then drops down the depth of modern electronics. Shake all around and feel the beat then just let it go through you and be one with the sound.
Shawn Truitt
sttruitt@juno.com
