- Amon Tobin's ISAM Live show has been one of the most celebrated electronic music performances of the last few years, and for good reason. With the recent Stunt Rhythms album from Tobin's more upfront Two Fingers side project, the show was upgraded to version 2.0. It was touted as "bigger, louder and better than ever," with a structure of cubes twice the size as before. But I wondered how all this would affect what really made the show great: the subtle aspects.
The performance was to be the last in the UK before Amon Tobin retired the project. A lot of the same tracks were there, with the same visuals. He opened with "Journeyman", just as before, followed by "Piece of Paper." The sorrow of "Lost and Found" was coupled with the same red-orange boxes, which glowed as if they were burning inside. "Razorback," a new one from Stunt Rhythms, was a highlight of the night. The visuals in this part called to mind a 3-D, 21st century version of Tetris, with complex blocks flying towards us and slamming into their place in the foreground.
Something from the first incarnation was missing, however. In the first version of the show, the individual parts gelled together. Now, less so. At the beginning of the concert, the visuals played with the idea of Tobin as a lone space cadet in a capsule, on a voyage fuelled by retro-futurist pop art graphics. Later, it became more of a series of set pieces, mixing scenes of that style with more organic ones. By the time the encores came around, it was more or less just a rave with cool visuals. The beats became dirtier and the drum and bass kicked in, and all of us Brits lost our shit, right on cue. It all looked and sounded fantastic. But it did lose that certain something that made it art, rather than just indulgence.
Maybe after two years all this visual awesomeness is finally losing its impact. It is indeed time to shelve ISAM, rather than milk it. But I think it's done something really positive. The debate rages on about how to make live electronic music visually engaging. ISAM Live has certainly presented one solution.