Amon Tobin’s album, The Foley Room, is an entirely other beast from other records. Not only is it flat out incredible to listen to, every single sound on the album is a home-made sample. According to the Ninja Tune website, “Amon and a team of assistants headed out into the streets with high sensitivity microphones and recorded found sounds from tigers roaring to cats eating rats, neighbours singing in the bath to ants eating grass”. He also contacted the Kronos Quartet to make odd sounds for him. One of my favourite twists is that the rough, ripping motorcycle, saw-like purring sound that underlies Ether’s, the track featured in the video above, is actually the sound of a honeybee’s wings.
There is no such thing, in my world, as over-playing The Foley Room.
Also, if you’re not familiar with FUTURE SHORTS, you owe it to yourself to thoroughly explore their channel, it’s possibly one of the most satisfying places to wander on the web. A film distribution label specializing in globally sourced films of exquisite creativity and quality, “Future Shorts is the definitive short film experience.”