true, very true.

maybe mr. tobin should think about licensing his songs to cellphone ads and MTV bumpers. that's where the REAL money is!

Thats very true, I think it would be so frustrating to hear that.

A few people have mentioned that there is no money to be found in album sales, and this is true to an extent. But albums sales do open doors for people and I think an artist like Amon Tobin could use that.

Speaking of touring (gotten from Pitchfork Media)

Amon Tobin Announces Tour

After one show at South by Southwest on March 17, Amon Tobin will take the film-inspired The Foley Room to venues across Europe and North America in April and May.

Most of Tobin's dates are DJ sets, but quite a few of those are in Surround Sound. For the Surround Sound sets, Tobin will mix material from The Foley Room with the music that inspired it, using his turntables more as samplers than as traditional turntables.

The tour begins April 3 in Montpellier, France and ends May 26 in Los Angeles.

Dates:

03-17 Austin, TX - The Parish (Ninja Tune SXSW showcase)
04-03 Montpellier, France - Rockstore *
04-05 Vienna, Austria - FLUC #
04-07 Geneva, Switzerland - BFM (Festival Electron) *
04-09 Paris, France - Bataclan *
04-11 London, England - Electric Ballroom *
04-13 Brussels, Belgium - AB (Domino Festival) *
04-14 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Motel Mozaique *
04-16 Rome, Italy - Brancaleone
04-17 Budapest, Hungary - A38 *
04-19 Berlin, Germany - Lido *
04-21 Bourges, France - Printemps de Bourges Festival #
04-27 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House *
04-28 New York, NY - Gramercy *
04-29 Boston, MA - Paradise #
05-04 Denver, CO - Bluebird #
05-05 Chicago, IL - Metro *
05-22 Portland, OR - Doug Fir #
05-23 Seattle, WA - Neumos #
05-25 San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine *
05-26 Los Angeles, CA - Walt Disney Concert Hall #

* Surround Sound DJ set
# DJ set

link: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl...Schedules_Tour

I am really pissed that I can't make it to the Montpellier show since I am only about 2 hours outside. The fact that it is one of those surround sound sets seems like it would be really cool to see.

the way i see it is album sales keep an artist signed to a label which in turn provides them with a little more public exposure. being on a label (to my eyes and ears) seems to be the easiest way of distinguishing someone who's proven themselves as being a worthwhile musical acts from the exponentially expanding glut of crap being uploaded to the net on a daily basis. this isn't specific to electronic music either, it's the same thing for independent rock labels vs. myspace/purevolume bands.

sure you might not 'need' a label to get your music out to the masses but how else are you going to distinguish yourself from the ginormous pile of shit you just dumped your music into? seriously how many people here have been blown away by something completely independent on a myspace page? myself i've been pleasantly surprised about once, and the rest... well if it was just for laughs with their friends then fine, but most bands parade themselves like they're going to be some great 'new' band with their sloppy 4 chord punk rock.

as for amon tobin i get the impression he's being forced to try to be something he's not. tracks like 'verbal' with mc decimal on 'out from out where' and 'always' on this new release seem to be consciously geared to be more conventional electronic dance floor 'hits'. to me it seems like he should be focusing more on his atmospheric soundscapes. start focusing more on film or video game scores instread of trying to break into a club.

I agree with you about the whole label thing. We can always state or favorite unsigned band who is probably better then most of the shit being recorded on a label, but I think everyone here primarly listens to music on a label.

The whole myspace thing is hard for me. I'd probably be more open to trying to find music through the site but for one I hate the site, its always slow and most pages have shitty layouts. Like you said most of it is terrible music and it is so hard to sort through the bad to find the good that the place isn't worth the time.

I just sat down and listened to the Foley Room for the first time straight through and thought it wasn't bad, but nothing really that great compared to his past work (I was a lot more happier once Permutation came on). I kept in mind your club tracks comment and none of the tracks really struck me like that, but I am going to listen to the few you listed to see if I think different pinpointing them.

But do club producers even make that much money?

I think your right when you say he should stick to soundtracks cause I would love to just throw on a first person shooter to any of these tracks and rip shit up.

What's interesting is that when I saw him last year, the sound characteristics were such that an overponderance of bass flooded the place. Oftimes I had issues distinguishing all the details he works into his music. It was still a good show, but I don't think it's his best foot forward. This time he's coming to the same place, so it will be more of the techno bass...

I'm going anyway

if he comes out with a 'permutation' part 2, i'll melt.

i'd be curious to hear one of those 'surround sound' gigs hehehe

i'm also not that surprised about the overabundance of bass at live gigs. the live bootlegs i've downloaded are generally noisy but tolerable, the mixes for radio on the other hand are gold.

and JB the 'club' tracks i was referring to are basically tracks that seem to be put on the album in hopes that it'll generate a moderate single. if you want to do some gaming with tobin backing you up and haven't already tried splinter cell: chaos theory there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't go out and buy it right now. the game retails for $20 canadian now and should run fine on just about anything.

i don't think that it's so much an issue of him trying to break into a club but more of an issue that it's where society expects electronic musicians to perform. i'd be more than happy to sit in a theatre seat and listen to him mix up all kinds of crazy aural landscapes unfortunately most people would still just be asking 'where's the band?' or 'it's just a dj, why isn't he in a club?'

this is off-topic, but i'm glad that one topic finally generated some sort of intelligent conversation.

Now this makes a little more sense. You see I was sitting there thinking dance able and none of the tracks really struck me as that. I think for a track to be deanceable it needs to hit you right away, theres no real chance for the listener to hear it a few times in a club and be like oh now I get it, lets dance. But yes crafting towards a single seems to make a bit more sense and I'd agree with you on that idea.

For the venue. I think that would be an awesome experience in a theater or something, its ashame people don't think up more creative ideas like that. But I could also see the other side of that (your idea of people being bored) and think there is an easy solution to that; video that goes with it. My uncle is an artist that is just getting into that kinda thing. He makes tripped out videos for clubs and they are pretty sweet (I remember one of the videos in his portfolio DVD actually is to an Amon Tobin song (its a pretty early one and I'd have to dig up the DVD to get the title)).

But yes, club walls are not the only place for electronic music. An artist needs to get a bit of a following to be able to request venues like theaters and such or prove that enough beer is gonna be sold.

Equinox, yeah there seems to be a lot of listing going on within the Electronic section.