★★★★☆
It’s awarded itself a headbanging badge of honor using bladed pyrotechnics…but it’s not dubstep. The serrations always wound and it can go into hyperdrive at the drop of a dime…its riffs transform electro into a form of breakbeat clamor, although, again, it’s just off the categorization you’re seeking. One certainty is that Amon Tobin brings the noise brutishly, the Brazilian’s fondness for twisting synths inside out until they require medical attention never found wanting on this Two Fingers victory sign.
With natural affinity to the dark and computerized, “Fools Rhythm” and its ceremonial use of the hoover synth, shoves the sound into one of glitch-hop’s instrumental mazes. But a returning skip and jump is Tobin heavy-handedly showing a degree of roundabout glee. “Snap” sounds like tech-step drum & bass slouching down the street and although “Magoo” seems at a loose end, it becomes a holding zone for Tobin’s guttural bass energy, spewing through the doomsday cacophony “Sweden” and the 4/4 tempo that takes a hold of “Razorback.”
Where riffs lunge and withdraw into a collective noise and clatter, a lack of vocal guidance either curbs development or makes matters more uncompromising. However loud the ringing in your ears, in these times of bass, Stunt Rhythms will have EQ freakers across the board taking their pick. If you’re still looking for a marker to put Two Fingers against, simply file under ‘pro-Tobin.’
File under: King Cannibal, Eskamon, Fulgeance