Long-time friends = fruitful partnership
Who they?
The inspired pairing of Thys, aka Thijs de Vlieger, one third of Dutch drum ’n’ bass/dubstep giants Noisia, with legend of the left field, Amon Tobin. The pair first hooked up after long-term Noisia fan Tobin included their music on a Radio 1 Essential Mix, and he went on to remix and collaborate with them several times. They’re about to release their first full EP as Thys & Amon Tobin, ‘Ghostcards’, recorded in Tobin’s studio in Los Angeles under the twin influences of mezcal and marijuana. “I did most of the playing,” explains de Vlieger. “Amon was in the Rick Rubin kind of role.”
Why Thys & Amon Tobin?
Because the four tracks on ‘Ghostcards’ have a compulsively haunted, melancholy twist. You might call it ambient, but Amon is quick to point out “it has no drums to speak of, which is really a different thing to being ambient music”. The atmosphere was inspired by the idea of memory and nostalgia, encapsulated in the snapshot nature of postcards. The tracks are brief, all under three minutes, but as Thijs says “if anyone thinks they’re too short, they can always just put them on again”. He sees them as spooky in a “haunted house at the fairground” way rather than dark – indeed, one of the tracks is called ‘House Of Mirrors’. “I personally see a lot of humour in it,” Amon adds.“We laughed a lot making it, which is not to say we didn’t take it seriously.”
Tell us more…
There’s a host of material in the can from the sessions, but it’s not all in this vein. “There are some bigger, longer, more sci-fi tracks that we’ve done,” says Thijs. “Perhaps they’ll make up a mini album, or a big EP.” Watch this space…
‘Ghostcards’ is out on Nomark
