A small candle is flickering as Amon Tobin sits in the dark corner of The Rcho in Los Angeles. He is at the tail end of a North American tour that has seen much praise for his recently released album, ‘Out From Out Where.’ A mesh of Middle Eastern melodies, breakbeats and dreamy electronic soundscapes, the album is a rather accomplished piece of work.

The album flows with a certain sense of synchronicity on hand, yet there are certain tracks that show the musical schizophrenia with which he assembles an album. When discussing the second track on the album, a strange take on hip-hop with the most amazing bass sounds, Tobin states, “It was pretty much an experiment, isolating elements of hip-hop that I really liked and trying to put them in a different context, see what happens and manipulate the voice. That’s what I was trying to do, make the vocal a sort of percussion instrument. It’s not a concept album...it was just ideas I had at the time I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.”

Not unlike most musicians, Tobin says that his greatest influence is simply other artists’ music. “Other music is my big inspiration. I spend most of my time listening and something will just trigger an idea of something I really want to try or I’ll hear something and think, ‘What would that sound like this if this was put next to it?’”

When discussing the variety of samples he uses, Tobin seems to show a keen interest in making certain that any sound he samples sound nothing like it originally did. “I try and steer away from using sounds in their normal way. I’ll try and maybe make a motorcycle sound more like a bass noise or get something percussive of a bird noise. It’s rarely the focus of the track though, it’s just stuff going on.”

In listening to Tobin’s album, “stuff going on” would be a gross understatement. The layers to which the rhythms are interwoven amongst other rhythms seem infinite. It seems nearly impossible to hear one melody line without hearing three, four or five others all at the same time. The result is brilliant and breathtaking.

Being on an independent label, Tobin has used the creative license it has afforded him to make incredibly original works. IT is obvious he doesn’t feel a need to keep up with musical Joneses. Asked what his views are on the current state of music, Amon doesn’t hesitate to offer up an answer, “I don’t think things change as much as people say. There’s always an abundance of shit and there’s always a few things that are really awesome and stand out . IT just shifts from genre to genre. When drum ‘n’ bass was really trendy I don’t think there was more good drum ‘n’ bass being made. The good music is still being made by the people whose main interest is making music. It’s kind of an end in itself and it becomes part of whatever’s going on, but it’s still there after it moves off y’know?”

He delves into the difference between music lovers and music listeners, “It’s a minority of people, I think, who are music lovers first and foremost and there’s nothing wrong with that. You can’t criticize people for being more interested in chatting up a girl at the bar than listening to the breaks. It’s fair enough. You make the music for yourself first and foremost. People use music for different reason, I suppose...” Tobin trails off sounding very Zen in his acceptance of those who may not appreciate music the way he does.

The next question was about to be asked when two of Tobin’s friends walk over to the table with sort of stunned looks on their faces. One of them looks at Amon and says,

“Jam Master Jay just got killed in New York. He was shot...” The friend says with his voice tapering off. “How fucked up.” The other friend adds, “It was just on the radio, I mean, talk about a legend y’know? Tobin looks down and can only manage to sigh quietly, “Fuck.”

Suddenly there seemed no point in continuing. No Barbara Walters need to carry on discussing the merits of making the music you love and segue into the history and impact of Run DMC on music today. If anything, Jay Mizell, aside from most likely serving as an inspiration for Tobin at one time or another, represented a prime example of exactly the kind of person Tobin would want to listen to his music...someone who comes to a show for no other reason than to take it all in and listen to the breaks.