Amon Tobin ‘Bricolage’, ‘Creatures’, ‘Chomp Samba’, ‘Mission’, ‘Piranha Breaks’

  • RELEASED: 01 Jun 1997 / Nov 1996 / May 1997 / Sept 1997 / Nov 1997
  • FORMAT: 2xLP / CD /12″ / CDS
  • LABEL: NINJA TUNE
  • CAT No.: ZEN29 / ZENCD29 / ZENCD1249 / ZEN1253 / ZENCDS53 / ZEN1256 / ZEN1263 / ZENCDS63
  • DESIGN: Openmind
  • SPOTTERS DELIGHT:
  • EXTRA ZEN: Bricolage / Creatures / Chomp Samba / Mission / Piranha Breaks

On my first tour of the US in ’96 – as well as buying as many records, clothes, comics and toys as I could carry – I was snapping away with my camera documenting as much of it as possible too. When we got to Seattle, we visited the Space Needle (as you do) and there, sitting below it as if just landed from outer space, was this sculpture. I thought it looked like a collision of giant lipsticks and took photos of it from all angles and went on my way, not even checking who it was by. Back home a year later Ninja had signed new boy Amon ‘Cujo’ Tobin and needed some artwork and I retrieved these pictures with a view to using them on his releases.

I can’t remember actually speaking to Amon about any of this but it got printed so he must have either liked it or been too shy to say anything. The first appearance was on the ‘Creatures’ single (ZENCD1249) and I washed the colour out, the idea being that the colour would gradually appear more vivid with each release as I revealed more of the sculpture although I don’t think this actually happened. I was using very ‘techno’ fonts for some reason including She One’s custom made ‘Bronx Modern’ typeface which I modified slightly as Amon’s logo.

Next was ‘Chomp Samba’ (ZEN1253 / ZENCDS53) which we both still like very much, then the album ‘Bricolage’ where I revealed the legs of the sculpture on the back cover, very much grounding it in a modern setting whereas before it had been just shapes against sky. Many people have since asked me if this is in fact the sculpture in Seattle which has been moved around over the years but was still there last time i visited (Frank Gehry built his Experience Music Project building on the site a few years back). The name of the sculpture, I have since found out, is ‘Olympic Iliad’, created by Alexander Liberman.

After this came two more singles: ‘Mission’ (ZEN1256 – all chopped up and stretched details) and ‘Piranha Breaks’ (ZEN1263 / ZENCDS63) – which wasn’t really related to the ‘Bricolage’ album but came way before ‘Permutations’ – so I turned it all blue but was still using these photos as a starting point.