Wednesday 23/11/11 Amon Tobin @ The Forum, London

Amon Tobin has always been an artist determined to do his own thing following eight critically acclaimed albums alongside a career of scoring revolutionary video game and movie soundtracks. He has always refused to adhere to the classical style of transferring electronic music to a live medium complete with instruments, instead citing a compatibility of his sound with the traditional pair of turntables. In taking his latest critically acclaimed album 'ISAM' on the road, Amon has approached the performance from an angle that as of yet has been unseen in the music industry.

The live show is as much a visual experience as an auditory one, with a full two-story high installation constructed for the purpose of Amon's world tour. Made wholly out of panels the construct resembles something straight out of Minecraft or Tetris, with the infamous DJ encapsulated at the centre of the audio/visual marvel. Ultimately the experience of watching the show in action is relentlessly uncanny with projected visuals hitting the structure in a fashion that lends the audience an illusion of three dimensions.

With the literal and metaphorical scope of the project being so large, the effect of witnessing it stutter and boot up before building to a full on assault on the senses is nothing short of a marvel that has to be seen to be believed. It might seem to be easy to get caught up in hyperbole with a situation like this but there is literally no other way to describe the show other than a truly amazing benchmark set to redefine the very conventions of live performance.

As a whole the show works as a journey, beginning slowly with rhythmic flickers here and there before taking the audience on a ride evocative of a range of emotions from euphoria to anxiety. Coordinating the visuals with the sound suits the performance superbly with the gears and space age visuals suiting the mood and industrial edge of Amon's sound perfectly. It'd be nice to delve into the show further but to do so would be to ruin the experience, needless to say when the construct turns a glowing red as the proceedings ratchet up to 180 beats per minute, get ready for one hell of a ride.

All in all the experience (it can be described as nothing else) was akin to meditation in its power sending the crowd into an intermittently cheering trance. With a slew of bookings on the cards for next year it is a show that cannot be recommended enough, being transcendental to the worlds of art and music becoming a huge paradigm shift in the medium of live performance. Just try not to get in anyone's way while they're watching...