From the first strains of "Like Regular Chickens", you know this isn't going to be another knockoff drum and bass album. The track begins with a jazzy cymbal, vibe and piano loop, combined with a complex, live hip-hop beat loop. The beats speed up later on, and the various samples are manipulated within the mix, and the track remains full of surprises. And that's par for the course on Permutation -- rather than the "autopilot" feel one often gets from drum and bass, this disc has a pervasively organic, handmade feel to it -- particularly the drums themselves. "Bridge" is another track that teeters on the edge of jazz, while "Sordid" takes a massive slab o' percussion and some subwoofer-punishing bass and fuses them into a funky, thumping behemoth of sound. "Nightlife" starts out creepy and unsettling, but evolves steadily into a clever mix of exotica-style lounge music loops and percolating rhythms. The ingriguing "Switch" is jazz -- you can sense the electronic roots, almost catch the drum and bass beats out of peripheral hearing, but it never morphs. Add sampled upright bass, otherworldly strings and perhaps didgeridoo ("People Like Frank"), samba ("Fast Eddie") and dreamy easy listening ("Nova") and it becomes obvious that Amon Tobin is an artist blessed with a far thicker sonic recipe book than most of his peers, resulting in an disc that'll keep you surprised and satisfied for seventy dreamy minutes.
Amon Tobin Permutation Ninja Tune CD
			Review by George Zahora

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