SKRAP - K.O [Va Fongool - 2013]It is no secret that the last decade has brought music and recording away from the studio and into the bedroom. This paradigm shift has had the wonderful effect of democratizing music and truly putting it in the hands of the people, and for this I am grateful. Yet there is a downfall to this scenario, all musicians who have participated in this shift have involuntarily become recording engineers. While at first this does not seem a problem it has lead to an overall decrease in sonic quality and I would argue that the time spent by musicians to learn this highly skilled craft has taken away from the time that at one point would have been used to learn the instruments being recorded. SKRAP's latest "k.o." seems more like a collection of loose improvisations than it does an album. The fifteen mostly brief tracks that occupy this release range from amazing to mediocre and everything in between. Oddly for the most part the longer tracks seems to provide less enjoyment than the short ones, some only forty or so seconds long, most with abrupt inconclusive endings. Part of the album magnificently sounds like it was cut right out of some of the best 60's electronic and tape music records but these moments are brief and fleeting, it would have been nice to hear them unfold with more reserve. While these moments get the listener interested they are balanced with an almost equal amount of seemingly directionless knob turning. If you are just going to skim through this album I recommend skipping to these tracks first: 4, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15. The album ends stronger than it begins, the second to last and last tracks moving slower with lullaby-like qualities. SKRAP has potential and I believe with a bit more care put into the track selection, editing and overall production that they could be great.    Jean-Paul Garnier
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