“What we have here is a failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke
What an odd contradiction Sketchi is musically when compared to its artwork and name. As you can see, the cover is a slightly mangled version of Ivan Reitman’s deservedly forgotten Governator vehicle Twins. The simple metaphor, in obvious site of Danny DeVito’s head being covered up by an all too familiar explosion, is that it’s a parody of 9/11. However, since Danny is leaning heavily and Governor Schwarzenegger is Republican, I believe the underlying message could be a nod to the well-documented theory that 9/11 was an inside job (e.g., how could huge structures merely implode and not lean even slightly when destroyed by terrorists, yet it takes a demolition crew weeks of work to do just that on much smaller structures).
Then again, running the “don’t judge a book” adage into the ground, the CD contains no such radical hippie think pieces. Any preconceived political notions are easily dispelled by the sprawling ten-minute opening epic “Damon Kvols,” which rides a consistent, lazy dub bassline to fruition with a series of pigeon coos and a serious, mood-setting cello. This track features about all the vocals Sketchi has to offer, and even then it’s only about 30 seconds of indecipherable raga, so you needn’t worry about South Park-style preachy rhetoric.
Baltimore resident and former TMT dreamer Rjyan “Cex” Kidwell took some six years to bring you this work of touchy downtempo, and damned if you can’t hear the effort. Sketchi literally sees a young, glitchy IDM punk maturing into a master of low-key ambient production. Therein lays something of a pickle. Cex’ skills tend to find themselves existing more in programming than the production of utterly captivating sounds. As such, the end result of much of the album borders on boring repetition, making it something you’ve gotta be in the mood for as opposed to his earlier, more provocative works, those which grab your attention whether you want it to or not. Regardless, the sheer scope and dedication to this tribal electronic dub motif is commendable and surely greeted with utter elation buy those few fans lucky enough to snag a copy of this hand-numbered, out-of-a-thousand collector's release. Frankie says relax.
More about: Cex
