SKI is the solo project of Damian Kowalski and KRE his first release under the moniker. Kowalski is a drummer by trade and this inaugural work, spread over seven tracks, definitely puts the emphasis on rhythm, with extremes at the upper and lower reaches of the frequency spectrum placed in the mix.
Rattling, high-pitched noise is punctuated by subharmonic electronic bass and a heavily distorted analog drum kit on KRE’s opening cut. The feedback never completely usurps, nor does the staccato bass devolve into pure, danceable techno, though all the elements are certainly there. These three sonic registers – feedback, electronic bass, distorted drums – map out the acoustic field of KRE and remain the recurrent source material across the album. Exactly how these are combined results in the uniqueness of each of the seven tracks, with the caveat that there is really little attempt on Kowalski’s part to completely rethink the usual functions of his source material, nor should there be.
The tributaries are clear here even if isolating them might run the risk of violating the dark, unholy noumena at the core of KRE. Texturally, Kowalski owes a great deal to Autechre, at least as far as the higher frequency and feedback parts are concerned. For the mic’d drums, heavily treated with drive and fuzz, several points of orientation come to mind. Chrome, obviously, but the specific drone character of Kowalski’s kit is much closer in its character and temperament to Thymme Jones’ work, from You Fantastic! to Brise-Glace to Yona-Kit (too many to mention). The drift, however, is all Kowalski’s, never letting go of the beat, as it were, throughout the works, firmly rooting this album in European electronic tradition, evidenced by the appearance of 808-style claps on KRE’s last cut, a composition that could be right at home on the dance floor.
KRE is too lively for pure experimentalists, but it definitely probes the weirder ends of IDM, too. The sounds will no doubt smack of something familiar to many, a family resemblance that Kowalski seems to embrace rather than attempt to jettison. I can imagine that this work will speak to a pretty wide audience, provided those listeners are comfortable in the dark.
