In the fast paced, ever-evolving world of contemporary electronica, nothing lasts long. Works once perceived as masterful often seem horribly dated only months later. The glitch-- only recently deemed the next big thing-- is now in a state of complete stagnation, with no sign of returning to its former glory. Albums thought classic a few years ago are laughing matters in the face of new technological achievements. Not even a year since most of us first heard names like Machine Drum and Prefuse 73, the idea of chopping up vocals is starting to sound like yesterday's news. Sure, there's the click-hop movement; artists like Akufen and Andreas Tilliander attempting to bring something new to the table, to resuscitate the sliced-vocals thing with their own unique styles and sounds. But despite their best efforts, it seems it won't be long before this too is old news. Been there, done that.

Enter Original Instrument. Consisting of all four founding members of the Kracfive label, their approach is slightly more extreme. The sounds on this album are comprised 100% of human vocals. The name suggests a back-to-basics approach, a return to bare fundamentals, but don't be fooled. Original Instrument isn't really about the human voice, but rather those processes used to chop it up, distort, maim and manipulate it. Provided you believe the label's claim that the sounds on this album are 100% processed human vocals, then indeed Original Instrument stands less as an ode to the glory of the human voice than it does to the power of computers to manipulate sound.

Does the process outshine the art? Does the music get lost in the shadow of the gimmick? The answer, surprising and pleasing, is 'not in the least.' Original Instrument is damned entertaining from start to finish, really a fine piece of electronic music, even if it does happen to fit in the oft-maligned category of 'concept album.' There's no denying the work that went into Original Instrument. The care with which these samples have been chopped up, fucked up, pitch-shifted and arranged into something undeniably melodic and rhythmic, yet not obviously vocal-based, is prodigious. These guys have taken something simple and made a pretty stunning array of beats, drones, pops, clicks, tweets, and all kinds of weird noises from the most literal of organic sources.

Granted, tracks like "Bop Me" and "Nake" take the obvious approach; funny noises, hung loosely from a beat or a rhythm. Anyone whose ever spent time fucking with digital audio tracks has heard these sorts of sounds before; that vaguely robotic effect that results from stretching out or looping a very small chunk of audio. "Coughio" builds beats out of fragments and arranged samples of, well, coughs. Even Ferris Bueller could do that. Tracks like these are fun the first couple times around, but admittedly, they lose a lot of their gusto by the fifth listen.

Other tracks are more ambitious. "Conversong" is an ambient track that sees the masterminds piling a few looped vowels atop one another, stretching them out over five minutes, and shifting each of their pitches gradually in different directions. "Heavens to Betsy" is Original Instrument's take on an R&B; groove. They layer Cuisinarted vocals around a looped sample of a female R&B; singer, and damn if it doesn't sound soulful and sexy, even if the backup singers' oohs and ahhs end up getting stretched out, hacked to slivers and spattered about, like the aural equivalent of a Jackson Pollack painting.

Original Instrument is, without a doubt, a one-trick pony. But the trick is a pretty good one. And the guys running the show are versatile enough to keep it interesting, jumping from beat-driven to ambient, from soulful to abstract and back again, all without ever sounding too scatterbrained. Original Instrument maintains a strong sense of balance throughout, always sensing just when you're about to get bored with their toys, always showing up with something new to recapture your attention just at the right moment. Original Instrument won't solve your problems, find you a job, reunite your long-estranged family or any of that. But, there's no denying that it's kinda fun. And sometimes that's all that's necessary.

-David M. Pecoraro, April 25th, 2002