Released: Sep-2005
Label: Ninja Tune
Catalog#: ZENCD114
Official info (http://anonym.to/?http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/release.php?id=1061
Interview by Pixelsurgeon (http://anonym.to/?http://pixelsurgeon.com/interviews/interview.php?id=108

Track listing
~ CD1 - Konfusion ~
01. Shivers [4:16]
02. Flying Officer [4:27]
03. Long Distance Call [2:49]
04. Hiperbole [3:14]
05. Beep Breath [4:38]
06. Konfusion [3:58]
07. Test Drive [2:49]
08. Wooden Toy [4:07]
09. Split [4:53]
10. Seaweed [2:30]
~ CD2 - 1958 Breaks (Bonus Disc) ~
01. Break In (Backini remix) [3:48]
02. 1958 (Quantic remix) [5:02]
03. Break In (Dr Rubberfunk 'Live A No. 10A' remix) [3:59]
04. 1958 (Skalpel remix) [5:00]
05. Break In (J's remix) [2:52]
06. Break Out (Skalpel remix) [3:47]
07. Low [5:13]
08. Low (Reconstruction by The Amalgamation of Soundz) [5:15]
09. Break In (Paradowski remix) [4:18]
10. 1958 (Extended remix) [4:00]
11. Laboratorium [3:59]

This is an album for the jazzers and beat heads, a dark and brooding journey into a Raymond Chandler-esque neo-noir world of femme fatales and fall guys.
This is music to accompany hard-boiled detective films, with riffs as fast-paced as the dialogue, drums that break like a fist on a face, and double bass that flexes like thick, grey cigarette smoke dancing in a shaft of light.
The dark, image-laden sound is no accident. Skalpel dedicate themselves to finding the perfect samples from their collection of 60s and 70s eastern European jazz before slipping in the beats and breaks and bringing it right up to date.
Their inspiration was the sound of the Polish underground. Semi-illegal recordings known as ‘samizdat’, made at a time when communism was breathing hard down the neck of eastern Europe and jazz was thought to be capable of bringing down the state.
Jazz represented an escape from communism, yet its foreboding presence still lurks deep in the shadows of much of the music on this record, helping to provide a weight to the minimalist sax and trumpet riffs.
Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudlo, the duo who make up Skalpel, clearly have an unrivalled source of samples to tap. This is everything a jazz record should be: funky riffs, soulful sax solos and vocals that slice through the instrumentals with precision timing.
From the double-bass-driven ‘Long Distance Call’ and the wah-trumpeted ‘Test Drive’ to the funky drumming of ‘Deep Breath’, this is a record brimming with atmosphere and the kind of intelligent cut-and-paste that makes it an art form instead of a form of theft.
Skalpel have been making these crisp and complex sounds for a while now. It’s just that they’ve been making them in Poland. There, they are among the best-known and most respected DJs and producers about, with even a Paszporty Polityki nomination to their name (the most prestigious culture award in the country).
Beyond those borders, they were virtually unknown until their debut album for Ninja Tune. Now they sit comfortably alongside the label’s other solid performers such as The Cinematic Orchestra and Mr Scruff.
‘Konfusion’ is a great, easy-paced jazz record, a cinematic soundtrack for a movie yet to be conceived, and the ideal accompaniment to your neo-noir espresso. --Ian Everett/new-noise.net