Short Cuts & Dead Ends is a compilation album that consists of rare and unreleased material by Niko Skorpio from the period of 2000–2004. Central to this compilation are the EPs ChAmber MooSick (tracks 1-3, originally released 2001) and Stainway to Heaven (tracks 5-8, originally released 2002). The rest of the contents are previously unreleased; rough demos, remixes, tracks destined for compilations that never happened etc.

Musically, this is a fractal kaleidoscope "almost ritual in its expression" ¹, "of dark droning ambient and some sample oriented electro madness, recycling some funk and eastern psychedelic records and just about anything you could imagine, really making it a diverse and fresh listening experience" ², ranging from "low humming space sounds slowly forming weird melodies" ³ to "happy melodies beating and crackling on top of a fast jazz-accompaniment" ³ to "noise-y buzz of ambient and fragmented resonance" ⁴. Niko Skorpio "has a sound of his own and a caring hand for details" ⁵ and his "musical menu has contained more alternative auditory meals than many will even taste in their whole lives" ⁴. This musick is manic, ecstatic and meditative, and sometimes simply undescribable. Forget coherence, embrace wild mood swings and expect bumps on the road!

Niko Skorpio says:
"I like to view this album as a kind of shadow album to Escape from Heaven. Besides the chronological overlap there are several more or less obvious parallels between tracks on these two albums. Despite whatever flaws these songs may carry, I find this collection quite enjoyable and meaningful to myself. Thus I want to make it available for a wider audience. Bon voyage!"

Notes: 1 - Vital Weekly; 2 - Prospective; 3 - Kuolleen musiikin yhdistys; 4 - Inferno; 5 - Brainwashed.com. (quotes from reviews of the two above-mentioned EPs)