Scarnella

With the supersonic alt-country prog-rock band the Geraldine Fibbers on (permanent?) hiatus, husky-voiced singer-guitarist Carla Bozulich and six-string torturer Nels Cline have resurfaced as Scarnella. Bashed out in a week's time in the summer of 1998, Scarnella picks up where the most extreme of Fibbers material leaves off -- as an experiment in narcotic din a la Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground before them. It's a potentially room-clearing effort, ranging from the strung-out 'Release the Spring' to several superaggressive swaths that may be the aural equivalent of flesh being pulled slowly and methodically from the bone. Some more-structured moments -- the torchy 'The Most Useless Thing' and the giddy noise-pop workout 'Dandelion' -- do recall the Fibbers, but ultimately Scarnella is for those fans whose limits must be challenged even further. --Neal Weiss