Bulldog

And so it was that I ended up with an album that was described to me as experimental post-rock with a dark alt. country vibe, and it shows to varying degrees over the whole album. Whatever the case, I was in the mood for something more left-of-field and avante-garde to have a good, long listen to, so I snapped this one up when it was offered to me.

What with the duo that makes up Scarnella originating from the broader-than-you'd-think alt country label (from the form of Geraldine Fibbers, just so you know), there are a handful of songs with something vaguely resembling a melody at their spine (Release the Spring and the Most Useless Thing being a couple of examples), but the album is dominated by a much more industrial vibe. In fact, the cold and bleakly metallic vibe of the lengthy opener Underdog sets up the atmosphere for the whole sound perfectly. Furthermore, through the lack of many conventional song structures, I guess you could vaguely lump this album in with the post-rock tag, but for a start that wouldn't really do this album justice, and also there's a much more improvisational, free-jazz element to a lot of the tracks on show here. Hell, three of them even have improvisation in their titles.

Basically, the phrase 'avante-garde/post-rock/imrpov/dark country would sum this album up nicely. Leaving this review at that would be ever-so slightly lame (especially considering how horrifically late I am with this one), so I'll elaborate - as an experiment, it's certainly a very interesting one. Although some of the components of that experiment are a little unremarkable (Improvisation #1 in particular bordering on dull for me), most of it's very worthwhile. The more conventional numbers like Release the Spring and Dandelions (which still maintain a Beefheart-esque, left-of-field edge about them) are a couple of highlights, and while saying this isn't to play down most of the rest of the album at all, it's worth anyone finding this album if only to hear the monolithic masterpiece that is the 12 minute epic Snowy - where the rest of the album is polarised in its sound like I said, this song unites both schools of songwriting, and ends up creating one of the finest songs I've heard in recent weeks.

So, yeah, thanks for this Also, Dankrsta, check out Manafon by David Sylvian - judging by this album, I'm pretty sure you'll like it. Let me know if you want me to help you with a link.

And this makes it 10 out of 14 reviews completed. Anyone who hasn't already done theirs, you've still got plenty of time to get them sorted yet.