Original Darkness [Slipcase]

hristina Carter is like Charalambides itself in terms of recording work -- prolific, and then some. Her late 2008 release for Kranky, Original Darkness, showcases the singer/guitarist's ready knack for comparatively straightforward compositions away from her main band, though it's also true to say that for Carter, straightforward is many others well out there. Opening with the easy guitar lope and irregular chimes of the title track, somewhere between high and lonesome country and a queasy fever dream (something that the sudden appearance of keyboards only enhances), Original Darkness confirms once more that for Carter, genre names are ultimately limitations. There's just a sound she has, somewhere between familiar and sui generis, and if you can sense the creative avatars that point the way to the slippery melodies and soft singing on songs like "Fountain of Youth" and "Hidden Man" (the latter almost sounding like something Neu! would do at its most free-floating), there's also a clear sense of how she tests possibilities song for song. The dark, steady chug of "Re-Found Mary" is as dank as the earliest Sonic Youth but toward the end suddenly, almost sweetly graceful, and the far more direct "Suffering," as close to a straight-up folk song as can be found on the album, are very different things but give a clear sense of Carter's realm of possibilities. Sometimes the accompaniment is spare, gently fractured but never out of control -- the soft keening on "You Are So Far Away," almost a sigh, floating above overdubbed guitar parts that intertwine and then fall away, or the not-quite-harmonies on "Capable of Murder," similarly close but not in sync, even as a steady keyboard part serenely suggests calm. ~ Ned Raggett|