Scout Niblett
The Calcination of Scout Niblett

Published by Drag City (also remembered for the legendary support of Pavement) several weeks ago, the new work of the English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist begins its prolific critical blossoming.

Recorded once again by Steve Albini, it is a partly difficult work, yet direct. What immediately strikes are the bare structures and arrangements, more enigmatic than in the previous "This Fool Can Die Now", and the peculiar vocals, sometimes almost recited, which now more than ever partly recall the darker side - saturated in an almost "caricatured" manner - of Lisa Germano ("I.B.D.") and on the other hand the anger, the impetuous rock 'n' roll of "Rid of Me" ("Calcination", "Kings").

These are eleven untameable and primordial macabre dances on the notes of psychotic and depleted blues ad libitum, barely guided by the prominence of percussion - typical of works curated by Albini, but even more accentuated in our stripped context - and set by graceless guitar decorations as if adorning an old and decaying Christmas tree in the madness stemming from persistent solitude.

And it is precisely this delirious desolation, generated by anything but mild atmospheres, that recalls another raw minimalism from the past - whose stark comparison would be decidedly daring, misleading and much more forced: Niblett strips her scores to the bone and delivers them in an almost industrial manner, with a brutality, albeit much less impetuous, noisier and hypnotic, yet more melodic and instrumental, that vaguely evokes a lean approach similar to what was sensed by the Swans almost thirty years ago.

Despite the fine-tuning of the minimal sound and although overall it is a more than good work, "The Calcination of Scout Niblett" perhaps falters in being nothing new from the praiseworthy multi-instrumentalist (see "Your Last Chariot", from "This Fool Can Die Now"), and, except for some tracks destined to become the highest peaks of the Niblettian repertoire, probably a step back compared to its predecessor.