Terra Incognita

An endlessly inventive soundsmith, Chris Whitley piles layer upon layer of fed-back, distorted guitar; Terra Incognita is exhilarating, if sometimes harrowing. He also has a plangent, expressive voice. This original may be too idiosyncratic to break through to the masses — though ”Automatic” and ”Power Down” are as darkly urgent and hook filled as anything by Kurt Cobain, and then some.