Great glob of profound solo thought by this confirmed margin walker. A dose more fractured than his Charalambides work, Root King makes for a perfect late-night listen as Carter scrambles chords and brain cells via electric and lap steel guitar while choruses of far-off bells rattle like the bones of tiny fish dancing in yr veins. Real rock bottom blues.

Second of two solo guitar collections from Tom Carter of Charalambides/Zaika et al. This one bundles two raggedy live blow-outs of solo guitar gnosis, one recorded at Nemo Bidstrup of Time-Lag’s record store, the other in Burnt Hills’ legendary Albany basement venue.

"Eva (Inca Ore) is a noted abyss whisperer and lung purger whose vox exertions have added a great deal of chokehold potential to JOMF in addition to a slew of other collaborations, most notably yellow swans. her new cd on 5rc is a heart-punching freedom grab that has folks across the globe falling bewildered onto either side of their self-drawn boundaries. This collab with tom partakes of some of the nursery rhyme fragility of her jyrk/weird forest debut, w/out fearing the blown open furnace door (nor the white heat inside. nor the wah pedal). 43 minutes, 150 copies, spraypaint stencilled by eva w/ an image of a popular medicinal plant of the western hemisphere." - Tom Carter.

"Sky City features Tom Carter (Charalambides), Robert Horton, Lisa Cameron & Lee Ann Cameron. Lisa Cameron is a drummer and percussionist from Austin, Texas, whom Tom Carter has played with in the past. Lisa creates exquisite noise by vibrating snares and cymbals with feedback. When she heard Tom Carter and Robert Horton's Lunar Eclipse, she wanted to record with them. Lisa and vocalist Lee Ann Cameron drove from Austin to the Bay Area and a session was planned. In the meantime, Tom was journeying in New Mexico and drove by a road sign to Sky City, so he had found the name for the new group. The day of the session, Lisa and Lee Ann drove from San Francisco, picked up Tom in Oakland and arrived at the studio on the hill. Lisa had somehow left her equipment in SF. As they drove up, I heard Tom say, "That's so Texas." Then the magic started. Lisa asked, "Do you have a cymbal?" "Yes" "An extra contact microphone?" "Yes." "A snare?" "Yes." "Some strips of metal?" "Yes." Then we walked over the abyss together into Sky City. Sky City is psychedelic space music with all the atoms of surfaces freed to inter and counter react. Noise in the outer dimension. Horton's homemade inventions, Carter's lyrical ebow guitar lines. The walking on the moon vocals of Lee Ann Cameron. The vibration of material planes by Lisa Cameron. The broken blues of the boot ( Horton's oldest instrument 4 strings on a piece of wood the shape of italy). Sun Ra ark and Neil Young's arc put through a digital blender and reconstituted for space travel. The magical musical thing (MMT) a toy synthesizer from the 70"s. A great drawing on the inside cover by Natacha Robinson. A chance for music induced time travel to parallel worlds and an opportunity to recieve a collect call for the future from Sky City." - IR.

Much requested CD reissue of this hard-to-score Charalambides release, originally issued as a Peter King lathe LP on Eclipse in an edition of only 100 copies. Dedicated to Bruce Connor, it features inkblot artwork by Heather Leigh. The sonics are supremely dilated and fully orbit the kinda late-90s/early ‘00s mystery zone that would combine extended improvisatory modes ala FMP/Incus with F/X clouded dreamtone works, gorgeous otherworldly vocals from Christina and sudden surges of volume pedal gliss from Tom. This is still one of their most beautifully fucked recordings and speaks of their ability to inhabit the furthest edges of form while still sounding like the best rock band of your life. Can’t think of anyone today who could pull off the same kind of seamless psychedelic schizophrenia with such fucking aplomb. A great record from a great group, highly recommended.

Edition of 214 one-sided LP with blood red silkscreened flip. Looped and live collaged ritual atmospherics and crude guitar/drum psych stand-offs that orbit a similar zone to early NNCK from a group that feature Tom Carter of Charalambides, Shawn McMillen (Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast), Brian Smith (Iron Kite et al) and Blake Carlisle. Less drone-focussed than previous releases and deeper into a kind of savant ESP Disk Godz/Fugs séance style.

Hand-numbered edition of 150 copies cassette compiled by ex-ESP Disk employees now in charge of the new Northern Spy imprint. Four-way split from some of the brightest voices in the post-drone underground. Messages bring some extended tonal thunder to their post-Wada minimalism, Tom Carter levitates planetary atmospherics from his electric guitar, Zaimph aka Marcia Bassett contributes a haunting guitar/vocal séance while Loren Connors and Portuguese bassist Margarida Garcia navigate a deep field of single notes suspended in endless reverb with all of the otherworldly appeal of Keiji Haino’s most delicate constructions. Highly recommended. 

New duo project from Tom Carter of Charalambides and Marc Orleans of Sunburned Hand Of The Man. If you’ve caught any of the recent solo blats from Tom Carter since his relocation to NYC then you’ll know that that these days his guitar is fully set to shred and this is a stunning document of two string-thinkers working with maximal freedom and organic rhythms. The opening “Eyes Of Jewels, Mirrored Bodies” marries Orleans great fingerpicking style – which comes from a similar place to Glenn Jones – to Tom’s wild west coast style. Later tracks explode the blueprint even further, marring a 90s underground feel for squeal with an immolating post-Sonny Sharrock aesthetic. Easily one of the wildest sides either of these guys have cut and if you’re into bloodied six string euphoria then you’ll even be able to forgive them their ‘poem’ to Jack Rose. Stick to the string-slinging, brothers! 150g vinyl with download. 

Hand-numbered private press release on Charalambides’ own Wholly Other imprint in a run of only 255 copies from the duo of Tom Carter and Sandy Ewen: Ewen has played with Pauline Oliveros, Sabir Mateen, J.D. Emmanuel and Jaap Blonk and her style crosses extreme feedback with moments of tactile microtonal detail, moving from exercises in deep, deep listening to moments of rolling string ecstasy that could almost be Bola Sete. Tom digs just as deep, raising leviathan drones and bluesy pointillist shadows from arcs of hovering tone and at points playing in a higher-minded melodic style that combines west coast flights with confusing low-level backwards melodies torn from somewhere between the bridge and the pick-up. If you dig Ash Ra Temple’s “Amboss” as much as Stefan Jaworzyn’s Lick My Pussy, Will Montgomery then this is your cut of meat. Much more ‘out’ than Tom’s recent work with Charalambides and Eleven Twenty-Nine, Spiderwebs bring the blood to Brighton Beach all over again. Handmade two-colour silkscreen covers with photographic insert, immediately sold out at source, highly recommended!