tom carter

Glyph

Originally issued on excruciatingly limited edition cdr for the Wholly Other label, this is the 'proper' release of one of Charalambides mainman Tom Carter's most engaging solo jaunts. Housed with the usual Digitalis care and attention in a thick card gatefold sleeve hand painted by Carter himself, everything about 'Glyph' feels deluxe, apparently Carter has even remastered these recordings for this issue - what's more, there's a story behind it, these three extended tracks were the final recordings he made in the Bullbabe studios in Austin, Texas before he upped and left for Oakland, California. Having produced most of the Charalambides and related material in those studios there is a sense of an era coming to a close here, a sense of finality whether intended or unintended which gives the tracks a haunting and involving quality. Like John Fahey's final album 'Red Cross', it might be the context in which you hear it that makes you read something else into the music - but here I think Carter means to conjure these feelings up, so let's run with that. The first track is performed entirely on acoustic guitar and showcases what I love best about Carter's work - the passion and drive in his fingers as he furiously plays. I could compare this quite easily to the aforementioned Fahey or even psych-folk rambler Ben Chasny aka Six Organs of Admittance (who joins Carter in the Badgerlore project...) but Carter's sound is his own, and as we're dragged into the reverberating second track, played on lap steel, this fact becomes only more obvious. Another intriguing and highly enjoyable album from the wilfully odd Digitalis label.