Wholly Other Artists

Charalambides

To say that the words "unique" and "singular" are over-used in describing music is to state the obvious. To apply these words to the sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their music; to deny this of any artist's work would be akin to saying that they are deaf. But they have surely broken new ground in the primitive/folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. As Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire; "...here is a truly 21st century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th century discovered amplification, noise and speed."

Originally a duo comprised of Tom Carter (who had been playing guitar in the Houston grunt-psych band The Mike Gunn) and Christina Carter, Charalambides released a cassette called Our Bed Is Green on their own Wholly Other label in 1992 (later reissued on CD and double LP). The two Carters showed a firm grasp on the haunting nature of American blues and country, as well as a mastery of tape manipulation, a disregard for genre boundaries, and a marked tendency towards vertically stacked guitar drone. A full length album, Union, was released by the Siltbreeze label, and many other releases followed, both as a duo and trio (first with Jason Bill, and later with pedal steel player Heather Leigh Murray). Tom and Christina have concentrated on their duo work since 2004, fusing introspective, open-ended, and often spacious song structures with blasts of feedback and explosive sound often startling to fans familiar only with the band's deceptively low-key reputation.

Since 2005, Tom and Christina have released two CDs on kranky: A Vintage Burden (2006) and Likeness (2007). Besides commemorating their return to the duo format, these albums represent a culmination of the threads of repetition and psychedelic song that run through much of the duo's work. Although partially an homage to the clarity and ambience of 60s and 70s production and songwriting, A Vintage Burden retains the spook, space and mystery of even their most extreme releases: "Tom and Christina Carter here again showcase their seemingly innate ability to lock into a shared orbit across the darkening sky, their luminous drift scaled down to its essential, irreducible core." (quote from Pitchfork). Likeness follows the threads of A Vintage Burden skyward, the structures flowing out into complex spaces alternatingly serene and harrowing. Taking its lyrical inspiration from popular songs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Likeness' songs radically re-work their meanings in unexpected ways, both universal and highly personal.

Christina Carter

Many Breaths

Tom Carter

Born barely south of the Mason-Dixon line, and just in time for the Summer of Love, Tom Carter led a decidedly non-hippy existence being shuffled around various farm and mining towns in Maryland and Ohio by his newspaperman father, before finally making his way to Texas in 1985, just in time to watch all the good hardcore bands die. Already obsessed with American pre-punk and British post-punk, Carter dove into the lysergically spiked musical waters of Texas with both feet, augmenting rudimentary guitar skills with unreliable instruments, cranky analog electronics, and disintegrating practice amps. Over the ensuing decades, he managed to forge his evolving ideas of complete tonal immersion (and the quest for the perfect fuzz tone) into a layered sonic toolkit of rough beauty and unrefined proficiency.

Best known for his work with acclaimed psych-drone iconoclasts Charalambides, which he co-founded with Christina Carter in 1991, he has branched out into other collaborations since 2001, playing and recording with long-term projects Zaika (with Marcia Bassett) and Badgerlore (with Rob Fisk, Ben Chasny, Liz Harris, and Peter Swanson), as well as in frequent collaborations with Bay Area sound artist Robert Horton. Other fellow travelers have included Christian Kiefer, Tetuzi Akiyama, Thurston Moore, Shawn David McMillen, Dredd Foole, Loren Connors, Pip Proud, Inca Ore, Jandek, Bardo Pond, and Matt Valentine, among many others.

Most recently, Carter has focused on his solo performances and recordings, touring constantly from 2007-2008, and finally settling in New York City in early 2009. His solo work covers a vast territory, but latter-day sightings show him to be concentrating on looped guitar drones of immensely-stacked grit and beauty, with heaps of psychedelic melodic content missing from the repertoires of many noise and drone bands.

Zaika

Zaika is the duo of Tom Carter and Marcia Bassett. They have been recording and performing live together since 2003, pouring out long-form doses of aggro psych drone and mellow cosmic drift. Recorded documents include various CDRs on Heavy Other (a joint concern of Heavy Blossom and Wholly Other), an LP on Eclipse Records, and a forthcoming CD releases on Archive.

Marcia Bassett's work (under the usual moniker of Zaimph) freely moves within walls of sonic distortion, layers of heavy drone and blurred riffs that loop into warm blurs before crumbling away into decay. She has worked on a number of collaborations with Tom Carter, Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core), Carlos Giffoni, Dominick Fernow (Prurient), and is a member of GHQ, Hototogisu and Double Leopards.

Friday Group

Tom Carter
Matt Martinez
Shawn David McMillen
Brian Smith

photos (top to bottom): unknown, tom carter, luis diaz, scott slimm, tom carter