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2LP
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KRANK 158LP
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CD
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KRANK 158CD
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"Exile is the new Charalambides album. Five years in the making, it was recorded between 2006 and 2010 in various locations in New Hampshire, western Massachusetts and New York City, mixed at Black Dirt Studios, and mastered at Sand with Paul Gold. The group remains the core duo of Christina and Tom Carter, with contributions on one track by the string section of Helena Espvall and Margarida Garcia. Deeply imbued with the full historical spectrum of American folk and blues song form, Exile is a tapestry of suppliant invocations directed at the heart of the unseen spiritual forces surrounding us. Dense arrangements and thickly-overdubbed tracks sit side-by-side with material that ranks among the sparest and most skeletal the group has recorded, giving Exile the psychic scope of their classic Market Square album while building on the refinements of the more recent Likeness and A Vintage Burden releases."
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LP
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TLB CHA
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Tom Carter's description: "new release of eldritch origin featuring historic recordings of two nearly-complete sets from the market square-era Charalambides line-up, featuring the core duo of Tom and Christina Carter and Jason Bill. One side is from the Cooler, NYC, at the 1995 CMJ fest (swirling vox sound courtesy Kurt Wolf), where Strapping Fieldhands got their Fender Twin stolen, and Bill Orcutt & I witnessed the unrepentant use of string-eze by the guitarist from Cobra Verde. The other side is from the 1994 Siltbreeze Festival at the Khyber Pass in Philly. Both sets consist of freak-rock tracks from Market Square and Strangle The Wretched Heavens, heavy on analog atmosphere & ecstatic/blown-out gtr/vox interconnectivity." To which we can only add: Just prior to entering their period of heavenly flotation, Charalambides were at their most damaged and psychedelic, making what felt like brave trio explorations into the same Tex/psychic nimbus that had earlier spat out Jandek. Their guitars were unhooking themselves from riff-wagons, their vocals were de-coupling from formal policies, and anything seemed possible. Like the sprawling masterpiece, Market Square (Siltbreeze, 1995), this was the sound of a band that had clearly arrived, although they were also on the verge of departing for even weirder pastures. But who knew? Edition of 500 copies with stickered cover and insert.
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CD
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WHOLLY 013CD
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"A rare document of a brief arc in Charalambides' 17 year (and counting) trajectory, somewhere between the extreme spatial attenuation of the long gone Crucial Blast CDR Being As Is and the gentle intergalactic trio sway of the kranky disk Unknown Spin -- and quite distance from both the exclamatory exhalations of Joy Shapes and the layered songcraft of Likeness. These are spartan duets of formalistic near-symmetry, a reminder that there was a time when Charalambides swung as close to the axis of Incus and FMP as to that of Takoma and ESP. Christina (voice) and Tom Carter (guitar) improvise non-textual melodic lines around a locus of mirror clarity, occasionally overlapping various strands using two DAT machines and a mixing board, in a nod to the pre ProTools digital scrap heap. Originally issued as a Peter King lathe cut LP on Eclipse Records in an edition of 100 in 2000, the reissue of this extreme rarity is remastered from a superior source for maximum clarity. Inkblot artwork courtesy of Heather Leigh Murray. The whole package is dedicated to Bruce Connor (R.I.P.). The reissue at hand is an edition of 500, with fold-over printed sleeves in the style of Electricity Ghosts."
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CD
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KRANK 113CD
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"Likeness is the newest release from the duo of Tom and Christina Carter. Recorded over a period of several weeks during the Spring of 2006, the album is a return to the spontaneous composition of previous Charalambides records such as Houston and Union. With the exception of 'The Good Life,' which appeared in a primitive version on the Wholly Other CDR Home, all of the tracks on this release sprung forth after 'record' was pressed, and were fleshed out via overdubs, editing and a malfunctioning space echo over the course of the next few months. Lyrical content largely derives from public domain, American popular song from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, edited, rearranged and largely deconstructed by Christina into abstract 'protest' songs for the century at hand. Musically, the album departs from the warm psych of A Vintage Burden in favor of the lush and layered vocal strata of Christina's later solo works, and a chillier, more abrasive guitar sound that favors The Velvets over The Byrds. Though containing much of the compositional concision that gave A Vintage Burden much of its appeal, the sound here just as frequently turns the corner into the abstract echoing spaces that characterize the more discordant sounds of Charalambides at the dawn of their Kranky residency."
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CD
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WHOLLY 012CD
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"Trio recordings (featuring Heather Leigh Murray on vox/ pedal steel/psaltry) that date from the same sessions that produced Joy Shapes. Completely improvised, and similar in feel & instrumentation to 'Natural Light' from Joy Shapes, these five pieces snake out of a gently detailed terrain of interlocking thought forms, eventually weaving themselves into towering thickets of monolithic spikes. Some of the most emotionally charged and harsh Charalambides sounds ever laid down, before or since, and unlikely to be repeated in the same way ever again. Edition of 300, xeroxed cardstock sleeves." Limited stock.
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CD
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KRANK 095CD
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"The long-awaited new album from the legendary Charalambides, now pared down to the original core duo of Christina Carter and Tom Carter. After having exorcized some demons through the release of their last album Joy Shapes, here they have recorded a more melodic song cycle, reminiscent of their earlier albums Union and Market Square. Of particular note is the inspiring guitar work Tom displays on the 18- minute instrumental 'Black Bed Blues.' With A Vintage Burden, Charalambides have delivered their most cosmic and beautiful album to date."
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2CD
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KRANK 080CD
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"Originally released on one cassette by the band in 1992 and later reissued as a limited edition compact disc on their Wholly Other label, Our Bed Is Green was the first release by Charalambides. Although no band is sui generis, anyone who heard the first recordings by Charalambides in 1992 could have been forgiven for thinking that of the duo. Our Bed Is Green was a recording that roped in folk, improvisation, psychedelia, blues and gospel into a crackling sound world unlike any other. Ranging across a 90 minute cassette and produced at home on four track, the music had only the means of production in common with the so-called 'lo-fi' scene of the time. On their debut, Charalambides achieved the distinct otherness they retain to this day."
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CD
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KRANK 061CD
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"Christina Carter and Tom Carter have been recording and performing as Charalambides since 1991. Unknown Spin is the first in a series of reissues of Charalambides material on Kranky. Originally issued by the bands Wholly Other imprint in a CD-R pressing of 300 [with a track by Scorces], Unknown Spin is now available to a wider audience and will remain in print. Since their first self released cassette, Our Bed Is Green, Charalambides have shown themselves to be inheritors of the Texas psychedelic tradition, channellers of the American primitivist instinct, luminescent improvisers and creators of indescribable wonders. Now their music can be appreciated without anyone having to bid for a limited supply of CD-Rs online."
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