CHARALAMBIDES, "INTERNAL/ETERNAL"

With their latestrelease--their 6th or 7th perhaps?--the Austin via Houston duo ofChristina and Tom Carter have created a disc of subtle psychedelia,imbued with reverberating guitar echoes and luscious drones.Recordedon Christmas Eve 1995, Internal / Eternal flows together as a seamlesscomposition, with the majority of the tracks consisting of guitar notesthat seem as if they are echoing across a vacant room, bouncing againstthe walls, pitches bent and morphed by the acoustics. Faint voices canbe heard in the background at certain points, and subtle atmosphericslend to the album to give it a very haunting, hollow, quality. What isnew, however, is the Arabic feel lent to much of the disc. It's as ifyou are standing in a deserted casbah, only to hear the music of thedesert and the departed wash in from over the distant dunes. While thisaccounts for the first 7 tracks of the album, the last track, "CityPrison," is a departure from this sound. Samples wander around lost inthis soundscape, and various other aural objects including sampledvoices and digital blips contribute to give this track more of amusique concrete feeling, a la Nurse With Wound. Darlings of thepsychedelic / drone music world, Charalambides are one of those bandsthat you find yourself wishing to be a bit more popular, but yet find acertain joy in keeping them to yourselves.

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