Bardo Pond + Tom Carter - 4/23/03
(Three Lobed)
Bardo Pond need no introduction. Tom Carter doesn't either, really, but in case you've been distracted for the past few years, he is not only a solo artist, but a member of Charalambides, who have been getting quite a bit of attention for their involvement with the loosely defined New Weird America (as The Wire called it). Having released several CDRs on their own label, Wholly Other, they've also released records on Siltbreeze, Crucial Blast, Eclipse, and most recently, Kranky.
I once saw Bardo Pond play at a club in New York called The Cooler. This was probably the best club I've ever been to, and it seems that basically every good band played there at one time or another. Anyway, Bardo played without a drummer so their set was largely improvised. They opened with a 40-minute improvisation that was absolutely magical. No record of theirs had anything even near as good as that. In fact, that single song completely changed my view of the potential to be had in improvisation, and surpassed everything I'd ever heard in psych or ambience. This latest CD, released by Three Lobed Recordings (home to the Purposeful Availment series and Bardo Pond's Slab 10" and run by the same fellow who operates Bardo Pond's official webpage), captures Bardo Pond in a similar setting, having recorded it in one day with Tom Carter also in the mix. This shows them all playing in top form, digging deep into the air around them and pulling out vibrant and glowing improvisational trips that surpass any released on their respective albums.
This record is certainly similar conceptually, but musically as well, to the Hash Jar Tempo project, which found Bardo Pond collaborating with another guy who has records on Kranky, Roy Montgomery. While both Hash Jar Tempo records have been constant favorites of mine in the Bardo discography, the time between those collaborations and this have been spent well and improve upon the dynamic. With their self released jams/sketches CDRs, Bardo Pond seems to have honed their improvisational abilities to a fine tuned machine. The textures are warm and inviting, and the parts gel quickly and don't overstay their welcome. For all the focus they seem to have gained in songwriting on their latest album, they have also streamlined their improvisations.
Throughout, Tom's playing is generally distinct amid the glacial mass of Bardo, with his signature ebowed and ringing guitar, free of effects. All but one track is 10+ minutes, with two pushing very close to 20, allowing them plenty of time to travel deep into the center of the sound hole they stumbled upon when the tape began to roll. Hazy, sprawling, and shifting, the tracks never attain the roar that Bardo is so well known for. Instead, the songs quietly wander out of the speakers, exploring every facet of each texture.
This is a very special record in which both Bardo Pond and Tom Carter show themselves to be of exceptional skill in improvising interesting and exciting music, despite the inherent facelessness and repetition in droning psychedelia. An absolute must.
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