Tom Carter: Long Time Underground

An inveterate collaborator, both in the long-running Charalambides and in numerous other partnerships, Tom Carter’s Long Time Underground presents a semi-rare solo performance by the veteran guitarist. There is ample space and precious quiet in the 80 minutes of instrumental music, but not a lot of drift. Though Carter’s hardly afraid of noise (and plenty comes in, especially on the peaks of the 13-minute “Prussian Book of the Dead” and the equally extended “Beauty Draws the Seed”), Long Time Underground’s main mode is a gently extended prettiness. Brushed guitar loops and slow-chiming guitar leads sound as if they could have been lifted from some epic, long-lost 1973 “Dark Star” were Jerry Garcia more adept at guitar loops and/or playing solo electric. The 22-minute album-opening “August Is All” tumbles from quiet valleys to excitable soaring moments in the ionosphere, but life in the valleys wins out.