Loren Connors has recorded many guitar duets, but he’s never played with anyone like Tom Carter, who’s best known as half of Charalambides. He’s a master manipulator of negative space, capable of turning emptiness into a compelling canvas via small gestures, but he can also turn around and knock you back with fat blammo blasts from out of nowhere. He does a bit of both on untitled, which makes for a white-knuckled and satisfyingly unpredictable listen.
Connors tends to follow his music regardless of what his partners do, and he’s no more accommodating here. He forces waves of phased sound to flow around Carter’s stark, elongated wah-wah licks, though he does ease up when his partner’s playing gets smaller and quieter. Paradoxically, the music accumulates power as both men pull back.
—Bill Meyer
