I know that I’m not the only wholehearted advocate for Rochester, NY’s most excellent Carbon Records imprint, but I feel like there just isn’t enough love being broadcast throughout this worldwide ‘web’ of ours for this high-quality label. I can’t say enough how consistently these guys (guy, actually) issue quality recordings. Carbon Greatness Exhibit A: this latest double CD-R of guitar goodness from Entente Cordiale – a trio consisting of Chris Reeg, Will Veeder and Carbon boss man Joe Tunis. These guys specialize in slow-motion shredding and extended feedback wrangling. The two discs that comprise “Life Underground” demonstrate the two unique faces of the EC oeuvre. The first disc is a home studio recording, while the second disc documents a single live show from a few months prior to the studio session. Both discs amply serve as platforms for the group’s relaxed approach to improv, but each contains a unique cache of treasures befitting the specific recording environment.

In the studio, EC showcases their sense of balance: melody is played off of dissonance, and quietude begets commotion. On the first track, a short guitar line repeats ad infinitum underneath a slowly-building web of textured guitar noise. The second and third tracks are lengthy feedback-laden sludge feasts whose landscapes are littered with the debris of ruined guitars. The live disc is a demonstration of the drone-to-chaos aspect of the EC sound. What starts out as a manageable slow-burning ember of sound erupts into a frenzied blaze, with furious waves of feedback cast to and fro. A churning cascade of deep-end drone pierces the madness, reeling in any stray frequencies.

There is almost two hours of music on “Life Underground”, enough to satiate the hungriest of out-guitar fans. After this, do we need any more evidence that there is quality music coming from the bowels of post-industrial America? I think not, but I welcome it anyway. 9/10 -- Bryon Hayes (25 February, 2009)