The Catastrophist will satisfy fans’ long wait for new music by Tortoise — an album review
January 21, 2016
Tortoise has never been a group to rest on any laurels. Though certainly its members have recognizable styles of playing — from the varied beats produced by dual drummers John McEntire and John Herndon, not to mention the added percussive activity by Dan Bitney, to the clean, crisp guitar lines of Jeff Parker to the deep, affected bass lines of Doug McCombs — Tortoise has changed from album to album every time. With every release over its 25 years as a group, Tortoise has challenged listeners to dare to listen closely and engage with their instrumental jazz-driven, electronica-inspired progressive instrumental rock (Albums that have stood the test of time: Tortoise – ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’ [1996]). Their’s was never ambient music, though it has often been pigeon-holed into the genre of post rock.
Seven years after producing one of their more defiant albums to date, the noise-heavy Beacons of Ancestorship, Tortoise was coaxed back into activity by its hometown of Chicago, whose officials tasked them to create a suite of music that paid homage to the city’s musical history. The result is The Catastrophist, a bold return to form that leaves none of the group’s itches to experiment with melodies, effects and reverberating noise unscratched.
The album opens with a bit of a psyche-out via the title track and a squeaky repetitive synth melody that sets a false sense of an electronic heavy record but whooshes out of the way to make way for one of Parker’s luscious, tranquil guitar lines and McCombs’ solid, throbbing base against the high-pitched hum of shimmering organ work and crisp 
drumming. It sounds like classic Tortoise, with breakdowns allowing for some simple organ work augmented by resonant, low-vibe work (it’s mixed low, but it’s there— get on your headphones). With the album’s second track, “Ox Duke,” and its understated swelling of organs, electronics and subtly rumbling percussive work that even enters a loop of bottom heavy bass that recalls the early sonics of Tortoise, you might be forgiven to think that this is a record set on returning to the band’s early nineties roots.
But then comes the group’s rendition of David Essex’s 1973 hit “Rock On.” The bass is so heavily processed in the deep end, you don’t hear it as much as feel it in the vibration of the speakers. Still, it keeps the integrity of the original with Dead Rider’s Todd Rittman taking vocal duties. Rittman could have held back on the vocals a bit, and the added voices accentuating certain words in opposite speakers can be a bit over the top, but the band still plays with a mischievous restraint, adding whizzing effects, rumbling chords and creaks so heavily processed that seem to tear at the insides of your sound system.
This is the real beginning of the new album, and Tortoise remain coy and playful throughout, fully embracing a sort of new-found inspiration. Once again the band members play around with electronics and processed effects that are transporting, most notably on the album’s most tranquilizing track, the patiently developing, ticking and shimmering “The Clearing Fills.” The band released a digital single ahead of the album, “Gesceap,” which featured brilliant layering of shifting organ drones and repetitive guitar work that builds into a multi-melodic wall of sound that recalls the early work of Philip Glass. “Hot Coffee” features a funky, grooving bass line and an urge to break out that speaks to the group’s roots in fusion. There’s also an additional track featuring vocals, “Yonder Blue.” This time Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley contributes. It’s a pretty song that melodically glistens with subtly affected instrumentation fitting snugly with Hubley’s hushed, sleepy voice and even features a warm vibraphone solo during its finale.
The Catastrophist is a welcome return for Tortoise and proves that a band too often categorized as an example of a certain scene and era of alternative music can still prove vital by staying true to its sound, but also pushing at its limitations. Most of all, they sound like they are having fun.
The Catastrophist will be officially released Friday, Jan. 22. Also being released on that date are reissues of Tortoise’s back catalog on colored vinyl. Visit their artist page for each title. Pitch Perfect PR provided an mp3 version of the album for the purpose of this review. Images of the front and back cover of the album are courtesy of Tortoise. The band is currently on tour. For dates visit their page, here. Nope, no South Florida dates for us. 😦
Broken Social Scene offer free new track
February 20, 2010
Quick update on the Broken Social Scene news from Feb. 17, 2010. Their website is offering the free download of the first song from the aforementioned collaboration with John McEntire.
They have entitled the track “World Sick,” and it is quite a powerful number. Featuring BSS’s signature dynamics, the song builds from the ether of silence to the bombast of heavenly noise like only Broken Social Scene can swing it.
As usual, the drumming is solid and penetrating, putting the other instruments up to task, and they do not let down. As the drums fade in through the atmospheric shimmer of delicate guitar noises, a swinging guitar line begins driving the song, which actually recalls McEntire’s other project, the Sea and Cake. As the vocals take over, the guitar continues to insist as an echoing bit of guitar tremolo accents the end of the lyrics’ lines and the song swells to swishing cymbals and over-lapping guitar bits, sounding lush and a bit like early Spiritualized when things got ecstatic in their songs. The song ebbs and crescendos a couple of times only to quietly peter out to soft strums and a delicate percussive patter. It makes for a lovely six-and-a-half-minute piece that sets the bar high for the rest of the album.
Despite my early Tortoise expectations, this song actually has the brightness of a Sea and Cake song magnified with the potency of the larger band that is Broken Social Scene.
Download it by clicking through here.
Also, the group has a title for the album, not to mention cover art (see image). They have dubbed it Forgiveness Rock Record … Hmm, I wonder if they are asking fans to forgive them for taking five years to follow-up on their last album? If this offering is any hint, the wait has been worthwhile.
John McEntire of Tortoise to co-produce new Broken Social Scene
February 17, 2010
The idea for Broken Social Scene to have John McEntire, of Tortoise, Sea and Cake, not to mention Gastr Del Sol, co-produce their new album (slated for release on May 4, according to their website), sounds like a natural fit.
I first heard BSS during a musical interlude on an NPR news broadcast. I was instantly moved by the gentle, rambling ambiance of “Guilty Cubicles,” a short instrumental track from their album Feel Good Lost. Seeking them out, I found hard-rocking, multi-layered songs that could shame Arcade Fire interwoven with cool instrumental moments that recalled post-rock Tortoise, which makes me think McEntire will add an interesting progression to the growth of the collective from Canada.
In his blog entry on BSS’s website, BSS founding member Kevin Drew, wrote about the group’s visit to Soma studios in Chicago back in May of 2009:
“I am happy to announce we have started recording our first record in four years and decided to do it with the one and only John McEntire. We did a one-day session with John last October and it was a perfect fit. This plan has been in the works for nine months and it has all come together quite sweetly in the moments leading up to being here…he is a hero of ours when it comes to recordings so it seems very balanced that we are here.”
As a long-time Tortoise fan, it confirms why I gravitated to BSS so many years later. “Love and Mathematics” from Feel Good Lost sounds like a particularly good example of how BSS recalls early, hey-day Tortoise.
I leave you with BSS’s video from one of my favorite songs of theirs (which features a pre-fame Feist), the wonderfully obtusely titled “7/4 Shoreline:”
The idea for Broken Social Scene to have John McEntire, of Tortoise, Sea and Cake not to mention Gastr Del Sol, co-produce their new album (slated for release on May 4, according to their website), sounds like a natural fit.
I first heard BSS during a musical interlude on an NPR news broadcast. I was instantly moved by the gentle, rambling ambience of “Guilty Cubicles,” a short instrumental track from their album Feel Good Lost. Seeking them out, I found hard-rocking, multi-layered songs that could shame Arcade Fire interwoven with cool instrumental moments that recalled the post-rock Tortoise, which is why I feel McEntire will add an interesting progression to the growth of the collective from Canada.
In his blog entry on BSS’s website, BSS founding member Kevin Drew, wrote about the group’s visit to Soma studios in Chicago back in May of 2009:
“I am happy to announce we have started recording our first record in four years and decided to do it with the one and only John McEntire. We did a one-day session with John last October and it was a perfect fit. This plan has been in the works for nine months and it has all come together quite sweetly in the moments leading up to being here…he is a hero of ours when it comes to recordings so it seems very balanced that we are here.”
As a long-time Tortoise fan, it confirms why I gravitated to BSS so many years later. “Love and Mathematics” from Feel Good Lost sounds like a particularly good example of early, post rock Tortoise.
I leave you with BSS’s video from one of my favorite songs of theirs (which features a pre-fame Feist), the wonderfully obtusely titled “7/4 Shoreline:”
OK, one more video, because this song is also so damn cool, “Major Label Debut (fast)”:
Fellow Broken Social Scene fans, do share any other links you might make between the music of Tortoise and BSS, or am I wrong about the connection?
Independent Ethos 