If there’s one band synonymous with Chicago post-rock, it’s Tortoise. They were among the first to strip rock of its conventions in the 1990s, offering listeners a glimpse of a sonically promising future. By the 2000s and 2010s, though, Tortoise sometimes seemed uncertain of their direction — or at least their albums from that era didn’t receive universal acclaim. Now comes Touch, a new record from Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker — a release that restores full honour to a band for whom collective experimentation was always second nature.
Tortoise don’t hammer their stylistic range into the tracks but rather engrave it delicately, as if with a fine chisel. Krautrock, library music, rhythmic pulse, hints of techno and synth-pop, and flights of Exotica merge into a coherent musical panorama — one in which »Night Gang« rides off into the sunset on a twangy guitar.
That the band’s eighth album appears on International Anthem makes perfect sense — not only because guitarist Jeff Parker also releases solo work on the Chicago label, but because, like Tortoise themselves, it recognises no musical boundaries.
Related Features
Records Revisited: Tortoise – Tortoise (1994)
Column
How jazz musician Sam Gendel short-circuits his saxophone
Portrait
Touch
