Tortoise formed in 1990, back before the term “Post Rock” made its way into our musical lexicon and before most of us were even aware of an ambitious couple named Bill and Hillary Clinton. A quarter century later, the adventurous Chicago band is still at it, dropping their first album in seven years, The Catastrophist, which also happens to appear 20 years after the band’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die, an album that acted as a gateway drug to more experimental soundscapes for many impressionable, Indie-centric listeners in the mid-’90s.
“If you’re looking at the big picture, we started as a double rhythm section incorporating mallets — which in the time of Nirvana and whatnot, that just made us weirdos,” Tortoise percussionist Dan Bitney said in a recent interview with PopMatters. “And then we started using Rock band instrumentation — the stuff on (2001’s) Standards is somebody playing a guitar, somebody playing a bass, somebody playing the drums and somebody playing Farfisa. And now it’s more like Jazz in a weird way, (with) the layered arpeggios.”
Sure enough, The Catastrophist draws heavily from the five piece’s jazzy leanings — the titular album opener sounds like Herbie Hancock scoring a French neo-noir — but other genre-jumping influences remain. The groove-heavy, densely layered “Shake Hands with Danger” recalls Krautrock masters Can, while the hypnotic synths of “Gesceap” channel Stereolab at its minimalist, vocal-free best.
Speaking of voices, the presence of vocals on the album is a surprise for the usually all-instrumental band. “Yonder Blue” centers on the typically low-key singing of Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley. Oddest and most unexpected of all is a proggy cover of David Essex’s 1973 hit “Rock On,” which features fellow Chicagoan Todd Rittman of U.S. Maple on vocals. Could a sideways cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with Liz Phair be far off?
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