Setting new standards

In 1998, Tortoise released one of the most defining post-rock masterpieces of all time, TNT. With its amalgamation of various musical styles (Krautrock, jazz, fusion, electronic, dub just to name a few) TNT put the Chicago collective on the map in more ways than one. First of all, Tortoise gave us a fresh & groundbreaking approach on how music should not only sound, but also be listened to. Secondly, they used the studio as a key piece of instrumentation, developing compositions not just as they went along but also through remixing & editing as well. (Brian Eno's Another Green World, Miles Davis' In A Silent Way & B----es' Brew are three like-minded works by musicians who used the recording studio not as a mere workshop/creative laboratory but at the same time, as a musical instrument brimming with endless possibilities.)
And third, they gave us music which was not only to be heard but also visualized...aka the perfect roadtrip music, no matter where you might end up going.


Four score & three years later, in the winter of 2001, Tortoise came back with a vengeance on their fourth release, Standards. In a sense, this is a slight departure from the musical formula they took with TNT. And yet this is still quintessentially Tortoise through & through. The opener, "Seneca," starts off with an outburst of keyboards, two drummers, bass & a guitar droning out its statement of intent Spaghetti-western style. After the prelims are out of the way, the collective does what they do best: gets their groove on like a well-timed machine...think of Krautrock meeting hip-hop beats; you get the picture. Eventually, it dissolves into an atonal soundscape of bleeped-out synths & Steve Reich-ish vibraphone playing which defines "Eros." This track is like robotic hip-hop at its finest & yet so danceable, proof that Tortoise's love for electronic & computer music is very much alive & well. "Benway" in the first half is entirely synthesized but eventually morphs into a prog-jazz delight with breaks that sound like someone stumbling down stairs...then it drifts off into the ambient ether of "Firefly."

If there is something to be said about this much of the musical adventure so far, it could be best summed up in three words: an awesome surprise!! The rest of Standards is equally impressive down to the final track, "Speakeasy." But to go off on a tangent: "Monica" is the centerpiece which keeps the second half of Standards flowing smoothly. This track reveals not only (Tortoise multi-instrumentalist/engineer/mixer) John McEntire's ability to piece together a hypnotic composition out of so many separate parts (via remixing & nifty editing among other things) but also his ability to keep the composition's central melody moving along while instrumentation drifts in & out of the mix like ghosts lost in space. Just think of having John McEntire as a remixer extraordinaire with hip-hop beats or even tracks...this is the feel of a hip-hop tune gone prog but, man, is it such a beautiful work though!!

Standards, if not better than its predecessor, is equally good & given the work ethic on which this Chicago fivesome has felt comfortable operating in, the time spent in the studio once again paid huge dividends. If memory serves me well, this release has also proven that Tortoise has remained distinct in their own way, if not exclusively on their own terms, as one of the more formidable shape-shifting bands of our day & age.