Tortoise : Touch

The music collective Tortoise has been around for 30 years, coming out of the experimental/underground music scene of Chicago. With drummer and studio wizard John McEntire behind the kit and soundboard -along with bassists Doug McCombs and Bundy K. Brown, drummer John Herndon, percussionist Dan Bitney, guitarist Dave Pajo- released their pivotal Millions Now Living Will Never Die in 1996. Two years later guitarist Jeff Parker joined the band and they released the equally masterful TNT which put the band on many year end best of lists.

Pajo left after the release of TNT and the band was locked in as a 5-pc that defied genre. Listening to Tortoise you’re hard-pressed to put a label on their music. Post-rock seems to be the sort of catch-all descriptive that sums up what they do. Instrumental music that tends to find a groove and roll with it, but these masterful musicians which come from backgrounds ranging from jazz to indie rock to ambient music to Krautrock to experimental. Tortoise throws all of their skills into a musical gumbo that never sounds quite the same as the last record.

With Touch, Tortoise’s first album in since 2016s The Catastrophist, the band reconvenes in the studio and does what they do best. Which is defy expectations and make a record only Tortoise can make. Moody, layered, mysterious, and as always enigmatic.

Touch is a grower. On first listen you struggle to grasp its power. “Vexations” is smooth and hard to hold onto. It starts out as if Harmonia scored a Sergio Leone western. As the song moves along it gets a little noisy and distorted with big drums pounding through the speakers, then you reach the light at the end of the tunnel. It carries you through the motions. “Layered Presence” has a buoyancy to it, built on a drum groove and bustling electronic noises. There’s touches of Mogwai in this track, as well as some tasteful Jeff Parker guitar lines.

This is the journey with Touch. Songs as movements through moods and vibe. From the heavy bass and Komische touches of “Elka”, to the motorik beat of “Axial Seamount”, to the robotic movement of “Rated OG” with it’s kinetic beat and odd melodic touches. And album closer “Night Gang” ends things on a cinematic note; strings intertwine with an almost Phil Spector “wall of sound” feel.

Touch is a fine return for Tortoise. Songs that seem to root in your brain with each listen, growing and expanding their sonic square footage as the melodies and rhythms take hold.