Tortoise-The Catastrophist (2015)

Tortoise-The Catastrophist (2015)

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”

Plato

By: Ghost Writer

And the mighty Chicago band Tortoise is finally back after a few years out of sight, Tortoise is one of those bands who made a big impression in me, and made me realize, that musically, everything was possible, that my beloved krautrock and dub music have a life in rock music, or even better, that there was something beyond rock music that could embrace even jazz, minimalism and electronica without really losing the plot.

Millions Now Living Will Never Die became a favorite record of mine,  it was almost un listenable to most of my metal and hardcore punk friends,  but I had no problem with it,  at the time I was looking for something else to listen,  I could do without vocals, just as long as there was some deep musical content,  and in Tortoise I found precisely that,  a bunch of guys determined to found the time and space to do something else beyond punk or metal riffs, Tortoise were in a way open to prog rock, but whereas they embraced prog structures,  they dispatched the instrumental virtuosity in favor of a more intellectual approach that took more influence from the world of electronica and minimalism.

The Catastrophist,  this year's Tortoise new record starts in a curious fashion with shiny synths that are direct nods to the new cold worlds created by James Ferraro and Daniel Lopatin,  although the band quickly changes direction and the band turns to rock mode, as the rhythm section composed by bassist Doug McCombs and drummer John Herndon harden the beat and give room for McCombs relentless bass lines and McEntire psychedelic keyboards and jangle guitars,  a small dose of Yes , but less pretentious and heavier hitting,  immediately constructing it's spidery structure, with Jeff Parker great work on guitars, providing us with a very interesting opener and title track.

Ox Duke launches McEntire production wizardry, giving instruments a whole new dimension and again giving McCombs and Herndon an stellar place in the mix, with Bitney and McEntire himself backing them with percussions and omnipresent synths, this, before getting in an amazing slowed down dub version of the classic Rock On song, an incredible weird sounding version, with an underwater, Lee Perry type of production and a really heavy drum arrangement.

But Tortoise gets in a different type of dynamics on Gopher Island, featuring heavy electronica and a fast paced beat, and then leaning heavy on Bitney on the vibrating dub influenced Shake Hands with Danger, with Parker and McEntire wailing on their instruments while the devastating rhythm section lay down some really nasty beats.

The Clearing Fills is a beautiful piece of minimalism in the spirit of early Brian Eno,  with incredible subtle guitar by Parker,  and the band playing with mechanical rhythms reminiscent of krautrock, but is on Gesceap where the band find their muse and invokes the spirit of classic Tortoise in a slowly built piece that starts with McEntire always interesting keys,  quickly joined by McCombs bass and Herndon drums and accentuated by Parker ethereal guitar, creating an always interesting whirlwind of sounds surrounding us, and playing with our minds in a very effective way.

Parker takes the spotlight on the funky Hot Coffee with prominent guitars among the forest of synthetic sounds and a brutal rhythm section, while McEntire brings some dub magic.

The record ends up with two major tour de force,  in the shape of the relentless Tesseract,  with a near prodigious interaction between bass,  drums and guitars, playing with spaces and silence,  the band displaying here an amazing telepathic capacity to create tension and drama and delivering a great final blow with the resounding At Odds with Logic,  a great and powerful way to end an incredible amusing record that might not be the best of this band,  but one that shows them in top shape,  and as one of the best instrumental bands in the music business that dares to play by their own rules and logic .