Tortoise revolutionized American
indie rock in the mid-'90s by playing down tried-and-true
punk and
rock & roll influences, emphasizing instead the incorporation of a variety of left-field music genres from the past 20 years, including Krautrock,
dub,
avant-garde jazz, classical minimalism,
ambient and
space music,
film music, and British electronica. At odds as well with the shambling framework of alternative rock's normal song structure, the group -- as large as a septet, with at times
two vibes players -- relied on a crisp instrumental aesthetic, tied to cool jazz, which practically stood alone in American indie rock by actually focusing on instrumental prowess and group interaction. Although the group's unique vision is to an extent the creation of drummer and master producer John McEntire, most of the other members are well-connected -- producers and/or participants -- in Chicago's fraternal
indie rock community, which consists of numerous side projects and ongoing bands.
After debuting in 1993 with several singles and an LP,
Tortoise's underground prestige emerged above terra firma with their second album
Millions Now Living Will Never Die; the 21-minute opening track "Djed" was a sublime pastiche of Krautrock,
dub, and cool jazz.
Tortoise then linked themselves with the cream of European
electronica (
Luke Vibert,
Oval,
U.N.K.L.E.,
Spring Heel Jack) to remix the album on a series of 12" singles. Despite the band's growing reliance on studio engineering,
Tortoise began re-emphasizing their instrumentalist bent in 1998 for third album,
TNT.
First formed in Chicago in 1990,
Tortoise began when Doug McCombs (bass; formerly of
Eleventh Dream Day) and John Herndon (drums, keyboards, vibes; formerly with
the Poster Children) began experimenting with production techniques. The duo intended to record on their own as well as provide an instant rhythm section for needy bands -- inspired by the
reggae duo
Sly & Robbie. Next aboard was producer/drummer/vibes-player John McEntire and guitarist Bundy K. Brown (both former members of Bastro) plus percussionist Dan Bitney (formerly with the SST hardcore band Tar Babies).
The five-piece recorded 7" singles for both David Wm. Sims' Torsion label and Thrill Jockey in 1993, then released their eponymous debut on Thrill Jockey one year later. Much of the album's sound -- restrained
indie rock with sublime
jazz influences and a debt to prog-rock -- was pleasant but not quite revolutionary. Several tracks took a more slanted course, though, sounding like a reaction to England's
ambient/
techno scene filtered through the '70s experimentalism of
Can and
Faust.
Tortoise became an underground classic and spawned the remix work Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters -- remixers
Jim O'Rourke, Steve Albini, and Brad Wood -- the album steadily segued from
techno and found-sound environment recordings to feedback ambience and
hip-hop -- complete with samples of
A Tribe Called Quest and
Minnie Riperton. In 1995, the group released Gamera, a 12" single on
Stereolab's Duophonic label.
Brown later left for solo production work and his band projects Slowpoke and Directions in Music;
Tortoise added bassist David Pajo (formerly of
Slint and also a member of the For Carnation) for second album
Millions Now Living Will Never Die, released in early 1996. Much of the album was similar to the debut, but the British weeklies and American music magazines championed the strength of album-opener "Djed" -- which blended a rumbling bass line, scratchy,
lo-fi ambience, and
dub techniques into over ten minutes of music before the sounds of reel-to-reel tape disintegration introduced another passage of calm yet angular
indie rock figures. During the rest of 1995,
Tortoise toured with
Stereolab in England and headlined a U.S. tour with 5iveStyle and
the Sea and Cake. John McEntire also remained busy with production, working on
Stereolab's
Emperor Tomato Ketchup and eponymous debut LPs from 5iveStyle,
Trans Am, and
Rome.
By the time recording began in 1998 for
Tortoise's third album,
TNT, Pajo had gone to spend time on his Aerial-M project; a longtime group friend, guitarist Jeff Parker, replaced him. Parker's connection to the fertile Chicago
free jazz community (he's a member of the AACM - Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) served as a signpost to the group's new direction: growing instrumental prowess and an emphasis on straight-ahead, occasionally improvisational,
indie rock.
Tortoise's fourth album
Standards, released in early 2001, maintained that direction, only leavened by many post-recording tweakings at the band's Soma Studios. Another three-year gap separated
Standards from 2004's
It's All Around You. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
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