Tortoise

In the middle of the 1990s Tortoise reshaped American indie rock by deliberately muting standard punk and rock & roll references and instead foregrounding an array of unconventional styles drawn from the preceding two decades, among them Krautrock, dub, avant-garde jazz, classical minimalism, ambient and space music, film music, and British electronica. Equally distant from the loose architecture typical of alternative rock song forms, the ensemble—sometimes expanding to seven members and occasionally featuring dual vibraphonists—cultivated a precise instrumental approach rooted in cool jazz, an approach that stood virtually alone within American indie rock for its concentration on technical command and collective interplay. While the band’s singular outlook owes much to drummer and leading producer John McEntire, the remaining members maintain deep ties as producers or performers inside Chicago’s tight-knit indie rock network of side projects and continuing groups. Following an initial 1993 release of singles and an LP, Tortoise’s underground stature rose to wider recognition with the second album Millions Now Living Will Never Die, whose twenty-one-minute opening piece “Djed” offered an elegant synthesis of Krautrock, dub, and cool jazz. The group next enlisted leading European electronica figures Luke Vibert, Oval, U.N.K.L.E., and Spring Heel Jack to rework the album across a sequence of 12-inch singles. Even as studio craft grew more central, Tortoise renewed its focus on instrumental performance for the 1998 third album TNT.

The band originated in Chicago in 1990 when Doug McCombs, previously of Eleventh Dream Day, and John Herndon, formerly with the Poster Children, began exploring production methods. The pair aimed to record independently while supplying an immediate rhythm section for other artists, drawing inspiration from the reggae duo Sly & Robbie. Soon afterward producer, drummer, and vibraphonist John McEntire joined along with guitarist Bundy K. Brown, both earlier members of Bastro, and percussionist Dan Bitney, who had played in the SST hardcore outfit Tar Babies.

The resulting five-piece issued 7-inch singles on David Wm. Sims’ Torsion label and on Thrill Jockey in 1993, then delivered its self-titled debut on Thrill Jockey the following year. Much of the record’s restrained indie rock tone, colored by understated jazz influences and prog rock echoes, proved agreeable without proving transformative. Several tracks, however, charted a more oblique path, registering as responses to England’s ambient and techno environment refracted through the 1970s experimentalism of Can and Faust. Tortoise quickly became an underground classic and prompted the remix collection Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters, which enlisted Jim O’Rourke, Steve Albini, and Brad Wood; the set moved gradually from techno and found-sound environments toward feedback-laden ambience and hip-hop, incorporating samples from A Tribe Called Quest and Minnie Riperton. In 1995 the band released the 12-inch single Gamera on Stereolab’s Duophonic imprint.

After Brown departed to pursue solo production and his own groups Slowpoke and Directions in Music, Tortoise recruited bassist David Pajo, previously of Slint and a member of the For Carnation, for the second album Millions Now Living Will Never Die, issued in early 1996. Although much of the record echoed the debut, British weeklies and American publications singled out the strength of the opening track “Djed,” which fused a rumbling bass line, scratchy lo-fi textures, and dub techniques across more than ten minutes before reel-to-reel tape disintegration signaled a shift into calm yet angular indie rock figures. Throughout the remainder of 1995 Tortoise toured England with Stereolab and headlined a U.S. run alongside 5iveStyle and the Sea and Cake. John McEntire stayed active as a producer, handling Stereolab’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup and the self-titled debuts by 5iveStyle, Trans Am, and Rome.

Rather than issuing a conventional remix album for Millions Now Living Will Never Die, Tortoise assigned tracks to several techno and experimental peers throughout 1996. Mo’ Wax artists U.N.K.L.E. supplied a remix of “Djed” that inaugurated a four-volume series later joined by Oval, Jim O’Rourke and Bedouin Ascent, Spring Heel Jack, Luke Vibert, and others.

When sessions for the third album TNT commenced in 1998, Pajo had stepped away to concentrate on Aerial-M; longtime associate guitarist Jeff Parker took his place. Parker’s membership in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians signaled the ensemble’s evolving emphasis on instrumental fluency and a turn toward direct, occasionally improvisational indie rock. The fourth album Standards, released in early 2001, sustained that trajectory while incorporating extensive post-recording adjustments at Soma Studios. Another three-year interval preceded the 2004 release It’s All Around You. The members then focused on side projects including Exploding Star Orchestra, Bumps, Fflashlights, and Powerhouse Sound, producing only the collaborative album The Brave and the Bold with Bonnie “Prince” Billy along with the box set A Lazarus Taxon.

The sixth studio album Beacons of Ancestorship appeared in 2009. The following year the Japanese release Why Waste Time? surfaced, containing the previously unheard tracks “Ruba’iyat” and “Passerine.” The band also scored Lovely Molly, the film by The Blair Witch Project director Eduardo Sánchez that premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. The seventh full-length The Catastrophist drew on material originally commissioned in 2010 by the City of Chicago to honor the local jazz and improvised music communities. Featuring vocals from Todd Rittman of U.S. Maple and Dead Rider plus Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, the album was issued in January 2016.