Tortoise – It’s All Around You

For exactly a decade, Tortoise has been a critical darling and one of those bands that is cool to know and drop in conversation, even if no one knows exactly how to describe Tortoise’s sound. I have my own ideas about how to associate the band’s musical creations, but more on that as you read on. It suffices to say that whether you’re a post-rock aficionado, a post-rock ignoramus, or just tired of that term being thrown around without substantial merit, all you need to appreciate Tortoise’s It’s All Around You is an ear for melody and a desire for exciting and direct instrumental music.
Forget the music for a moment and take note of the cover for Tortoise’s fifth album. It is gorgeous, lush, and dreamy. The band welcomes listeners to its world with a glossy CD case that features vibrant waterfalls, mist, greenery, and polychromatic skies awash with purple, blue, red, yellow, and orange. In the background, we see the lights that illuminate a city night. As for the back cover and inside art work, you’ll have to marvel without any more teasers from me. The opening title track sounds like it was created to accompany your relaxed exit from the sea onto the sand at dusk. The drumming and other percussive elements of “It’s All Around You” drive the song, and the similarity to numerous tracks on Beet, Maize & Corn by The High Llamas increases with each note.
The excellent album beginning only gets better with “The Lithium Stiffs,” notable for its vocal element, a rarity in Tortoise’s catalogue. Kelly Hogan contributes sensuous female sighs throughout “The Lithium Stiffs,” while a persistent, tropical beat beckons lightly over the four-minute track duration. Chimes and subtle percussion bump the melody in different angles, but nothing ever jars in the track. The spacey, levitating feel of “The Lithium Stiffs” continues but moves closer to Earth when guitars enter near the end of the track. They segue directly into the appropriately titled “Crest.” With a booming metallic and pipe-like aura, “Crest” progresses toward heavenly comfort and positive vibes. The minimal guitar noise half-way through the track feels like the dentist holding back on the Novocain just enough to prevent you from floating through the ceiling. In short, it’s perfectly played musical brilliance.
“Stretch (You are All Right)” has a secluded nature, as if you’re diving through an underwater tube with a two-meter diameter. Yet, when the xylophone and marimba penetrate your ears, the mood changes and the tube disintegrates instantly. More drumming and tweaked synthesizer loops further guide you on the subsonic journey that is “Stretch (You are All Right),” recalling some of Stereolab’s work. Just when you think the track has ended so giddily, Tortoise goes silent for five seconds and brings you back to that long tube and the deep blue in front of you. “Unknown” continues the underwater sense but its brooding guitars, spaced drumming, and echo effects yield a feeling of discomfort in unfamiliar terrain. “Dot/Eyes” flows straight from “Unknown” and sounds even more troubling, with vibrating guitars and an increasingly faster military cadence of drums enveloped in distorted vocal samples. “Dot/Eyes” is one of the best tracks on It’s All Around You and recalls some early 80s post-punk instrumentals.
Via “On the Chin,” Tortoise brings listeners back to the earlier part of the album, with a relaxed tone that would enhance any public lounge party or private night of sex. The jazzy twinkling and gentle, meticulous string instrumentation highlight Tortoise’s touch of class. “By Dawn” enters with a tight groove occasionally threatened by echoing bells in the distance. It’s the shortest track on the album and brings up images in my mind of lighthouses viewed foggily from a beachside apartment. “Five too Many” has a driving beat of drums and xylophones that recall awkward moments with attractive people just spotted in a tropical setting. There is a brassy element here as well, and the minor guitar noise that enters and exits sporadically actually releases some of the tension built by the prominent drums.
It’s All Around You ends with its most diverse and whacked-out track, “Salt the Skies.” For the first 80 seconds, Tortoise plays more of its island percussion at a leisurely pace. Then, suddenly, fast, rocking guitars shift the piece to a completely different route in which increasing speed, raucous guitar feedback, and louder drumming signal chases and pursuits. The earlier percussion continues unbothered by the changing reality; it’s like naturally continuing a conversation with someone and telling him jokes while he is being mugged and beaten in front of you. Although the light percussion increases in tempo near the end of “Salt the Skies,” what’s heard is a major accomplishment considering that Tortoise likely recorded the entire track in the same room. Yet, it sounds like half the band is gleefully playing while the other goes instrumentally berserk across the hall; such is the degree to which the track sounds disjointed.
It’s All Around You is a superb album of instrumental tracks that immediately grasp the listener. Whether desiring to slyly smile or leaning forward with closed eyes because Tortoise’s melodic structures and variety of instruments are that compelling, listeners will respond to this album in imagination and action. Simply put, if It’s All Around You doesn’t do it for someone, it’s likely nothing will. The music is consistently fresh, fascinating, and evocative. It’s gripping because Tortoise possesses a strong ability to create mood, build and destroy tension, and hit listeners with each note. This is certainly the band’s best album to date. It’s All Around You is the album that will bring Tortoise to new fans across tastes because it appeals to everyone without compromising artistic vision and sincerity for anyone.