For the love of music
Although instrumental music is so intrinsic to our daily life, whether it’s deadly lift muzak or the enthralling score to an on-screen drama, it’s still considered somewhat of an oddity for your average music fan to stock up on releases with a wordless voice-free remit. Which is a shame, as good instrumental music can often be a life-line for … [Read more...]
With its sheer volume of releases and increasingly vinyl-centric tilt, it’s arguable that the current workings of Chicago’s pioneering Thrill Jockey label are straining fans’ finances as well as running the risk of over-supply and quality-control lapses. No such concerns can, however, be raised when a less-prolific elder statesman on the … [Read more...]
Unlike its two tightly-scripted full-length predecessors (2001’s still somewhat impenetrable Standards and 2004’s meticulously-arranged It’s All Around You) this year’s new Tortoise long-player - the steadily-advancing Beacons of Ancestorship - appears ripe for some of the choice remix treatments so prevalent in the band’s earlier … [Read more...]
Sometimes it's a wonder the music world hasn't just collapsed back on itself, upon reaching a critical mass of self-regurgitation. Miraculously though, the capacity of long-serving artists to periodically reinvent and regenerate has helped to shuffle around the rock/pop planet's furniture into seemingly infinite feng shui combinations to avoid a … [Read more...]
Despite nearly two decades of activity, Chicago's Tortoise continue to sustain an awkward yet alluring sense of mystery. Consequently, for many it has become all too easy to define Tortoise by well-merged collective influences (Miles Davis, Can, Kraftwerk, Neu!, John Fahey, Ennio Morricone, Gang Of Four, Augustus Pablo, Brian Eno, Tom Verlaine, … [Read more...]