{"id":3501,"date":"2016-03-22T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T16:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wasserbassin.com\/site\/product\/tortoise-the-catastrophist-cd\/"},"modified":"2019-11-22T01:58:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T01:58:45","slug":"tortoise-the-catastrophist-cd","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/product\/tortoise-the-catastrophist-cd\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortoise – The Catastrophist – CD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simply put, Tortoise<\/strong> has spent nearly 25 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential six-album discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fact that remains true on \u201cThe Catastrophist\u201d<\/strong> Tortoise\u2019s first studio album in nearly seven years. And it\u2019s an album where moody, synth-swept jams like the opening title track cozy up next to hypnotic, bass-and-beat missives like \u201cShake Hands With Danger\u201d and a downright strange cover of David Essex\u2019s 1973 radio smash sung by U.S. Maple\u2019s Todd Rittmann. Throughout, the songs transcend expectations as often as they delight the eardrums.<\/p>\n

Tortoise<\/strong>, comprised of multi-instrumentalists Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker, has always thrived on sudden bursts of inspiration. And for \u201cThe Catastrophist\u201d<\/strong> the spark came in 2010 when the group was commissioned by the City of Chicago to compose a suite of music rooted in its ties to the area\u2019s noted jazz and improvised music communities.<\/p>\n

Tortoise<\/strong> then performed those five loose themes at a handful of concerts, and \u201cwhen we finally got around to talking about a new record, the obvious solution to begin with was to take those pieces and see what else we could do with them,\u201d says McEntire, at whose Soma Studios the band recorded the new album. \u201cIt turned out that for them to work for Tortoise, they needed a bit more of a rethink in terms of structure. They\u2019re all pretty different in the sense that at first they were just heads and solos. Now, they\u2019re orchestrated and complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the songs went through a pretty intensive process of restructuring,\u201d adds Parker. \u201cWe actually had quite a lot of material that we ended up giving up on. Oftentimes, we\u2019ll shelve ideas and come back to them years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s single \u201cGesceap\u201d embodies the transformation of the original suite commissions, as it morphs from two gently intersecting synth lines into a pounding, frenzied full-band finish. \u201cTo a certain extent it\u2019s more of a reflection of how we actually sound when we play live,\u201d says McEntire of Tortoise\u2019s heavier side. \u201cThat hasn\u2019t always been captured as well on past albums.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, \u201cHot Coffee\u201d resurrects an idea abandoned from the band\u2019s 2004 album \u201cIt\u2019s All Around You,\u201d gliding through only-on-a- Tortoise-album sections of funktastic bass lines, straight-up dance beats and Parker\u2019s fusion-flecked guitar bursts. \u201cIt\u2019s progressive experimental music with pop sensibilities,\u201d says Parker.<\/p>\n

\u201cRock On,\u201d which McEntire says he and McCombs simultaneously had the idea to cover after having remembered hearing it on the radio all the time as kids, isn\u2019t the only vocal moment on \u201cThe Catastrophist.\u201d Also included is the bittersweet, honest-to-goodness soul ballad \u201cYonder Blue,\u201d sung by Yo La Tengo\u2019s Georgia Hubley. \u201cWe\u2019d finished the track and decided it would be good to have vocals on it,\u201d recalls McEntire. \u201cRobert Wyatt was our first choice, but he had just retired and politely said no. We were discussing asking Georgia to do something, but not that track in particular. Then we realized it would totally work.\u201d<\/p>\n

As ever, Tortoise has conjured sounds on \u201cThe Catastrophist\u201d<\/strong> that aren\u2019t being purveyed anywhere else in music today. There\u2019s a deeply intuitive interplay between the group members that comes only from two decades of experimentation, revision and improvisation. And at a time when our brains are constantly bombarded by myriad distractions, \u201cThe Catastrophist\u201d<\/strong> reminds us that there\u2019s something much greater out there. All we have to do is listen.<\/p>\n

Thrill Jockey<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thrill Jockey<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Simply put, Tortoise<\/strong> has spent nearly 25 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential six-album discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own.<\/p>\n

As ever, Tortoise<\/strong> has conjured sounds on \u201cThe Catastrophist\u201d<\/strong> that aren\u2019t being purveyed anywhere else in music today. There\u2019s a deeply intuitive interplay between the group members that comes only from two decades of experimentation, revision and improvisation. And at a time when our brains are constantly bombarded by myriad distractions, \u201cThe Catastrophist\u201d<\/strong> reminds us that there\u2019s something much greater out there. All we have to do is listen.<\/p>\n

\u25ba CLICK HERE TO LISTEN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[],"product_tag":[1327,1328,1326],"class_list":{"0":"post-3501","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_tag-the-catastrophist","7":"product_tag-thrill-jockey","8":"product_tag-tortoise","9":"product_shipping_class-cd","10":"pa_artist-tortoise","11":"pa_genre-ambient","12":"pa_genre-electronics","13":"pa_genre-experimental","14":"pa_genre-jazz","15":"pa_genre-post-rock","16":"pa_label-thrill-jockey","18":"first","19":"outofstock","20":"shipping-taxable","21":"purchasable","22":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/3501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=3501"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=3501"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=3501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}