Richard Barnett <richard@wg.icl.co.uk> said:
:some good things have been said about tortoise `millions now living will
:never die', but i've not heard it.
I actually bought this yesterday. Keeping in minds that these are my
impressions from only one listening, but the opening track,
'DJed', is one of the coolest things I've heard in a while. It's
a 20-minute long track composed of segments. The neat thing
about it is that the segments are knitted together in a manner
analogous to DJ tricks like crossfades, backspins, etc. --
except that Tortoise is a band from the "rock" tradition with
a guitar/bass/drums/keys/effects sort of lineup, so they simulate
these effects from a "band" point of view. On first listen,
I'd say anyone who's down with the Too Pure (anti-?) aesthetic
would dig this record -- there are some definite common strains
between these guys and, say, Stereolab, Laika, and Labradford.
But no, they don't really sound anything like Mouse on Mars.
-d.w.