{"title":"Tortoise","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTortoise is a post-rock band from Chicago known for their almost entirely instrumental music that defies easy categorization. With roots in the city's fertile music scene, the group incorporates styles closer to Krautrock, dub, minimalism, electronica, and various jazz styles into their sound. Some consider Tortoise as one of the prime forces behind the development and popularity of the post-rock movement. Their music has also been described as heavily indebted to progressive rock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFormed in the late 1980s by Doug McCombs and John Herndon, Tortoise initially envisioned themselves as a freelance rhythm section similar to reggae legends Sly and Robbie. However, their interest in grooving rhythms and recording studio trickery led them to collaborate with drummer John McEntire and bassist Bundy K. Brown (both formerly of Bastro) before adding Dan Bitney to complete the lineup. While all members contribute to songwriting, McEntire is often seen as the group's guiding force due to his role as recording engineer and mixer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTortoise has released records on Thrill Jockey label and is associated with other groups such as The Sea and Cake, Brokeback, Slint, Isotope 217, and the Chicago Underground Duo.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"beacons-of-ancestorship","title":"Beacons Of Ancestorship","description":"\u003cp\u003eLP version pressed on limited clear vinyl packaged in a tip-on gatefold jacket with spot varnish, artworked inner sleeve, and free download card. 'Beacons of Ancestorship' is Tortoise's sixth full-length album, and their first release of new material in five years, since 2004's 'It's All Around You'. In the interim, the group also released and toured behind the 2006 career retrospective box set 'A Lazarus Taxon', and an album of covers with vocalist Will Oldham by the likes of Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson and the Minutemen, entitled 'The Brave and the Bold'. Additionally, the individual members have kept busy with various other projects, including but not limited to exploding star orchestra, bumps, fflashlights, and powerhouse sound. A characteristic Tortoise album is one that traverses an encyclopaedia of styles and reference points, a document of where musical intersections and dialogue are occurring at a given moment in time. 'Beacons of Ancestorship' is no different, with nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths, and mournful, elegiac dirges. We see these ideas working out in compositions like 'High Class Slim Came Floatin' in', an eight-minute track which playfully references the world of ecstatic rave and dance culture with a curiously ambivalent, multi-part suite overlaid with robotic, machine-sounding melodies that stop and start in several different time signatures before the song's ultimate resolution; and again in 'Yinxianghechengqi', which begins as a straightforward uptempo math-rocker before steadily accelerating into a wall of fuzzy atonal sqwonk.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50410018734411,"sku":"314320","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50410018996555,"sku":"314321","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/be3cbccc-a948-42ff-80f6-83de43bed197_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726634472"},{"product_id":"the-catastrophist","title":"The Catastrophist","description":"\u003cp\u003eSimply put, Tortoise 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. It's a fact that remains true on 'The Catastrophist,' Tortoise's first studio album in nearly seven years. And it's an album where moody, synth-swept jams like the opening title track cozy up next to hypnotic, bass-and-beat missives like 'Shake Hands With Danger' and a downright strange cover of David Essex's 1973 radio smash sung by U.S. Maple's Todd Rittman. Throughout, the songs transcend expectations as often as they delight the eardrums. Tortoise, 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 'The Catastrophist,' 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's noted jazz and improvised music communities. Tortoise then performed those five loose themes at a handful of concerts, and \"when 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,\" says McEntire, at whose Soma Studios the band recorded the new album. \"It turned out that for them to work for Tortoise, they needed a bit more of a rethink in terms of structure. They're all pretty different in the sense that at first they were just heads and solos. Now, they're orchestrated and complex.\" \"All of the songs went through a pretty intensive process of restructuring,\" adds Parker. \"We actually had quite a lot of material that we ended up giving up on. Oftentimes, we'll shelve ideas and come back to them years later.\" The album's single 'Gesceap' embodies the transformation of the original suite commissions, as it morphs from two gently intersecting synth lines into a pounding, frenzied full-band finish. \"To a certain extent it's more of a reflection of how we actually sound when we play live,\" says McEntire of Tortoise's heavier side. \"That hasn't always been captured as well on past albums.\" Elsewhere, 'Hot Coffee' resurrects an idea abandoned from the band's 2004 album \"It's All Around You,\" gliding through only-on-a- Tortoise-album sections of funktastic bass lines, straight-up dance beats and Parker's fusion-flecked guitar bursts. \"It's progressive experimental music with pop sensibilities,\" says Parker. 'Rock On,' 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't the only vocal moment on 'The Catastrophist.' Also included is the bittersweet, honest-to-goodness soul ballad 'Yonder Blue,' sung by Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley. \"We'd finished the track and decided it would be good to have vocals on it,\" recalls McEntire. \"Robert 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.\" As ever, Tortoise has conjured sounds on 'The Catastrophist' that aren't being purveyed anywhere else in music today. There's 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, 'The Catastrophist' reminds us that there's something much greater out there. All we have to do is listen. CD version in 4 panel mini-LP style gatefold package.LP - 180 Gram Vinyl Pressed on black virgin vinyl and packaged in a heavy 24 point board jacket with artworked inner sleeve and free download coupon. Initial run includes a limited number of orange colour vinyl editions - allocated at random.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50410075226443,"sku":"395058","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50410075390283,"sku":"395059","price":35.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/The_Catastrophist_Bonus_Track_Edition_43ea75d9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726636159"},{"product_id":"tnt","title":"TNT","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise's\u003c\/strong\u003e third full-length release, \u003cem\u003eTNT\u003c\/em\u003e, was written and recorded during a 10-month interval in 1997. This longer-than-usual writing and production schedule was purposefully undertaken by the group in the hopes of crafting an expansive, diverse, yet thematically coherent offering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTNT\u003c\/em\u003e builds upon the spare, instrumental framework of the group's first, self-titled album, and the extended edits, melodic adventures, and klangfarben of the subsequent full-length release, \u003cem\u003eMillions Now Living Will Never Die\u003c\/em\u003e. Further to this, \u003cstrong\u003eTortoise's\u003c\/strong\u003e interest in the possibilities offered by the remixing of tracks was realized within the actual production of \u003cem\u003eTNT\u003c\/em\u003e; individual elements, sections, or sometimes whole compositions mutate within the album's shifting framework.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese techniques were suitably realized, thanks in part to the use of non-linear digital recording and editing methods, the first example of such work for the group.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"Green LP","offer_id":50410457694539,"sku":"1161973","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Clear LP","offer_id":50410458087755,"sku":"2052798","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50410457530699,"sku":"1026465","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50410457923915,"sku":"185388","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/86368082-4449-4928-a163-aa69b7652bc5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726641296"},{"product_id":"its-all-around-you-2","title":"It's All Around You","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt's All Around You is Tortoise's fifth album, originally released in 2004. This re-issue is pressed on high quality virgin vinyl and packaged in a jacket and inner sleeve both featuring spot UV printing and a free download card. Written largely in the studio, It's All Around You was crafted over the course of a full year, and allowed Tortoise the use of John McEntire's Soma Electronic Music Studios in serving not just as a state-of-the art recording facility, but as a compositional tool as well. It took months of continuous writing, recording, tinkering, mixing, and perfecting to bring It's All Around You to it's finalized state. The results of this process are clear in the lush, orchestrated tones, intricate melodies, and densely elaborate rhythms.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"Yellow | LP","offer_id":50444103287115,"sku":"2210796","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/59f942d7-815f-4021-9b86-8e71a1ebc9f3_thumbnail_4096_e1b518e8_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1727024737"},{"product_id":"millions-now-living-will-never-die-1","title":"Millions Now Living Will Never Die","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe seminal second album from Chicago's Tortoise with David Pajo joining for guitar duties. A remarkable set that pushed and re-invigorated the boundaries of post-rock. Mixing in soundtrack influences on \u003ci\u003e\"Along The Banks Of Rivers\"\u003c\/i\u003e and blowing minds with the side-long studio created masterpiece \u003ci\u003e\"Djed\".\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":50452388675915,"sku":"185387","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Hi Melt Silver and Blue","offer_id":56465026548043,"sku":"R7942-3797","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Millions_Now_Living_Will_Never_Die_cec1c9c9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727150734"},{"product_id":"standards-4","title":"Standards","description":"\u003cp\u003eLP version pressed on limited red vinyl with white splatter packaged with an artworked inner sleeve and free download card in custom silk-screened PVC outer bag. Chicago's post-rock godfathers Tortoise use 'Standards' as an opportunity to scale down from the computer-based constructions of their previous 'TNT'. Instead of incorporating their former cut-and-paste method of composition on their fourth full-length album, the quintet return to playing and interacting with each other in a live setting, resulting in a much more organic feel. The opener 'The Benway' begins standards auspiciously, with rubato bursts of distorted guitar and free-floating drums, in an homage to jazz-rock guitarist Sonny Sharrock. From here on anything goes, as plaintive analog synth melodies vie with electronically processed percussion, Jeff Parker's trademark angular guitar riffs, and some of the trashiest-sounding drums this side of nuggets. As ever, Tortoise incorporates elements of electronic music, modern classical, experimental \/ avant garde, and hip-hop in a format that references the group's rock roots without ever bowing to rock convention. The fourth full length from Tortoise, boldy announces their return following 1998's 'TNT'. The leader's of innovation in a lot of ways, John Mcentire and his clan continue with an excellent album.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50479674229067,"sku":"347166","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d21f0cb8-4c47-4f6f-a132-7b78e32a59e2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727511071"},{"product_id":"rhythms-resolutions-and-clusters","title":"Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters","description":"\u003cp\u003eTortoise has spent nearly 30 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 discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. One of the throughlines that create that distinctive sound is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. \u003ci\u003eRhythms, Resolutions and Clusters\u003c\/i\u003e follows in this line as Tortoise turned their iconic early songs over to their friends to play with. The remixes by other legends including Bundy K. Brown, Steve Albini, Jim O’Rourke, Brad Wood (Liz Phair), Casey Rice, Mike Watt (Minute Men), and Rick Brown (75 Dollar Bill) create a sense of community, and unlimited creativity. It’s been out of print since 1995. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"Yellow | LP","offer_id":50481967071563,"sku":"1145272","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50481967726923,"sku":"1145271","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2b36fcbf-5940-4680-8af1-eef2c8175d95_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727547322"},{"product_id":"tortoise","title":"Tortoise","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe wonderful debut from Chicago's Tortoise originally released in 1994. With musicians drawn from Bastro, Eleventh Dream Day, the Poster Children, Tar Babies coming together and laying down the blueprint for post rock invention. Includes 'Ry Cooder' one of their most enduring tracks. a fine record. lP version pressed on limited opaque brown vinyl. The packaging emulates the original with a chipboard jacket that was custom silk-screened by Dan Macadam at Crosshair in Chicago. Also included is an insert and a free download coupon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50485314912587,"sku":"396093","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/0b95764f-fd60-476c-bf6e-d957948b10e7_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727598463"},{"product_id":"millions-now-living-will-never-die","title":"Millions Now Living Will Never Die","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe seminal second album from Chicago's Tortoise with David Pajo joining for guitar duties. A remarkable set that pushed and re-invigorated the boundaries of post-rock. Mixing in soundtrack influences on \u003ci\u003e\"Along The Banks Of Rivers\"\u003c\/i\u003e and blowing minds with the side-long studio created masterpiece \u003ci\u003e\"Djed\".\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Thrill Jockey","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50531194601803,"sku":"189338","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2000x2000bb_fc3a8e27-4ba7-4bb2-bc7f-d7ccce38ae11.jpg?v=1770214192"},{"product_id":"oganesson-remixes","title":"Oganesson Remixes","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eOganesson Remixes EP\u003c\/em\u003e follows the March 2025 release of \u003cem\u003eOganesson\u003c\/em\u003e, which was the first new music released by \u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e since 2016.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe EP includes the original version of \"\u003cem\u003eOganesson\u003c\/em\u003e\" alongside five new remixes of the track created by collaborators and friends of the band, including poet and activist \u003cstrong\u003eSaul Williams\u003c\/strong\u003e, prolific mastering engineer \u003cstrong\u003eHeba Kadry\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eBlack Keys\u003c\/strong\u003e drummer \u003cstrong\u003ePatrick Carney\u003c\/strong\u003e, indie music icons \u003cstrong\u003eBroken Social Scene\u003c\/strong\u003e, and \u003cstrong\u003eInternational Anthem\u003c\/strong\u003e labelmate \u003cstrong\u003eMakaya McCraven\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eOganesson Remixes EP\u003c\/em\u003e is released ahead of a new album by \u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e, which will be announced and released this fall via \u003cstrong\u003eInternational Anthem\u003c\/strong\u003e. This very limited 12\" record features artwork by \u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e's John Herndon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e - Oganesson\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e - Oganesson (Saul Williams Remix)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e - Oganesson (Heba Kadry Remix)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e - Oganesson (Patrick Carney Remix)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e - Oganesson (Broken Social Scene Remix)\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTortoise\u003c\/strong\u003e - Oganesson (Makaya McCraven Remix)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"International Anthem Recording Co","offers":[{"title":"12\" - Black","offer_id":52486356959563,"sku":"R8311-5087","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Tortoise-OganessonRemixes-IARCOG99LP-Packshot_d176eb18-5841-4c59-98dc-04a115feae28.jpg?v=1752321357"},{"product_id":"touch-1","title":"Touch","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith \u003cem\u003eTouch\u003c\/em\u003e, the Tortoise bandmembers — Jeff Parker, Dan Bitney, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, and John McEntire — harness their collectivist songwriting approach, a slightly anarchistic but resolutely egalitarian process where ideas triumph over ego towards an abstracted muscularity. While there are still excursions into the dusky, elegantly gnarled jazz ambience that flourished on landmark works like \u003cem\u003eMillions Now Living Will Never Die \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eTNT, Touch\u003c\/em\u003e is perhaps most remarkable for Tortoise's unapologetic embrace of grand gesture. Aerodynamically re-engineered Krautrock, hand-cranked techno rave-ups, and pointillist spaghetti western fanfares are all imbued with Tortoise's now-signature internal logic — equally alluring and confounding, a puzzle to be savoured rather than solved. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"International Anthem Recording Co","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":53322210738507,"sku":"R3697-2815","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":53322210771275,"sku":"R3697-0067","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Green","offer_id":53544808841547,"sku":"R3697-7918","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Tortoise-Touch-IARC99LP-Packshot.jpg?v=1757078739"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_a7d85a70_thumbnail_4096_b9a86fa2-ad59-4715-a836-4a5aa4ddf20e.jpg?v=1726634443","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/tortoise.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}