Track Listing

1. Seneca
2. Eros
3. Benway
4. Firefly
5. Six Pack
6. Eden
7. Monica
8. Blackjack
9. Eden (1)
10. Speakeasy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89730 in Music
• Released on: 2001-02-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The fulcrum of Chicago's underground musical scene, Tortoise pretty much are the group responsible for plotting the blueprint of what's commonly--if vaguely--referred to as post-rock. Certainly, they are an outfit who, since their inception, have remained in a constant state of flux, their ever-shifting line-up reflecting a constantly mutating musical ethos. Where 1996's Millions Now Living Will Never Die largely comprised of maudlin guitar-bass-and-drums instrumentals and 1998's TNT embraced the modern electronic studio as the group's primary instrument, the lofty aim of Standards is to unite both approaches under a pioneering banner: analogue and digital technology used as complementary forces. Sounds thrilling, eh? Well, probably not, unless you puzzle over circuit boards of an evening in. But forget, just for a minute, Tortoise's pseudo-intellectual reputation and just listen to the sounds. It's somewhat appropriate that Standards is the group's debut for adventurous British techno label Warp; this is Tortoise's least categorisable album yet--a kaleidoscope of sound, where Miles Davis glides serenely past Autechre, each individual instrument melding into a hypnotic fog, and then swiftly congealing into sudden, breathtaking movements: the sudden, florid bloom of xylophone from the casual swing of "Benway", or the rumble of warm saxophone, shaking up the electronic foundations of "Monica". Still flying the flag for the experimental vanguard, this might just be Tortoise's greatest album yet. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

A leaner and meaner album than TNT
On this album Tortoise seem to have refined their sound and the overall impression is of a more disciplined and more muscular ensemble than on their previous release. The relatively short length (44 minutes) is a clue to this, and some of the self-indulgent streak they exhibited has been curbed. On the whole it also seems less like background music than some of TNT, for example '...iguazu falls'.

Business as usual from Tortoise
Don't believe the reviewers that tell you this is a more raucous, looser Tortoise, that these are "songs", played in a more "live" way. It isn't, they ain't. Maybe they turned up the volume from 5 to 6, maybe there's a few more drums. But apart from that it's business as usual. Which means high-quality, slightly bloodless stuff, with a a few very affecting moments and a bit too much of the old xylophone for my money. Don't get me wrong - I like it a lot. So far, though, I think I prefer TNT.

Not an immediate album, but one which really sinks in....
The two minute long intro to the Seneca, the first track, is an overloaded freeform jam, somehow redolent of the Velvet Underground, but it breaks into a chilled reggae clunk, filled with Cuban clapping, scratches and glitchery. Giant powerchords slip into feedback over synthesized harpsichord almost giving the track the air of a late 80's sci-fi cartoon, just inspired by Manga or Tron but with cinematic space instead of ridiculous urgency. Next is Eros, building up out of electronics and cutups, almost introducing the classic Tortoise vibes, but easing into a fat tight groove littered with dark bloops and rasps. Almost like something you'd find on a Ninja Tunes Future Sound of Jazz compilation, a slinky groove peels back, revealing two harmonizing basses getting it on just under the surface. With its title the third track (Benway) put me in mind of the ubiquitous shapeshifting Burrough's character, but with its completely electronic feel it sounds more like Gary Numan than "post-rock". It breaks down into clicks and edgy static beats until the vibes arrive, backed up by the shuffling swing of live drums, in a lounge/avant garde jazz dovetail. Firefly touches around freejazz, almost monotonal sixteenths on guitar and bass flick like insects in front of the yawning synth pad until a latin drum pattern commences Six Pack, sounding like a direct reference to previous albums' tracks like Ry Cooder or Along the Banks of Rivers. A brief swish of synth and Eden 2 kicks in. A fat, intentional beat sharing the driver's seat with a low bass beast, suddenly subverted by an almost baroque clavinet. The album's longest track, Monica, throws me right back into 80's chart pop territory with it synthesized, pitch-bent harmonica and close harmony guitar but the recorded-to-tape-in-the-red offkilter drums skew the stereotype and a Tortoise mellow lounge head-nodder groove rolls out twisting the ears all the way. With a deceptively ballad-like intro, Blackjack shows itself to be a stomper, almost in the style of Mina, (who supported [and blew away] Trans Am in Auntie Annie's last year), kicking down into a driven melody line then, from nowhere, comes guitar sludge, heavily effected thick dirt glistening moistly from side to side only to fade, stabbed with digi-strings and brass. Eden 1 tries to fool you into dancing, but it's in 5/4 and it's apparent that the earlier Eden 2 is a cunning deception, surgically redirected into 4/4. Just as some noise experimentation creeps around the edges of the song, the song becomes the last track, Speakeasy: mellow and dark by turns, vibes and bass, drums accentuating the slowly freewheeling atmosphere, ragged guitar rising up like faces under streetlights in the fog or cars passing on empty streets, then a change (hey, it's Tortoise) and it's cool melody like Flyrod or Cornprone Brunch, easing by like a drive in the country, until the car drives through the industrial estates, divided by greenbelt parkland: calm ripples punctuated with tortured feedback and metal.

The album cover is a distorted newspaper cutting of the American flag, folded behind red bars, the inner sleeve empty and the back of the sleeve filled with what initially looks like cut-up typos and random words. Look closely: the track list and other details are secreted within.

I've listened to this album twice today, and probably will another couple of times before bedtime, it's pretty much everything you'd expect from Tortoise, whilst still capitalizing on everything they've done on their three previous albums. An improvement of increments rather than giant leaps.