Tortoise
Standards
On Sale Now
For $11.48

Occasionally, an album cover sums up a set of music perfectly. For Standards, the fourth album by Chicago's instrumental jazzy/electronic-y/post rock-y wild bunch Tortoise, this is certainly the case, as the cover depicts horizontal red lines lying above a distorted and contorted mesh American flag. The message/purpose? Just as the cover shows a traditional symbol (or standard) in a discombobulated, though still recognizable, state, Tortoise’s soundscapes on the surface sound totally chaotic, but there is actually a beautifully restrained order and control present (again, a standard). Within this balance of atonal bedlam and deliberate structure resides the excellence that is Tortoise.

Over the course of their career, Tortoise, whose sound hovers somewhere between Air, Don Caballero, Miles Davis, and Stereolab at its most basic level, has often been pigeonholed as a complicated critic's band, a classification that is totally inappropriate. People are deceived by how well Tortoise use the studio, which functions as their sixth member essentially. From the harsh, bass-laden abstract grooves of 1994's Tortoise to the cut-and-paste experimentation of 1996's Millions Now Living Will Never Die to 1998's melodic dub and Ennio Morricone-esque stylings, Tortoise consistently disguise deceptively simple hooks and structures with tons of studio wizardry, which certainly enhances the listening experience, but is no reason to belittle the band.

As with their three previous albums, Tortoise has not repeated themselves at all on Standards, as they fiercely strive to never create the same album, song, or sound twice. Standards kicks off with "Seneca" and a blast of sheer sonic explosiveness, bass, guitar, and percussion ringing out of control for 45 seconds. From the start it is clear that Tortoise are exploring new ground yet again. "Seneca" settles into a heavy, funky flow of grungy guitar and furious drumming, building upon each moment methodically and deliberately. But do not be mistaken: this is not "music for music's sake," for "Seneca" is remarkably catchy and soulful in its own oblique way.

A tight repetitive guitar lick and dueling marimbas propel "Eros," in which sounds fly in and out every which way, though hardly in a random fashion. The dark, slithering keyboard effect of this track gives it a kind of alien quality, and the auditory concoctions all build until sliding into a smooth and rich groove of pure Tortoise, taut but hardly tame. A ringing, spaghetti western guitar leads "Firefly," a slow burning mood piece that leaves chills with its haunting bass rumblings and subtle synths. "Firefly" immediately segues into another strong track, "Six Pack," which finds Tortoise chiseling out a pristine melody that reveals something new on every listen. Another standout is "Monica," which sounds like the perfect kitschy soundtrack to a silly French movie with its Daft Punk style keyboards.

Overall, Standards finds Tortoise experimenting much more with keyboard/synth effects that range from crazy to creepy. All five members are sublime musicians, adept at everything from marimba to maraca, and the drumming, as on any Tortoise album, is particularly glorious. In spite of some moments when Tortoise tend to get a little carried away with aimless sound dabblings ("Benway" abandons guitars for really nothing else; "Blackjack" sounds like overproduced, hyper-kinetic Atari video game music), Standards is a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing experimental album, which, though not revolutionary or sheer genius, simply must be heard in its entirety, as several songs and themes flow and fit together with one another. For most "modern rock" fans, Tortoise is quite a departure from the norm, but for those intrigued by the freshness of Radiohead's Kid A or simply want to delve into something completely new, Standards is a wonderful sonic adventure.

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