Tortoise - Touch

A Closer Listen

International Anthem is celebrating its 11th Anniversary this year, and what better way to underline the label’s progression than to release the new Tortoise album, arguably their highest profile signing to date. Touch has been a while coming. International Anthem were only a handful of records into their catalogue when Tortoise’s last record The Catastrophist dropped in January 2016. That album was perhaps under-appreciated at the time, due to the artwork – the image would stop you in your tracks and not in a good way – and the odd choice of covering David Essex’s “Rock On”. Both of these decisions seemed out of character for a band that had previously gone for a more enigmatic approach. There’s a bit of course correction for Touch, however, signalled by the mysterious cover – a collage by Paw Grabowski featuring a metal scorpion sculpted by John McEntire’s father. You can touch if you want, but there will be consequences, it seems to say.

Touch is, however, a very accessible album. There’s nothing too gnarly or awkward here. Many of the tracks rattle through a couple of styles as if the quintet have a bag of genre types they can pick from. The squelchy pattern of “Layered Presence” is enhanced by a harpsichord-esque melody on top and a short but scorching guitar solo, all wrapped up in three minutes. We don’t get some vibraphone – which seems to be the definitive element of the Tortoise sound – until “Works And Days”, which also features some off-mic enthusiastic voices. I’m not sure how deliberate this is, as it occurs on a couple of tracks. However, it does provide some jam-session vibes, rather than being recorded individually in an airless studio.

“Promenade à Deux” and “A Title Comes” are the most typically Tortoise tracks here, all hazy ambience, with guitar and marimba very much to the fore – you can connect the dots from here all the way back to their first records. It’s probably fair to say that on their first three albums, through to TNT, Tortoise pretty much defined and perfected a post-rock, post-jazz sound. Since then, the quintet have maintained a sort of holding pattern, taking longer between albums as life, other projects and, for this album especially, geographical distance make it more difficult to organise new recording sessions. What burst out of the collective creative process 30 years ago takes a bit longer these days.

There are little elements that Tortoise incorporate into their sound to keep things fresh, though – a dusty, Morricone-esque guitar here, a motorik beat there, the grimey crackle of electronics both here and there. And, fair to say, they end strongly on “Night Gang”, which is arguably the best track here, spacious and atmospheric with more than a hint of Stereolab in the first keyboard melody. It’s the sort of track that reminds us why we liked Tortoise in the first place, why they became so influential to a generation of musicians and why International Anthem are so excited about releasing this album. One of the great Chicago bands, on the most exciting contemporary label, that’s also Chicago-based? It makes sense. The older Tortoise get, the slower they become. But they aren’t stopping yet. (Jeremy Bye)