If your record collection has been itching for some jazzified post-rock, good news: Tortoise are set to release their first proper album in five years. In a new interview, bassist Doug McCombs confirmed the long-standing Chicago instrumentalists will release their yet-untitled record April 21 via Thrill Jockey, and it will contain "a lot of variety."
While speaking to Billboard, McCombs explained that the new record contains a bit of everything, from almost verse-chorus-verse structures to tracks that "don't adhere to any traditional song forms." He also said to expect a new synth-heavy approach and what he described as "unconventional drumming and percussion."
The group road-tested much of the new material last summer, apparently a rare move for the Tortoise personnel. "Normally we're making an album and then trying to figure out how to play it, and realizing that there are some real problems," said McCombs.
Other tidbits of info McCombs spilled include:
- Tortoise originally were going to make the new album one continuous piece but that idea was eventually abandoned. "I think it's something we want to put on the back-burner," he said.
- He is working on a side-project effort with guitarist David Daniel.
- The dreadful 2006 cover album made with Will Oldham, The Brave and the Bold, made Tortoise "aware of how we were dealing with melodies."
- And performing the group's 1996 album, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, in its entirety "really wasn't that fun."
Tortoise "Salt the Skies"
While speaking to Billboard, McCombs explained that the new record contains a bit of everything, from almost verse-chorus-verse structures to tracks that "don't adhere to any traditional song forms." He also said to expect a new synth-heavy approach and what he described as "unconventional drumming and percussion."
The group road-tested much of the new material last summer, apparently a rare move for the Tortoise personnel. "Normally we're making an album and then trying to figure out how to play it, and realizing that there are some real problems," said McCombs.
Other tidbits of info McCombs spilled include:
- Tortoise originally were going to make the new album one continuous piece but that idea was eventually abandoned. "I think it's something we want to put on the back-burner," he said.
- He is working on a side-project effort with guitarist David Daniel.
- The dreadful 2006 cover album made with Will Oldham, The Brave and the Bold, made Tortoise "aware of how we were dealing with melodies."
- And performing the group's 1996 album, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, in its entirety "really wasn't that fun."
Tortoise "Salt the Skies"
