Records of the Week

TORTOISE ON MYSPACE / THRILL JOCKEY RECORDS

There’s only so much that can be said for such a longstanding and reliable institution such as Chicago’s Tortoise. Especially when, even after a lengthy hiatus that only saw the release of an outstanding collection of b-sides and outtakes, the outfit’s comeback record is not only just as awesome as any of their other past releases, but it’s as equally thrilling and surprising. Oh it’s still sounds like Tortoise all right. The grooves are obtuse and heady, the melodies abstract and precise, and it all sounds like a party through every musical incantation that’s ever existed on every edge of the globe. Like the album’s title implies, it sounds ancient and familiar, but also like a prophecy of blinding light. Some tracks are intensely vivid, hard-rocking through brief passages of get-up and get-down, some are solemnly paced with a wicked sense of space, but all are bright and sugar-sweet. This might be a band who’s known more as an establishment than one that’s still progressing, but Beacons of Ancestorship proves that both are indeed possible. Get familiar with this NLP staple with a freek track via the nowlikephotographs podcast.