BEACONS OF ANCESTORSHIP

"Beacons of Ancestorship" is the 6th full-length studio album by American experimental rock act Tortoise. The album was released through Thrill Jockey in June 2009. The material on the album is a return to familiar instrumental experimental rock territory after a short excursion into vocal rock territory on "The Brave and the Bold" (2006) where Tortoise collaborated with Will Oldham (under this Bonnie 'Prince' Billy monicker).

Tortoise continue to play with and twist the rules of rock music by adding electronic and semi-jazzy elements to their music. The post-rock tag that the band have had around their necks since the beginning doesn´t really apply anymore. The 11 tracks on "Beacons of Ancestorship" are high quality compositions. The musicianship is also on a high level and overall this is a good quality release. I´m having a bit of trouble explaining how the music sounds though so the term experimental rock will apply for now. If the drumming had been more jazzy some of the songs could have been mistaken for jazz/rock. A song like "Prepare Your Coffin" is a good example of that (I hear a Santana vibe in that song). "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In" and "Charteroak Foundation" which bookend the album are some of the highlights of the album. The noisy "Yinxianghechengqi" is also worth a mention.

Every new release by Tortoise has always progressed their sound and broken new ground and "Beacons of Ancestorship" is no exception. I enjoy how creative they are and while not all songs on the album equally appeal to me they are undeniably quality material and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is well deserved.