TNT

Third and very electronica-minded release from the Chicago quintet, who remains stable line- up-wise, even adding a member Parker. While remaining very much a post-rock album, at least in its melancholic moods; this album is a logical continuation of the previous Millions NLWND, going one step further. Their low-key approach is again found in the fairly sober and simple artwork, despite the innerfold being a lot more colourful. As usual, they make the credits hard to decipher, and no-one knows who plays whatever instruments, so you'll have to look up what my great colleagues fished out at the individual album pages (above).

Opening on the rather standard post-rock scheme, generally more electric than electronic, but afterwards, the album soon veers weirder/crazier with the skidding out of control Gutters, where bursts of guitars and others clash with the generally quick (for post-rock) rhythm. The track almost reprises, but dies off quickly to allow an electronic keyboard arpeggio to lay out its web over charming vibraphone percussions, a Ten-Day Interval to Dream of a sequencer-like Tangerine, really. The following Equator seems directly taken from a mid-60's cheesy film soundtrack and is not my fave moment of the album, but it's also nothing really offensive to your eardrums. Simpler Way is again fast-paced and doesn't prepare for Iguazu Fall's, a slower beat-box-like paced track fading out in a low-spectrummed drone Another Four-Day Interval is needed before the rest of the album glides in the different moods already explored, even if the Almost Always track has a disturbing anti-dozing off alarm and the latter part of the album veers semi-techno music; which doesn't sit well with this reviewer, and most likely most progheads.

So their third album TNT is certainly not exploding your eardrums or blowing your mind away, but it's relatively pleasant passé-partout hip-crowd music if you skip that 10th track. The least we can say is that Tortoise doesn't stop advancing in the musical quest, despite having them make taste mistakes and publishing flawed music, but that comes with the experimentations and being at the tip of the avant-garde. Can't strike gold every time you dig in the ground.