Tortoise: Standards 12"

Following the massive success of their 1998 album TNT, Tortoise delivered Standards in 2001. The tunes are direct and immediate, yet they maintain the exploratory edge that has always characterized the group's output. The fusion of instrumental sounds (electric, acoustic and synthesized) is subtle and subversive while the group's fluency within the studio environment gives the finished work a quality that alternates between artifice and reality. Whilst TNT was constructed in the studio using segments recorded, improvised or altered electronically, the Standards sessions began after a period of rehearsal and composition. The contrast, simply stated, is that the studio was used extensively as a compositional tool for TNT, whereas with Standards it was used predominantly as tool to realize and enhance the existing new compositions. The results then are in many ways reminiscent of Tortoise's unadorned self-titled debut.