13. Tortoise – Standards
This would be the opposite to a lot of the records we’ve been talking about – it’s complicated, there’s a lot of instrumentation going on. That’s one of the things I really like about Tortoise, they can play all that stuff live and pull it off. I think they have nine members sometimes, maybe even more, but it’s one of those records where it’s a really cool electronic record but it’s actually really organic because these guys are really playing. Those two things are so different and so hard to blend well, I’ve tried it myself and failed often, it’s hard to do. The musicianship needs to be there, and the programming needs to be right – I may be wrong but I think a lot of those type of songs are created electronically and then people try to interpret them, but with Tortoise I don’t know how it starts – do they start organically and then interpret them electronically? Especially with Standards, it’s a perfect blend of the two. I definitely feel an affinity with post rock groups like Tortoise, maybe people like Shellac as well.
