11. TortoiseStandards
This is one of those records that I still listen to, I have like four different versions of it. It’s of those records you don’t let live at a record store, you have to buy it if you see it used because it has to go to a good home. I came to Tortoise in high school, it was another album my brother left behind. I was also listening to Godspeed! You Black Emperor and all these post-rock vibes at the time and Tortoise spoke to that, as well as the hip hop side of what I loved, and the jazz side. It spoke to my exploding brain where my biggest influences were KRS-One and John Coltrane. The way it starts is this slow build, like you’re watching a fireworks display, something about it is bubbling and popping, and then it does bubble and pop and the break starts. Tortoise was the band that opened my mind to this music that speaks a totally different and new language. I was listening to Coltrane but it was 30 or 40 years old, but this was something that just came out, I had never heard these sounds before. I love Tortoise. I love this record
