Tortoise: It's All Around You : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The term "post-rock" may have been retired, but at least one of the bands that inspired the tag, Tortoise, is still going strong. Backing away from the brasher extremes of its last album, 2001's Standards, the Chicago instrumental quintet favors a more familiar and serene sound on It's All Around You. Percussionists John McEntire and Dan Bitney lock into percolating, jazzy grooves with bassist Doug McCombs, and keyboardist John Herndon and guitarist Jeff Parker lay down single-note lines that bristle with angularity. Typical for a Tortoise disc, vibraphone parts abound. Also typical for a Tortoise disc, melody plays a distant second marimba to mood. But the sonic surprises scattered throughout -- check the clever quote from the Beatles' "Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" at the end of "Five Too Many" -- make the journey worthwhile.

MAC RANDALL
(RS 948, May 13, 2004)