Name: Beacons Of Ancestorship
Brand: Tortoise

Tax rate EU

Default:19

Supplier EU

375 Media

Total Cap

Format detail

Colour details

Discogs ID

Limited edition

Colour

Format Music EU

Extended format

Extended format: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Download code

Download code: No

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Release date

2009-12-31

Format multiplier

Catalogue number

5193242

UPC / Barcode

790377021028

Download code: Yes

2009-06-23

5193241

790377021011

Artist

Tortoise

Label EU

Thrill Jockey

Genre EU

Alternative / Modern

Tortoise is a post-rock band from Chicago known for their almost entirely instrumental music that defies easy categorization. With roots in the city's fertile music scene, the group incorporates styles closer to Krautrock, dub, minimalism, electronica, and various jazz styles into their sound. Some consider Tortoise as one of the prime forces behind the development and popularity of the post-rock movement. Their music has also been described as heavily indebted to progressive rock.

Formed in the late 1980s by Doug McCombs and John Herndon, Tortoise initially envisioned themselves as a freelance rhythm section similar to reggae legends Sly and Robbie. However, their interest in grooving rhythms and recording studio trickery led them to collaborate with drummer John McEntire and bassist Bundy K. Brown (both formerly of Bastro) before adding Dan Bitney to complete the lineup. While all members contribute to songwriting, McEntire is often seen as the group's guiding force due to his role as recording engineer and mixer.

Tortoise has released records on Thrill Jockey label and is associated with other groups such as The Sea and Cake, Brokeback, Slint, Isotope 217, and the Chicago Underground Duo.

Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label that was established in 1992 by Bettina Richards, a former A&R representative at Atlantic Records. Originally based in New York City, the label relocated to Chicago, Illinois in 1995.
With over two decades of experience, Thrill Jockey has become a prominent force in the music industry. Known for its diverse roster of artists and commitment to artistic integrity, the label has consistently released groundbreaking and innovative music across various genres.
Thrill Jockey's catalog includes a wide range of critically acclaimed albums from both established and emerging artists. From experimental rock to electronic music, jazz to folk, the label continues to push boundaries and support unique voices within the industry.

Newest Listed Items

LP version pressed on limited clear vinyl packaged in a tip-on gatefold jacket with spot varnish, artworked inner sleeve, and free download card. 'Beacons of Ancestorship' is Tortoise's sixth full-length album, and their first release of new material in five years, since 2004's 'It's All Around You'. In the interim, the group also released and toured behind the 2006 career retrospective box set 'A Lazarus Taxon', and an album of covers with vocalist Will Oldham by the likes of Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson and the Minutemen, entitled 'The Brave and the Bold'. Additionally, the individual members have kept busy with various other projects, including but not limited to exploding star orchestra, bumps, fflashlights, and powerhouse sound. A characteristic Tortoise album is one that traverses an encyclopaedia of styles and reference points, a document of where musical intersections and dialogue are occurring at a given moment in time. 'Beacons of Ancestorship' is no different, with nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths, and mournful, elegiac dirges. We see these ideas working out in compositions like 'High Class Slim Came Floatin' in', an eight-minute track which playfully references the world of ecstatic rave and dance culture with a curiously ambivalent, multi-part suite overlaid with robotic, machine-sounding melodies that stop and start in several different time signatures before the song's ultimate resolution; and again in 'Yinxianghechengqi', which begins as a straightforward uptempo math-rocker before steadily accelerating into a wall of fuzzy atonal sqwonk.

Beacons Of Ancestorship

Music EU