Tortoise - The Catastrophist [LP]

1 The Catastrophist 3:53
2 Ox Duke 4:49
3 Rock On 3:12
4 Gopher Island 1:12
5 Shake Hands With Danger 4:09
6 The Clearing Fills 4:22
7 Gesceap 7:36
8 Hot Coffee 3:52
9 Yonder Blue 3:18
10 Tesseract 3:54
11 At Odds With Logic 3:15

It’s safe to say Tortoise are a most revered band. Over their twenty year career they have forged a path that is all their own incorporating all manner of genres into their (mostly) instrumental songs. Like fellow sonic adventurers Slint, Mogwai, and Spiritualized Tortoise refuse to be pigeonholed and with The Catastrophist that is set to continue.

The Catastrophist is an incredibly playful album full of mischief and dark humour. It is a work that injects an element of funk making moments that are Tortoise’s most danceable to date. This is apparent right from the opening grooves of the title track which sprays technicolor into the room, full of Vangelis operatic synths and sliding/shimmying drums. Pysch-disco at its finest, The Catastrophist reminds of fellow traveler's Islet, and like them Tortoise manage to morph a song from lightness into darkness at the flick of a switch.