Tortoise Do Take Their Time

Good news today for fans of Chicago’s uber instrumentalists Tortoise- Their forthcoming album, (as yet untitled), is set for release April 21st, nearly five years after their last album of original material, It's All Around You. Traditionally slow ‘recording’ movers, perhaps explaining their apropos moniker... This one is pretty much right on time. In fairness though, it’s not like they’ve been resting on their creative laurels. In the interim they recorded a covers album, The Brave and the Bold, with Bonnie Prince Billy, and actively toured 1996's Millions Now Living Will Never Die. The talented Chicagoans also put on a stellar set at the 2008 edition of the Guelph Jazz festival.

Several cuts were road-tested last summer, a "luxury" Tortoise usually never has. "Normally we're making an album and then trying to figure out how to play it, and realizing that they're some real problems," says McCombs.

According to Billboard.com

The band started work on the album three years ago and originally considered just recording one long piece but, McCombs explains, "that ended up not really being possible with the material we had. I think it's something we want to put on the back-burner." What they have come up with instead are tracks that "don't adhere to any traditional song forms. They move through different parts, but the lines are blurred."

Although a lot of the album details seem up in the air -- the album and song titles have to be decided the band are talking about touring the album this Spring and Summer, "Waiting until the fall would have made us a little antsy," McCombs says.

Good things are always worth waiting for.

Remember this one from 1996?