Tortoise’s Slow, Steady Roll Continues On ‘Touch’

First, we need to note that Tortoise releasing a record with anyone other than Thrill Jockey after a 30-plus-year relationship is a shocker for a group not known for dramatic changes. It’s akin to Autechre abandoning Warp! Anyway, the important thing about Tortoise is that their last two albums before the International Anthem/Nonesuch-reared Touch — 2009’s Beacons of Ancestorship and 2016’s The Catastrophist — have been among their most vital and inventive, an unusual trajectory for a group well into their fourth decade.

For all of their cred as post-rock pioneers, Tortoise at this point seems like a casual, part-time project — either that or they spend many meticulous years honing material for their records. But the truth is, all five members stay busy in myriad other projects, especially guitarist Jeff Parker, who’s become a prime mover in avant-jazz circles. For Touch, their eighth studio LP (could the title reference synth magus Morton Subotnick’s 1969 album?), they’ve regrouped for another subtle advance in their evolution.

On a macro level, Touch finds Tortoise leaning more heavily on electronics and metallic textures. At one extreme, there’s “Elka,” a girthy, cerebral techno banger, albeit one created by middle-aged humans in real time, on traditional instruments. At the other is “Promenade à deux,” a sonically rich soufflé of ambivalent melodies, bass smudges, and crispy synth riffs.

There’s a real delicacy here that harks back to 2004’s It’s All Around You. “Organesson” burbles and percolates like a brawnier Stereolab, as Parker gets off some lovely, tintinnabulating lines amid the metallo-electronic percussion labyrinths. “A Title Comes” starts with rapid, robotic beats à la Suicide’s “Rocket USA,” before ebullient keyboard swirls and luscious, aching strings enter, resulting in a delightful mood-elevater.

Touch‘s zenith occurs on “Axial Seamount,” one of Tortoise’s coolest extrapolations on krautrock’s motorik ramble. Halfway in, the tempo quickens, and while it’s not quite as frenetic as Can’s “Mother Sky,” things do get spine-tingling. Tortoise are still on a creative roll, even if it’s a very slow, drawn-out one.