MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE

Tortoise's second studio album proper (1995's Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters was more of a remix project) is probably their most appealing to fans of progressive rock. Founder member Bundy K Brown had left, although he is credited with writing portions of The Taut And The Tame, to be replaced by former Slint musician Dave Pajo, and the band wrote the bulk of the material during a stay in a farmhouse in rural Vermont.

The album opens with the remarkable 21 minute piece Djed, which has drawn comparisons with Krautrock, minimalism and dub. There's also a hint of what Soft Machine Third would have sounded like if it had been recorded in the 90s, but really Tortoise define their own sound and space with this track. There are four or five main themes, but rather than one leading neatly into another each emerges gradually from the previous one. The opening rumbling bass gives way to a slowed down motorik rhythm which morphs into a vibes driven piece of minimalism which is broken down and distorted into a piece of edgy electronica which then reintroduces the mallet percussion and so on, the whole thing underpinned by a logic of its own as though different layers are being peeled away to reveal something new and equally exotic beneath. Despite the disparate nature of the parts, the whole piece has a remarkable coherence and sense of purpose.

The second half of the album opens with the excellent Glass Museum, probably the most obviously post-rock track in their early output. Dave Pajo's guitar is the dominant instrument, backed by vibes, and the effect is a beautiful, shimmering piece of music that calls to mind the shoal of fish on the cover. The following couple of tracks continue to explore similar territory - A Survey is dominated by bass, while The Taut And The Tame features some almost straightforward rock drumming - but nothing new is added to what has gone before. Dear Grandma and Grandpa is a dark, slightly sinister ambient composition which shows their studio wizardry. The final track, Along The Banks Of Rivers, emerges from the gloom and reprises the ideas in Glass Museum, this time played with a slow, aching beauty, and this brings the album to a strong conclusion.

Millions Now Living Will Never Die is an ideal introduction to Tortoise, and despite the slight dip in the middle of the second half of the album it is an extremely strong piece of work which still holds up well a decade after it was originally released. If you can, pick up the Japanese release which features 3 bonus tracks including the gorgeous, acoustic guitar led Gamera.

When everyone thought rock had nothing more to offer, Tortoise appeared with their debut album, and specially this album, "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". "Here it is. Our contribute to a new breath, a new rock" they would say. A kind of music which rejected every stereotype created by rock so far, yet formally imbued in it's architecture. Whilst being melodic, melody per se was rejected. Every instrument was born to paint, to texture, to create images. Notes were just vehicles to atmospheres. A kind of feeling already embraced softly by Slint, even Talk Talk, some years earlier, but here materialized definitely.

The monstrous "Djed" is the album's centerpiece, its inconspicuous beauty relies in recreating an introspective journey which can belong to anyone, fit in everything, while not being nothing at the same time. It starts with a joyful tune around an imposing hypnotic riff, with bass and organ praising it together, along with some electronic details adding a comfortable strangeness. The journey growingly becomes layered and layered, submerging in a evolving jam of vibes, and then into a constellation of ubiquitous space noises and memorable vibes, almost as if we were disintegrated from this world. The track ends in the apparent peace of its beginning, as if we had found what we were looking for. Rest of the album flow very well with some outstanding moments. "Glass Museum" reaches beautiful levels of subtlety between the dreamy atmospheres and an interlude of sonic vibe power, while the nostalgic "Along the Banks of Rivers" ends the album in a painful serenity.

This is an historical album for rock music. Post-Rock was born. Rock was definitely progressive again. By the 90's finals, this was, for the most skeptical minds, the imposing manifest that progressive rock was not dead.

This was not at all what I was expecting. I kept saying to myself "This is a Post-Rock band ?" Anyway the music is laid back with a lot of minimalism, and very little in the way of outbreaks.

The first track "Djed" is almost 21 minutes long and recalls Krautrock of a bye-gone day. It opens with assorted sounds and subtle bass lines. We get a guitar melody for a minute before drums arrive 2 1/2 minutes in. A keyboard line joins in as well. After 10 minutes the bass stops and we get some organ play. There is a short break as vibes, percussion, electronic drums and some annoying sounds all take part in the second half of this song. This is the epic track but definetly not one of the better ones in my opinion. "Glass Museum" is my favourite track on this album. A laid back soundscape with crisp drumming treats our ears for the first 2 minutes, then we get a brief section of guitar sounds and keys with no real melody. This atmospheric passage ends, then 3 1/2 minutes in we get an uptempo melody for the first time on the record. The soundscape from the beginning returns a minute later. Nice.

"A Survey" is almost 3 minutes of bass sounds mostly. A tough listen. "The Taut And Tame" has a good beat as drums are prominant in this uptempo, catchy tune. There is a guitar melody that comes and goes. There is almost a Jazz element to this one later on. Good song. "Dear Grandma And Grandpa" has a dreamy intro and we can hear samples of a child talking. Percussion sounds take over. "Along The Banks Of Rivers" is my third favourite. It's like I can hear the melody that is being played and like a shadow a similar melody follows. This is a slow paced tune with keys and guitar leading the way.

I like this cd, it just doesn't reach the levels of many of the Post-Rock albums I have, still I have to offer up the fourth star for this significant recording.

This American post-Rock band, as the whole genre more or less, seems to be either praised by fans or ignored be everyone else, or most likely, not heard of. It would often be useful to have one shamelessly straight review by a non-connoisseur to give perspective of how the music in question would work for the majority. In other words, as long as the genre is not against one's tastes for starters (as Metal or Rap would be for me), to wander around in unfamiliar genres as a listener and also as a reviewer is only positive. Naturally these 'newcomer' reviews aren't much of use for connoisseurs, but they might be closer to the taste of all the others. What comes to me, Post-Rock probably isn't my promised land, but I'm still willing to get to know it better despite disappointments like this one.

I have now listened to two Tortoise albums. To me they have a notable difference in appeal, and yet the one - talking of this one - that I find terribly boring and worse in every way has slightly better rating here, and that confuses me. I couldn't get beyond boredom except for 'Glass Museum' which has more life; there the vibes come upfront and put some groove in it. A bit like Amarok, or something else with vibes, by Mike Oldfield. The serene closing track 'Along the Banks of Rivers' is the other track I liked enough for taping. For most of this album's music I came to think of the saying "as exciting as watching the paint to dry". It may be skillful and sophisticated but it misses the something to reach my emotions. Something is missing. The opener is 21 minutes long, yaaawn! OK, maybe it's always better to get cold images by music than no images at all; I saw this music as a modern house with minimalistic design and furnitures, all very clean and hi-tech but not very cosy. Where is the occupant? Where is the beef?

Relaxing minimalist post-rock.

TORTOISE were one of the pioneering bands of post-rock and they display some great experimentation and interesting influences in this great album. The music is entirely instrumental and is quite diverse in terms of instrumentation, there is some great vibraphone usage, the drumming is super tight and interesting, the bass does a lot of lead work and the guitar is usually quite clean and twangy. The synth and studio created effects and melodies though provide many of the highlights of the album creating subtle backdrops and variations and providing most of the more melodic elements of the music.

The 20 minute opening track Djed is a clear highlight from the get go with some great kraut influenced super-tight drumming, I especialy like the flanged high-hat sound, it is adds to the washy flowing feel of the song, the bass is great too it's constant and minimal with slight variations every now and then and the synth adds to the mix creating a lovely summery laid back feel. The ending is great too I'm a big fan of the vibes. Due to the minimalist nature of the music all the songs feel kind of intertwined so it's hard to pick out other highlights but 'dear grandma and grandpa deserves special mention', it's a great symphonic song featuring mostly synth and effected percussion and it invokes some great emotion.

Overall 'Millions now living will never die' is a very soothing and relaxing post-rock album recommended to any post-rock fan or anyone in need of some good chillout music.

The name of this modest but challenging Chicago ensemble first crossed my radar while I was surfing the Krautrock pages (now re-edited) here at Prog Archives, where they were name-checked alongside the retro-kraut indie band Stereolab. That was enough to pique my interest, especially after learning that the 1997 Stereolab album "Dots and Loops" was in large part a collaboration between the two groups.

It's true that Tortoise shares a similar affection for pre-digital electronics and the occasional cool lounge vibe (imagine an early '70s German rock band playing music for a chic Italian movie from the 1960s). But elsewhere the all-instrumental music of Tortoise is harder to classify, seeming to exist in its own self- contained and calm little universe, where everybody likes to play bass guitar and tuned percussion.

Their second studio album, released in 1996 under an evocative title better suited to fellow post-rockers EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, may be the band's most overtly Krautrock-influenced effort to date. The epic opening track "Djed" (named after an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic representing stability) in particular recalls the classic grooves of Mobius and Roedelius (aka CLUSTER), or NEU! in their quieter moments. And with a running time close to 21-minutes it's certainly the most ambitious composition (in a very subdued sort of way) ever attempted by the band.

But the sheer length of this one piece unbalances the entire album, by overshadowing the five shorter tracks rounding out the disc. Each is excellent in its own way, and together establish what might be a new form of ambient rock: not quite what anyone would call minimalist, but close. This is music that can be just as pleasant to ignore as it is to hear, but closer attention will reward patient listeners willing to stretch their concentration a little.

I really have no idea what to make of this album. This was one of the first and only albums I picked up because of the name alone, kind of like RPWL’s ‘God Has Failed’ (and it should be noted that RPWL didn’t make a particularly strong case for their argument). I still don’t know exactly what this album’s title means except to say that it’s probably a religious reference of some sort as well. Or maybe not.

Considering this came out around the same time as GY!BE’s ‘F# A# ∞” and is also considered post-rock I sort of expected something in a similar vein. Not that Godspeed necessarily set the bar for what a post-rock band should be, although it’s as good a starting point as any. But these guys are not at all like that, and I’m not even sure they strictly fit the post-rock definition. There’s a fair amount of jazz leaning in these tracks, and also an awful lot of electronica in the form of sequenced loops, synthesizers and other unidentifiable but definitely digital sounds. Even the harpsichord is electric.

And there are no slowly building arrangements that erupt in an explosion like Godspeed and their ilk, or relentless guitar drone like Explosions in the Sky or feedback excess like Bark Psychosis or Flying Saucer Attack. No inebriated endless noodling like Set Fire to Flames, and no deranged strings like Mogwai. Instead the band comes off as some sort of Krautrock-inspired electronica project that sounds more like something out of the mid eighties than a late nineties band. The closest comparison I can think of in this genre is Sigur Rós, and particularly because both bands are pretty laid-back and both project an overwhelming feeling of water and gentle waves. Not sure why.

Don’t get me wrong, the musicianship is superb, and each of the quintet is an accomplished virtuoso on the many instruments each of them plays. But there doesn’t seem to be much point to most of these tracks, even the twenty-minute plus “Djed” that actually sounds like four or five songs strung together by a bass line and not much else. This track takes up half the album and the rest of the tunes pale by comparison in both breadth and variety. The guitar bits on “Along the Banks of the River” remind me of an eighties Don Henley album, and while “The Taut and Tame” starts off with promising energy it quickly turns into a fusion-like sampler that leaves me bored rather quickly.

The one song that is a bit intriguing is the brief, dark “Dear Grandma and Grandpa” with its spooky percussion and watery mood that makes for an attention-grabbing interlude between the two aforementioned tracks. But a three minute composition isn’t enough to push this album to a high mark, and in the end I’m left feeling a bit disappointed and inexplicably depressed to boot.

Tortoise have their fans, and I’m sure this was a pivotal album for some of them. But for me this is a bit too staid and refined to be interesting, and I find myself pressed to give it even three stars. My apologies to any of the band’s fans that may be offended, but this one just doesn’t do anything for me.

peace

"Millions Now Living Will Never Die" is the second full-length studio album by US post-rock act Tortoise. The album was released through Thrill Jockey in January 1996. It´s the successor to the eponymously titled debut album from June 1994.

The music on the album is atmospheric, slow building, and often features repetitive grooves (not unlike 70s krautrock groups like Neu!, Can, and early Kraftwerk). Drums, bass, marimba/vibraphones, organ, and occasionally guitars are elements of the soundscape, as well as various types of electronic effects. The album opens with the 20 minutes long "Djed". This particular track is in full krautrock mode. Although 20 minutes long it´s not that the composition features many different sections (about five or six different ones during the playing time) but it never gets too repetitive and most of the sections are either powerful, intriguing, or atmopsheric in nature and as a listener you are entertained all the way through the long instrumental track. I especially enjoy the what I hear as the third section of the song where the drums shift in rhythm and the bass comes in after a lenghty break. Very powerful section with a great dark mood. The marimba on "Glass Museum and Along the Banks of Rivers" provides the music with a lounge jazzy touch that´s soothing to the ears and in the case of the latter I´m reminded of some of Angelo Badalamenti´s work on David Lynch movie soundtracks. "A Survey" and "Dear Grandma and Grandpa" are shorter tracks and a bit more ambient in nature. A highlight here is "The Taut and Tame", which is a great rhythmic track.

Tortoise are a well playing unit and it´s obvious that these guys have a musical vision beyond just playing rock standards, and that they pursue that vision with all they´ve got. "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" features a powerful, organic, and well sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly. Some of the standout features of the sound are the dominant bass and the dry snare drum sound. To my ears "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" is a step forward from the debut album and it´s a high quality sophomore studio album by Tortoise. Like most other releases by the band there are times when the music becomes a little repetitive and ends up being pleasant background muzak, but I´d say "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" is one of the band´s most interesting releases where that feeling occurs very rarely. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

I can't believe how this site underrates the great masterpieces of rock that happen to have some prog elements too. This is one of them, along with many others (Before And After Science, Unhalfbricking, The Downward Spiral, The Hangman's beautiful Daughter, just to mention a few. ) To whoever doesn't know this band, please don't look at the total rating here on PA, creating for sure a sort of prejudice. This album is essential, one of the best albums of the 90's, and not only of prog albums.So please, consider this album and listen to it, and, if you keep an open mind, you'll love it for sure.

The album starts with the absolutely brilliant "Djed", one of the best post rock songs ever. After the lazy and minimalist intro, played with the bass guitar and accompanied by what seems to be some shooting or tossing sounds, The real song begins, a sort of perfect mixture between jazz, electronic, post rock, with a little bit of trip hop. Definitely the albums highlight, since it also stretches to twenty epic minutes.

"Glass Museum" is a fantastic song, with many indie rock influences, since it's very melodic and very melancholic,as well as post rock and jazz influences (beautiful the use of the vibraphone). Excellent riff, it's one of those songs that are perfect to follow a huge and epic suite such as "Djed"

" A Survey" is played exclusively with the bass guitar. It's a very interesting and original song, as well as minimalistic, and kind of creepy, since the bass isn't a particularly "loud" instrument, and the tones are dark and mysterious.Particularly underrated.

"The Taut And The Tame" is another fantastic song, much more enlivened than the other pieces The song has a very basic riff, played with bass, vibraphone and guitar, but the arrangements that surround and change the riff are sublime and very fascinating,

"Dear Grandma And Grandpa" is yet another great song, with a melancholic intro, while the rest of the song is very creepy, thanks to all the effects that the band uses. With "The Taut And The Tame", it's the most experimental and original song of the album.

"Along The River Banks" is one of the best closers ever. The guitar riff, which is just a few notes (not even chords), is very melancholic and solitaire sounding, all followed by some jazzy drums. Very is practically no vibraphone, which makes even more melancholic.

A terrific album, a masterpiece that can hardly be stumped, a huge event in the history of music, being one of the most important post rock albums ever, even though PA members seem to see this otherwise. Oh, and it's one of my favorite albums of all time.

Second official album, MNLWND is a bit of a departure on the previous TNT (but that one was also a departure on the s/t debut), but still distinctly remain post-rock with that special Tortoise feel. Compared to the debut album, the line-up remains constant, except for David Pajo replacing Bunky Brown and the "fishy" artwork probably hints at the title immortal promise, but I don't see much a link with the music present on the six tracks, including the 21-mins Djed track that opens the album. Difficult to describe this track other than electro-pop krautrock, somewhere between Harmonia, Cluster and early Kraftwerk, but there is a whole lot more to it than that, even though its mostly synth-driven. Glass Museum resumes the more standard post-rock with the typically Tortoise vibraphones. The intrusive drums are certainly not the Tame part of the Taut track, but they do contribute in ruining it at grandma's expense with has an Art Of Noise feel, but little else going for it. Whatever few Grandpa had is leading the closing Riverbank's stroll to fish whatever fish that won't die.

Over the course of the whole album, the balance tips in favour of the synth-driven music, which not only annihilates the group's usual musical propos, but it doesn't really sound anything more than ambient and will probably push you into the arms of Morpheus for a snooze. And unless you're an insomniac, you'd better stay away from this dud.

The second album from this Chicago outfit, their debut from 1994 being one of the first albums to be described as "post-rock". That first album may have been the closest Tortoise came to sounding like most post-rock. Here they continue the experimentation and you can hear influences from Krautrock, IDM and light fusion. The bass is important and you can often hear more than one bass playing at the same time. The drumming and keyboards are also important. While there is guitar, it is never a leading instrument. Oh, yes, lots and lots and mallet percussion(xylophone, vibraphone) as well. No singing, but some vocal samples.

The music is very diverse and is hard to describe acurately. Generally laid-back, but there are some energenic moments. Lots of electronics but not necessarily electronica. Tortoise were influenced by just about anything that wasn't punk or metal from the 1960s-90s. When this came out I had no internet access and had never heard of these guys anywhere. That was a time when I was convinced that all new music sucked. Thanks to the internet, I finally discovered this great unique group. I was convinced that if you wanted to hear good new music, you had to go looking for it yourself.

The album, which has a great title obviously, starts with the best 21 minutes in post- rock... "Djed". Of course, this epic sounds almost nothing like most post-rock. And it's all the better for it. It opens with electronics and basses. Later organ, then drums and bass play a very 'motorik' groove. After some jazzy electric piano joins in. Electric piano and drums change to a bass heavy dub vibe. One bass is still playing the 'motorik' line. After a bunch of synth sounds. Then electronic percussion sounds get slowed down. An organ comes in and plays melodic repeated figures. Some melodic bass and then xylophones. Before 14 minutes you hear a tape speed altering effect where the music gets paused and unpaused. Trippy when you hear it for the first time.

Electronic effects then dominate for awhile before the music becomes ambient techno. Synths making odd noises and then xylophones join in. The last two minutes or so is a slow hip-hop beat with some melodic bass playing. Great stuff! The rest of the album unfortunately does not live up to that standard. But they are great songs nonetheless. "Glass Museum" stays in a mid-tempo pace where guitar and drums mostly dominate for awhile. Then drums stop and an atmospheric section. Goes back to the mid- tempo part then all of a sudden changes to a more aggressive and rocking part played in 11/8. Good xylophone work and drumming here. Goes back to the mid-tempo section to end it.

"A Survey" is mostly two basses duelling with crickets chirping in the background. Almost reminds me of Primus. "The Taut And Tame" starts with electronic percussion type sounds. Then guitars, bass and xylophone join in. The music stops and then the band comes back playing around a guitar riff. The song changes again to a mellow jazz-rock vibe. Cool guitar sound during this part. Goes back to the beginning section. "Dear Grandma And Grandpa" is an IDM("Intelligent Dance Music") piece. You hear a woman whose voice is altered talking. All kinds of synth sounds and noises can be heard. Later you hear a man talking from a TV set or radio. That song then segues into... "Along The Banks Of Rovers" which sounds like music from a 1960s spy movie. A mellow light jazzy post-rock song. Nice synth which starts in the middle and continues till near the end.

This would be a good introduction to this group. The sound of Tortoise is hard to describe and no two albums sound alike. Millions... is a classic post-rock album although it sounds very little like most post-rock. Instrumental experimental rock music rarely got better than this in the 1990s. Almost a classic but not quite. 4 stars.

Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die presents a bass-heavy, tranquil and intriguing post-rock sound which would come to have a profound influence on the nascent sub-genre, radically expanding the territory of post-rock from that staked out by Talk Talk in years past. The opening epic Djed combines jazz, dance music, krautrock and electronic influences into an intriguing mixture which forms the bedrock of a fascinating 21 minute epic which proved that post-rock could achieve great things in such a format, whilst the following material provides a similar musical trip in more bite-sized chunks. Produced and mixed impeccably, with some inspired choices in the mix in particular (such as bring the bass sound to the fore), based on the other Tortoise albums I've heard I'd say they've never bested it.

Defying classification and making me wonder if these guys are truly post-rock or just eclectic, MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE is indeed a magnificent piece of work which catapulted TORTOISE into the consciousness of post-rock lovers and the music world in general. They are truly unique and this 2nd album will leave you wondering what you just heard leaving trails of post-rock, krautrock, electronica, minalmist or jazz. The truth is that they are all of the above only strewn together in a way that is simultaneously pleasant and unexpected.

This album has a heavy bass which is most commonly heard in hip hop but in this context it adds a nice sub-sound that makes your speakers resonate in a most pleasant way. Basically all I can say about this album is that it delivers in a most satisfying way. It takes you somewhere completely unexpected and makes you wonder what you just listened to. Repeated listenings only add a sense of appreciation as they make you admire the mixings of styles that made this particular album come into fruition. I can totally understand why this album is considered one of the cornerstones of post-rock following the footsteps of Talk Talk. Although it seems like it's in a category of its own, it really does progress the post-rock sound by adding a myriad of influences. Highly recommended.