Digest Compendium [Import]

Tortoise | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 21, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Phantom Sound & Visi
• ASIN: B0000074IH
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,638 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tin Cans and Twine

2. Tin Cans and Twine [Puerto Rican Mix]

3. Alcohall

4. Night Air

5. Gooseneck

6. Onions Wrapped in Rubber

7. Spiderwebbed

8. Cobnebbed

9. Your New Rod

10. Ry Cooder (The Beer Incident)

11. Not Quite East of the Ryan

12. Resevior

13. Cornpone Brunch

14. Whitewater

15. Initial Gesture Protraction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hard to "Digest", November 23, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digest Compendium (Audio CD)

Compilations are always tricky things -- there's no flow, and the quality is often very uneven. Tortoise's ambient experimental music has always been pleasant to listen to, but tossed together in "Digest Compendium of the Tortoise's World," the music just seems chaotic.

Most of the songs are pulled from their first two albums, contributing songs like the trippy folk "Spiderwebbed" and the hollow ghostly "Onions Wrapped in Rubber." While these early songs still show the rough edges of a beginning band, they are fairly listenable.

And there are some less-than-worthy extra tracks, such as the meandering "Cobnebbed," whose pretty ambience is marred by crackles and a lack of direction, or "Ry Cooder (The Beer Incident)," a twelve-minute track that spends its first three minutes on unintelligible babble and beer-related noises. By the time the music arrives, it's hard to care.

Tortoise is not the hardest band to "get" -- sure, they're not mainstream pop or generic rock, but they're not too out there. Unfortunately, if you can understand "Compendium" at all, it takes far longer than it should take to absorb a single album.

Tortoise's musical talents do shine through here and there, in sonic quirks and soothing ambience that crop up here and there. But the songs are at best a beginner's middle-level work, at worst a boring distraction. Their extra tracks sound like discarded B-sides, only pulled back in to make the album worth buying at all.

The percussion and muffled beats are fairly well-done, accentuated by clanking cans and shuddery sound effects. Sometimes the instrumentation sticks to the soothing monotony of ambient music, while in songs like "Spiderwebbed" there is something that approximates an actual acoustic tune on guitar.

"Digest Compendium of the Tortoise's World" sounds relatively mellow and innocuous, but leaves you with absolutely no impression once it's over. A less than satisfying collection.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tortoise wins the race, June 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Digest Compendium (Audio CD)

This album deserves worthy praise as does all of Tortoise' work. The music is layered and complex and should be listened to over and over again. If you own later Tortoise albums this is a must, a sort of catch all of their early work. A mix between dub and jazz, analog and digital this instrumental album is either ambient or illbient depending on mood. Buy it and enjoy.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 2.6 ... staring, January 7, 2002

By 

old_hyperbolic_squiggly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digest Compendium (Audio CD)

If you listen to this in a white, unfurnished room consecutively, on the 722nd listen something new will *click*, grab you and hurl you into another dimension! And if you stare at a comb long enough, it'll start to dance! Oh, but seriously now, there are heaps of artists dizzying themselves at making the next minimal+complex ooo-ahh. Squeeze aural soundwaves at every tangency and, with a few right punches, some can integrate those curves into all kinds of reminiscent, methodical or primal emotional juices. Tortoise has a few interesting moments on this Compendium, but it's nothing to get all worked up about. I haven't felt the need to grab any of their music since. I stretch in yet another direction, but am again lost to my wearied circles of the same few ingrained favorites whose originality have long since become commonplace. Most 'new' music in recent years feel like dump trucks. Where's it at? Old Björk and IDM have certainly spoiled us music-loving brats.