Customer Reviews

Millions Now Living Will Never Die

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had read many reviews on Millions Now Living Will Never Die before purchase and realized that Tortoise were darlings of the critics. As a bit of a fan of what has now generally been termed 'post rock' I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.
MNLWND lived up to not only my expecations, but also the hype. It's a gentle experimental journey that hasn't dated in the 10-odd years since it's original release.
Devoid of vocals it has soundtracked many a sunny afternoon with friends, be warned though, at one point it sounds like your CD player is malfunctioning before the beautiful music continues.
We may not see their like again. Vale Tortoise.

i'll try to be concise, so let me first say that my introduction to Tortoise was seeing them live at Bonnaroo 07. they were great! i loved every minute of it. i had never heard them before, and my friend said that he was recommended by a friend to see them. they jammed and sounded great.
that being said, i am almost disappointed by this album. it has its moments, but seems to be mostly just noodling, meandering, just in-between time until some sort of groove takes shape. i had heard "glass museum" purely by chance on a friend's mix cd, only to discover that it was Tortoise upon hearing them play it live! this song is definitely one of the highlights on this album, yet unfortunately is only about 4 or 5 minutes. the first song is not so great as an introduction as it is lengthy and monotonous without too much change or even discernible groove or melody. it's not nearly as interesting as other parts of this album.
but you know, i'm not Tortoise scholar (or jazz-fusion scholar) so don't take my word for it. don't get me wrong, i think Tortoise is a great band and does some cool stuff. but as i said, i really expected more from this album. maybe this is just weaker than their later albums. it's worth a listen, but don't expect to be blown away. it might not even be interesting enough to keep going back to for continued listening.

Overlooked in favor of the also brilliant TNT but this one is deeper. Brilliant, evocative. Just an incredible journey from an amazing band at their peak. Highest recommendation.

Looks like they have a decent selection of Tortoise albums over at the MP3 downloads, but not this one. Why not? Just an oversight or are we going to have to bribe some dumb record exec to get the rights? This is a great album, let's get access!

Tortoise is a strange but appealing jazz/rock noise. At times, it's a bit like the Stranglers circa 'Rattus Norvegicus' only without the leering, unsubtle sexism. It's clattering trad boogie with haunting keyboard flourishes.
You've gotta move a little at least, and those who can afford strong narcotics during this stifling credit crunch can undoubtedly dance the whole oblivious night away to it.

The opening number is 'Djed' ("aaarrrgggh!!!" - Ess' long-suffering spell-checker.) which runs twenty odd (very odd - © Review Cliché . Com) minutes, but doesn't lose a second of interest and contains bossy bass soloing.
'A Survey' is calmer Wire, while 'the Taut and Tame' (nice ambiguity there lads..) whistles and whirrs all over the disc in frantic fashion - face-rippingly savage guitar and aneurism-inducing percussion clambering for prominence.

Although 'MNLWND' is descended from bizarre-but-good experimental hippy stuff like Comus and the Peach Orchard, it sounds fresh and unfamiliar - and despite utilising jazz stalwarts like xylophone and glockenspiel, you don't ever get a sense of deja-vu.
It's a resolute, original music, beautifully realised and presented with wit and studied elegance.

The Amazon Tortoise page is good too. Really sardonic.
Alongside this fine release is 'The Tortoise and the Jackrabbit' by Susan Lowell and another book rather condescendingly advocating 'Beginning Vivarium Systems' (sounds subversive!) by a bloke called Russ.(!) Yeah, I won't be taking his word on anything, least of all tortoises.

"Looking for tortoise products?" it asks helpfully - I half expected to see 'ragout' come up (!)

Originally released in 1996, as this was the experimental jazz-rock five piece's second CD. Pretty much as good as it's follow-up 'TNT'. The opener, twenty-one minute epic "Djed" is the best track this disc has to offer - hands down. Couple other notable cuts I was sort of impressed with were "Glass Museum" and "Along The Banks Of The River". Should appeal to fans of Sea And Cake, Cul De Sac, Trans Am, Isotope 217 and maybe Soft Machine.