Sonic Level: Tortoise - Prepare Your Coffin

That's right: Tortoise earns here 2nd post as the first band that was able to amaze me big time in 2009. In fact, I could blog a dozen of their good efforts, but this one is something special: probably first song ever to completely change my mind after first (false) impression. Being more specific: I was never happy about one of my favourite bands changing it's direction towards electronic music, as they did on 'TNT' and 'Standards' albums. And this year, they've released new CD, 'Beacons of Ancestorship', which pursued that direction and... well, simply convinced me.

At any rate, Tortoise have always been rock band above anything else. They were influenced by jazz, ambient, IDM and whatever you may think of, yet it was essentially guitar groove, what brought them to the heights of art. In 2009, to my entire pleasure, the band rocks again, not pretending like previous experiments never happened, but instead incorporating them as a background (sometimes even leitmotiv) support.

Yes! They'll be touring Poland! Just look at http://www.trts.com/splash.html; they'll come to Gdynia and Poznań on December 7th and 8th. So good to know. Oh, and by the way, I just found out how many side projects this band members have. The Sea and Cake, Isotope 217, Brokeback, Eleventh Dream Day... I wonder what they sound like?

Tortoise - Prepare Your Coffin