Last updated: 3 hours ago
Tortoise is widely considered one of the most influential music groups of the last 40 years, with a wide-reaching impact on the contemporary music scene. Pitchfork says: “Imagine a graphic showing all the bands the five members of Tortoise were in before they came together and then all the bands they went on to play with after. At the top of the funnel you have groups ranging from dreamy psych-rock to earthy post-punk crunch, including Eleventh Dream Day, Bastro, Slint, and the Poster Children; on the 'post-Tortoise' end are groups focusing on electro-jazz and twangy instrumental rock like Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, and Brokeback. In this graphic, Tortoise is the choke point, the one project that has elements of all these sounds but is never defined by nor committed to any of them. Instead, Tortoise floats free, a planchette moving over a Ouija board guided by 10 sets of fingers, where everyone watches the arrow float in one direction but no one is quite sure how it gets there or who is doing the pushing.”
Initially hailed as pace-setters of of an emergent, cinematic instrumental evolution of alternative rock, the Chicago Tribune called Tortoise’s sound “mood music that refuses to be shoved into the background, as inviting as it is challenging.” Releasing just seven albums since 1990, Tortoise has steadily and intuitively evolved across its life, creating genreless music that is as timeless as it is ahead of the curve.
Initially hailed as pace-setters of of an emergent, cinematic instrumental evolution of alternative rock, the Chicago Tribune called Tortoise’s sound “mood music that refuses to be shoved into the background, as inviting as it is challenging.” Releasing just seven albums since 1990, Tortoise has steadily and intuitively evolved across its life, creating genreless music that is as timeless as it is ahead of the curve.
Monthly Listeners
140,929
Monthly Listeners History
Track the evolution of monthly listeners over the last 28 days.
Followers
161,926
Followers History
Track the evolution of followers over the last 28 days.
Top Cities
4,279 listeners
2,137 listeners
2,064 listeners
1,936 listeners
1,867 listeners
Related Artists
SML
Go Kurosawa
Josh Johnson
Roman Norfleet
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio
Cole Pulice
Blue Lake
Chicago Underground Duo
