8 Directions Directions In Music THRILL JOCKEY, 1996

You say: “Explores ideas only hinted at in Tortoise: majestic, major-key jams, studio cut-and-paste collages, pre-Pullman campfire acoustic ditties and even an Allman Brothers homage.” Jonathan Cohen, via Twitter Although he left soon after their first album, arriving in the band with John McEntire via their scholarships in Bastro and Gastr Del Sol, Bundy K Brown has a critical place in Tortoise lore. His own band, Directions, made a kind of organic dance music that streamlined post-rock’s intricacies; cyclical grooves, disparately informed by folk and choogle, that could have rolled on forever. Also: Directions’ 1997 Echoes 12-inch upgrades the formula to incorporate zingy, jazz-inflected beat science, and inspired a generation of producers like Four Tet in the process.