7 Tortoise Standards THRILL JOCKEY, 2001

You say: “The opening of Seneca, with those huge chords and drum break, feels like the purest possible distillation of rock music.” Ed Gillett, via Twitter

The fourth Tortoise album does indeed begin with a molten rock set-piece; a Jeff Parker solo that echoes Hendrix’s Star-Spangled Banner – somewhat fitting for a record with a digitally distressed American flag on its cover. Soon enough though, Seneca – and Standards in general – moves into glitchy, micro-detailed electronic zones, with the live instrumentation sliced and diced into ever more punchy textures. John McEntire’s contemporaneous work producing Stereolab is a good analogue. Amid much high-end tricksiness, the tunes are still great: witness Blackjack, perhaps their greatest stab at an imaginary John Barry spy theme.