As with David Holmes, I first heard Tortoise when Gill played me an album of theirs — not sure if it was this one — in the office. And again, although I liked it more or less immediately, it was several years before I bought myself a copy. Two things swung it for me in 2002: one was that Tim rather surprisingly developed a fascination with Tortoise and particularly praised this album; the other, inevitably, was that it was a fiver in Fopp.
What I liked about it originally was that it sounded like a rock band, but they were doing things normally only done outside rock. I guess that's why it was bound to be called 'post-rock', huh? Parts of Ten-Day Interval sound like they've been lifted straight from Steve Reich, while Four-Day Interval could be Cluster.
I never became as keen on Tortoise as Tim, however. Until I saw them live in 2003 I couldn't have told you why, but that experience (as mentioned previously) showed up how dry their approach is — very little humour or energy of any kind coming from the stage. Too much post in their post-rock. I found myself wishing they'd take a leaf out of the book of a contemporary classical ensemble like the Michael Nyman Band.
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