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Avg: 4.0 (368 ratings)
- Date Released: January 30, 1996
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Electronic Experimental, Indie Rock, Alternative Experimental, Post-Rock
- Label: Thrill Jockey
The building blocks of post-rock
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We Say...
Many regard this as Tortoise's classic, a cornerstone of "post-rock." After they transformed rock with their self-titled debut by stressing texture and rhythm over speed and melody, Tortoise were ready to deconstruct themselves. Moving from dub's analogue trickery to the digital cut-and-paste methods of hip-hop and electronic music, Millions sets fascinating fragments into jarring juxtapositions.
The centerpiece of the album (titled after an obscure Jehovah's Witnesses book about the rapture) is the side-long, 20-minute "Djed," whose title seems a tribute to turntablism's shard-and-reassemble impulse. From King Tubby-esque crashes to a motorik groove, the track moves through four distinct sections. By the end, the entire song has imploded, and the original theme reappears, half-speed and seemingly underwater. The rest of the album surprises equally in its extremes: the delicately shuddering "Dear Grandma and Grandpa" pulls itself out of the ether, while the furious tempo and textural changes of "A Survey" point to the band's continuing experiments. -
They Say...
Tortoise's production expertise hit an early peak with Millions Now Living Will Never Die, a work that not only references studio-centric forms like dub and electronica, but actively welds them to the group's aesthetic of sturdily constructed indie rock. The centerpiece is the 21-minute opener "Djed," a multi-part track which brought Tortoise's already impressive compositional abilities to a grand scale. It's almost a history of influences in miniature, first referencing tape music and dub for several minutes, then moving on to Krautrock with a chugging section incorporating wheezing organ and understated guitar chords. Halfway through, the band takes on minimalism with repeating figures of organ and vibes, then return to the green fields of their debut with a final few minutes of moody indie rock (though even this is spiced with a scratchy rhythm and various noise effects). With "Djed," Tortoise made experimental rock do double duty as evocative, beautiful music. The other songs on Millions Now Living are hardly afterthoughts, though; highlights "Glass Museum" and "The Taut and Tame" display the band quickly growing out of the angular indie rock ghetto with exquisite music, constructed with more thought and played with more emotion, than any of their peers.
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| 01. |  |
Djed |
20:57 |
|
| 02. | |
Glass Museum |
5:27 |
|
| 03. | |
A Survey |
2:52 |
|
| 04. | |
The Taut And Tame |
5:02 |
|
| 05. | |
Dear Grandma And Grandpa |
2:49 |
|
| 06. | |
Along The Banks Of The Rivers |
5:50 |
|
06 Total Tracks, 42:57 Total Length
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