2 out of 5

Label: Thrill Jockey

Produced by: Tortoise (?)

I guess I could bump the rating up here if I took into account the three CD-ROM vids on the single, but I’m not, so I won’t.

Two cuts taken from the ‘Standards’ sessions.  ‘Standards’ is, admittedly, one of my favorite Tortoise discs, probably because it was the first one I bought when it came out and thus got the most listens.  I still think it’s a pretty stunning album, looping through their organic and electronic elements with ease, dropping playful rhythms into cuts that sound more calculated.  Both tracks on ‘Gently’ – Waihopai and Peering – use a similar theme, though Waihopai’s take on it is much more developed than Peering’s poppy, dance-floor-lite version.  But the skill of Waihopai’s mix, which pushes an electronic drumbeat up hills and down valleys as needed, still doesn’t do much to elevate it beyond an easy-listening version of Tortoise, more akin to offshoots like Sea and Cake than the primary outputs of the group.  I can understand why these pieces were left off the disc.  I do think they could be effective interludes, especially when used between more dramatic cuts, but as stand-alones – and especially paired side-by-side – they sound very slight.