4 out of 5

Label: Expert Work Records

Produced by: Shane Hochstettler

Tintoretto: in the burgeoning noise / punk scene of the late 90s, Tintoretto emerged from the Midwest, ashes of a previous band reformed and anteing up to the noisy, chaotic sounds coming out of the Kentucky or Texas splinters of the scene. One EP and a split release later – eight songs total – and they were gone, with members continuing on to notable acts like Call Me Lightning, or Haymarket Riot.

20+ years later, Expert Work Records is celebrating this kind of stuff, the local heroes of math rock and hardcore from the early 00s, and why not remaster the entire Tintoretto discography? But then… why not just rerecord it all anew?

“Why not” is still somewhat of a lingering question, but the good news is twofold: all the original band members can still play these complex, loud songs just as brutally a couple decades on, and the songs sound just as fresh and arresting now as I’m sure they would have in 1999 or 2000. And beyond rerecording these songs with bandmember Shane Hochstettler now at the helm, some consideration to the full package has been considered: the songs of 1999’s The Sound Of Someone You Love Who Is Leaving EP are arguably a bit more frantic and boisterous than 2000’s split release, with June of 44 jazzy interplay and a penchant for quieter passages a bit more of an influence in the latter; instead of just doing this up chronologically, Tintoretto 2024 resequences the songs such that it all plays like an album, approximately switching between the two sessions so we vary the tone up as well. That said, even with that nuance Tintoretto is still a very “always on” act, and the entire set can be a bit much to take in. As such, the physical version is recommended, giving you a legit break to flip the LP over.

…However, the digital is definitely recommended since it appends all of the original recordings, which makes for a very fascinating comparison. Because they mostly sound the same.

I mean, not really. The band is absolutely tighter in the modern day, which has its pluses and minuses: there’s definitely something charming to the relative looseness of the older material, and you’re exchanging some of the history now informing the 2024 vocal performances (still shouting, mind you) with the all-out abandon of emotive youth. So it’s raw stuff, and original recordist Eric Atkinson captured it appropriate to that rawness. You then go to Shane’s recording, which is so much meatier and arguably balanced to give the group’s to-11 sound some more atmosphere, and alongside how much more precisely everyone plays, it’s a slightly different vibe.

But besides adding some vocals to interstitial track The End (kind of an odd choice; I dug the instrumental original), and smartly cutting off a coda on I Miss You Miss Me Not which wouldn’t make as much since in the middle of an LP versus the end of an EP, the songs are mostly beat for beat, and as noted, hit just as hard as before. So the rerecording feels more like fun for the band than a necessity; it’s kinda sorta a remix / remaster, it just so happens everyone was around to do their parts over. That’s not to discredit the effort by any means, simply stating my take on its purpose. Whichever way you go, if you’re a fan of hardcore punk – think Breather Resist mixed with some Quarterstick math, then turn all the dials up – this is material that deserves to be heard, whether again or for the first time.