Bumps

I read about this album a while ago on the Stones Throw website, was pretty intrigued then forgot all about it until this weekend when my lovely local street-date breaking Independent Record Store had it on the shelf. It's basically 3/5 of post-rock legends Tortoise (Dan Bitney, John Herndon and John McEntire) making a breakbeat record, and it's great - I've had it on loop pretty much since purchase.

Although there's some slower, more effect-heavy pieces (none of the tracks are longer than 2 minutes, mind, and most are about 30 seconds-1 minute), largely it's just the sound of Tortoise's indecently talented percussion players cutting loose and producing some mad drumbreaks. There's something about it which makes it sound like an Tortoise album, despite the largely different style - it might be McEntire's production or just my subconscious playing tricks, but there's definite echoes of their previous albums there for me.

Couple of samples:

Bumps - Biotic Discussion (MP3).

Bumps - OK!!! (MP3).

There's more samples at their Myspace and you can buy the album at Amazon and Boomkat (with an excellent little write-up too).