Tortoise had a nice run as the progenitors and kings of post-rock, having all but created the genre with their self-titled album in 1994, evolving and making surprising turns from there. When some members moved out of their Chicago home base for the West Coast and everyone was getting more heavily involved in other projects, we all just assumed that 2016’s The Catastrophist was the end of the line for this band.
Well, it isn’t. On this day, (September 9, 2025), the far-flung quintet announced a brand-new set of recordings. Touch (International Anthem) will drop in the fall of 2025, and while they’re now all well into their middle-aged years, they don’t seem to have lost any of their youthful itch to make music that vaguely sounds a lot of familiar styles but doesn’t definitively sound like anything before.
Now spread out between Chicago, L.A. and Portland, Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, John McEntire, and Jeff Parker overcame distance and other obligations to put together fresh tunes recorded at these three cities. The new release and an international tour starting October 18th (in Los Angeles) is the culmination of the unexpected comeback, which started in March when they dropped a new, one-off track “Ogenession.” They followed that up with an EP of that song with different remixes and performing on opening night at the Big Ears Festival later that month. By then, we all had the sense a whole new album was coming, and today they confirmed it.
The Mikel Patrick Avery-directed lead single “Layered Presence” (above) is a strong indicator that the fire still burns. A retro-futuristic groove that characteristically puts no band member out in front of the other, still mastering the art of crafting a truly singular and well-integrated collective sound, and making that its main feature.
Touch will be out on physical/digital media on October 24 and streaming on November 11. Pre-order/order it from Bandcamp.
*** Tortoise CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Skerik, “Air Garden” from ‘SKERIK 0610725’: Something Else! sneak peek - March 11, 2026
- Luis Nacht and Camila Nebbia, “Me Condiciona el Nombre” (2026): Something Else! video premiere - March 5, 2026
- Bellbird, “Firefly Pharology” from ‘The Call’ (2026): Something Else! video premiere - February 2, 2026
