Pullman
Turnstyles & Junkpiles

In my opinion, that's how it happened in the late '90s in Chicago...

In a large open space in the city center, the Tortoise were rehearsing, the ones from Millions Now Living... and TNT. They often met and experimented a lot, amidst all the synths, guitar pedals, electronic drum equipment, two drum sets, etc..
But in my opinion, they also occasionally got really fed up with all that plastic and rhythmic stuff.
I think when the noisy drummers went home, Ken Brown and Doug McCombs would go out for a smoke or a drink, and then sit with their acoustic guitars, play arpeggios, and thoroughly enjoy themselves.
And since they enjoyed it so much, they called some friends, like David Pajo, and put together some songs.

This album is those songs.

Acoustic interweavings, in an album that is entirely acoustic, recorded with two microphones with no frills.
An album not really necessary, let's be clear, more for company, for travel. Far from essential.
Intricate polyphonies that almost never descend into "music to relax," but remain tied to a post-rock sentiment while being combined with the pastoral American acoustic tradition; banjo, mandolin, and slide included.
Then there are also some silly pieces, like the exasperated waltz of Lyasnya, where the members themselves burst out laughing before they start. But also very enjoyable pieces like Two Parts Water or To Hold Down a Shadow. Or like Barefoot, reminiscent of the songwriters of the '70s, so much so that if one of those Joni Mitchell vocalizations started, it would not surprise at all.

And perhaps that's the beauty of the album. That if you listen to it without knowing anything about it, you wouldn't be able to say what's behind it, what year it's from, or where it comes from.
You just listen to it.