Tortoise: Standards

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

Heard of post-rock? If so, and you haven't heard any, Standards comes recommended as the post-rock album you don't have to like post-rock to like.

The latest from the Chicago quintet is a neatly intriguing, mish-mash of instrumental rock shot through with lopsided grooves, dreamy drones, not-quite-jazz percussion and vibes, and knob-twiddling electronica rubbing up against a junk-store of old instruments - all of which somehow emerges as an accessible, tuneful, structured affair. The likes of Eros or Monica could be Daft Punk covering Zappa; there's a spacerock-meets-lounge niftiness to Six Pack, and Eden 2 fair throbs with askew-funkiness And, while taking that all in, you could always ponder why the first word on the back of the near impenetrable liner notes is "Waihopai," the name of our own electronic spy base ....

(Spunk Records/Festival)