Horns: The Long Tomorrow

Tied & Tickled Trio: The Long Tomorrow

[purchase]

In the late 90s, to talk about the many bands operating in Chicago was really to talk about maybe ten guys playing in multiple iterations. Tortoise was the central axis, with the Sea & Cake, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground Duo, Brokeback, Papa M, and countless others all circling the beast like little parasites. Most of these incarnations were releasing their records on the Thrill Jockey label.

Over in Munich (or thereabouts), the exact same thing was happening in parallel. Substitute the Notwist for Tortoise and ancillary moons Ms. John Soda, Console, Lali Puna, Schneider TM, and the Tied & Tickled Trio. As with the Chicago collective, most of these bands all released records through one label, Morr Music. Brothers Micha and Markus Acher take time from the electronica/rock fusing Notwist to contribute to the electronica/jazz fusing Trio—which by the way is actually a septet, including one member who improvises electronics right alongside the horn players.

"The Long Tomorrow" is the opening track from the 2003 album (and career highlight) Observing Systems. This album is the group's best synthesis of moody electronics within a fully functioning jazz ensemble. 1999's EA1 EA2 and 2001's Electric Avenue Tapes are also great albums, though not as fully realized as this album; last year's Aelita saw the group inexplicably abandon the horn section and move more toward electronica, dub, and ambient, to middling success.