Description
Isotope 217 is an all-star line up of musicians, and as described in Pitchfork “this five-piece boasts members from a slew of seminal bands””. The members are Dan Bitney (Tortoise), John Herndon (Tortoise, Exploding Star Orchestra), and Jeff Parker (New Horizons Ensemble, Chicago Underground Orchestra, Tortoise) along with Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Exploding Star Orchestra), and Matt Lux (Iron & Wine). The music itself is as complex and varied as it’s members, many of whom had worked together in other groups before their 1997 debut, The Unstable Molecule, but The Wire describes it as such “Drawing from free jazz, hard bop, funk, dub and post-rock, without resulting in some featureless muddle or lifeless ‘fusion’, the group’s aesthetic simultaneously recalls different aspects of early 70s musical experimentation: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bitches Brew/On the Corner-era Miles Davis, and vintage King Tubby. Isotope 217 don’t merely assemble these diverse elements in one place, but rather explore the common ground that already underlies them: a shared emphasis on texture, timbre, space, and groove. Originally, available only on CD, this is only the second time it has been available on vinyl, since a limited run celebrating it’s 20th anniversary sold out.
