Tortoise's blending of dub, electronica and jazz over its two decades in existence has established the instrumental five-piece as the band that brought progressive rock into the present.
Yet 2009's "Beacons of Ancestorship" sees the Chicago-based band, which will appear in Japan for two shows next week in Tokyo and Osaka, going in a different direction.
"Beacons," the band's sixth full-length, is much harder to pin down compared to its predecessor, the almost ambient "It's All Around You" (2004) — and that was entirely deliberate.