Try as they might?and their last album of soporific dinner jazz came close?Tortoise have yet to really tarnish their ice-cool reputation, cemented with 1996โs superb post-rock touchstone, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, as shape-shifting musical modernists. โDjedโ especially, their sublime 21-minute Krautrock meander, displays the Chicago ensembleโs bookish virtuosity, while โAlong The Banks Of Riversโ aches to David Pajoโs maudlin twang. New guitarist Jeff Parker arrives to provide spiralling motifs on 1998โs TNT, a luxurious, laid-back affair through which Tortoise gracefully sashay, guided by editor John McEntire. TNT is a masterpiece: not at all avant-garde, just an hour of wonderful and timeless music.