A Lazarus Taxon

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Baltimore City Paper	(favourable) link
Drowned in Sound	(5/10) link
HARP	(favourable) link
Pitchfork Media	(9.2/10) link
The Stranger	link
Stylus	(A) link
Time Out	(4/6) link
URB	link

A Lazarus Taxon is the name of a box set by Chicago post-rock group Tortoise, released in 2006 on the Thrill Jockey label.

The set contains three CDs, one DVD and an accompanying 20-page booklet. The CDs contain 33 tracks of rare material from tour, compilation and non-American releases, the band's out of print 1995 album Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters, which compiled remixes by friends of the band including Steve Albini, Rick Brown, Jim O'Rourke and Brad Wood, and other previously unreleased material including a restored remix by the Minutemen's Mike Watt that was delivered too late for inclusion on Rhythms... and subsequently fell victim to a malfunctioning DAT machine. Tortoise bassist Bundy K Brown himself restored the tape, twelve years after it was recorded.^[1] The DVD contains most of the band's music videos as well as over two hours of "extensive and rare" live performance footage.^[2] The set was compiled by the band themselves.^[3]

The set's title is derived from the palaeontological term "lazarus taxon", meaning a taxon (or grouping of organisms) that disappears from the fossil record only to reappear again at a later point, which in turn refers back to the resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus in the New Testament.

The photography used in the artwork was personally selected by the band from the work of retired Swiss police officer Arnold Odermatt, who became noted for his pictures of accident scenes and police training, often returning to accident scenes he had photographed to shoot them again once they were free of people. Tortoise were given permission to use the pictures from Odermatt himself, and from Berlin's Springer & Winckler Galerie, which first unearthed and promoted the artist's work.

Track listing

All tracks written by Tortoise except where noted.

Disc one

1. "Gamera" – 11:53
2. "The Source of Uncertainty" – 3:42
3. "Blackbird" – 5:01
4. "Sexual For Elizabeth" (Shingo Annen/Dan Bitney/John Herndon/Patrick Johnson/Jon Marshall/Doug McCombs/John McEntire/Jeff Parker) – 4:49
   • Tortoise remix of "Sexual For Elizabeth" by Five Deez
5. "To Day Retrieval" – 3:58
   • Autechre remix of "Ten-Day Interval"
6. "Whitewater" (John McEntire) – 5:07
7. "Didjeridoo" (Duke Ellington) – 4:33
   • Tortoise cover version of a Duke Ellington piece.
8. "Autumn Sweater" (Georgia Hubley/Ira Kaplan/James McNew) – 7:07
   • Tortoise cover version of a Yo La Tengo song
9. "Wait" (Jeff Parker) – 4:27
10. "A Grape Dope" – 4:12
11. "Restless Waters" – 3:41
12. "Vaus" – 5:01
13. "Blue Station" (Doug McCombs/Curtis Roads) – 5:34

Disc two

1. "Madison Area" – 3:27
2. "TNT" – 10:03
   • Nobukazu Takemura remix
3. "Why We Fight" – 4:23
4. "Elmerson, Lincoln, and Palmieri" – 2:39
5. "Peering" – 5:11
6. "Goriri" – 6:40
7. "As You Said" (Ian Curtis/Bernard Sumner/Peter Hook/Steve Morris) – 4:21
   • Tortoise cover version of a Joy Division song
8. "CTA" – 5:07
9. "Deltitnu" – 5:50
10. "Adverse Camber" – 6:00
    • A different Autechre remix of "Ten Day Interval"
11. "Cliff Dweller Society" (Dan Bitney/Bundy K. Brown/Dan Fliegel/John Herndon/Doug McCombs/John McEntire) – 15:23
12. "Waihopai" – 4:13

Disc three

Tracks 1-7 previously issued as Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters (1995)

1. "Alcohall" – 4:03
   • John McEntire remix of "On Noble"
2. "Your New Rod" – 4:18
   • Rick Brown remix of "Flyrod"
3. "Cobwebbed" – 4:38
   • Casey Rice remix of "Spiderwebbed"
4. "The Match Incident" – 5:31
   • Steve Albini remix of "Ry Cooder"
5. "Tin Can Puerto Rican Remix" – 4:24
   • Brad Wood remix of "Tin Cans and Twine"
6. "Not Quite East of the Ryan" – 5:08
   • Bundy K. Brown remix of "Spiderwebbed" plus elements from other tracks
7. "Initial Gesture Protraction" – 4:47
   • Jim O'Rourke remix of "His Second Story Island"
8. "Cornpone Brunch Watt remix" – 4:18
   • Mike Watt remix of "Cornpone Brunch" featuring extra bass guitars by Mike Watt and Kira Roeseler

Disc four (DVD)

1. "Salt The Skies" (video)
2. "Dear Grandma And Grandpa" (video)
3. "Glass Museum" (video)
4. "Seneca" (video)
5. "Four Day Interval" (video)
6. "The Suspension Bridge at Iguazú Falls" (video)
7. "Monica" (video)
   • Live at Primavera Sound, 2005
8. "Gamera"/"Glass Museum"/"Reservoir"/"Djed"/"The Equator"/"Vaus"/"Cornpone Brunch"
   • Live in Toronto, 1996
9. "Ten Day Interval"/"Othello"
   • Live at Deutsches Jazz Festival, 1999
10. "Seneca"
    • Live on "Chic-a-Go-Go", 2005
11. "Salt The Skies"
    • Live for "Burn to Shine", 2004

Personnel

Performance

Production

References

External links

• A Lazarus Taxon at Thrill Jockey
• Artist Arnold Odermatt at the Springer & Winckler Galerie site