The album isn't as edited as the prior album, UR magazine said. They had a lucid approach to the recording. The album begins with the type of introduction you might hear from Jimi Hendrix. The guitar and symbols sound like they are collapsing on each other. Then this amazing drum beat comes in that sends keyboard-typing fingers straight to the volume dial on the stereo.
Standards slows down and rainforest-type noises appear.
The seventh song brings an elevatory eighties synthesizer sound. Recovering within minutes, the drums pick up and the album begins to swing again. To put a label on Tortoise is useless. The instruments speak, not an emotional vocalist. It would be difficult to even pinpoint an influential time period.