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Some record labels have a sound. Thrill Jockey has a temperament. The independent label, run out of Chicago, has released instrumental post rock, gentle indie pop, synth driven heartbreak, desert psych and avant garde metal, and somehow it all feels connected. What links the catalog is curiosity: bands that treat the studio as an instrument and refuse to stay in one lane.
If you are new to the label, the size of the catalog can be intimidating. These eight albums make a strong starting point, and each one opens a door into a different corner of the Thrill Jockey world. All of the details below come from the label's own album notes.
1. Tortoise, TNT
Tortoise are the band most people associate with Thrill Jockey, and TNT is a fine place to meet them. The label says the band wrote and recorded it over a ten month stretch in 1997, a deliberately long schedule meant to produce an expansive, diverse but coherent record. At 65 minutes, it builds on the spare framework of their self titled debut and the long, edited pieces of Millions Now Living Will Never Die.
TNT was also the first time the band used non linear digital recording and editing, which let them remix their own music as they made it. Sections mutate and reappear. Strings, woodwinds and brass push into new territory, and guitarist Jeff Parker joined as a permanent member. It is a headphone record that still sounds like a band playing together.
2. Tortoise, Standards
If TNT is the studio experiment, Standards is the band tightening up. The label explains that the sessions began in the spring of 2000 after a period of rehearsal and composition, so the studio was used to realize finished ideas rather than to build them from fragments. The result, in the label's words, is the band's most concise statement of purpose at the time.
The tunes are direct, but the edge is still there. Listen for the dramatic opening of "Seneca," the soaring melodies of "Blackjack" and the half synthesized swing of "Benway." It was recorded in a studio designed by John McEntire, who also produced records for many other bands.
3. The Sea and Cake, Oui
The Sea and Cake share a member with Tortoise in John McEntire, alongside Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt and Eric Claridge. Oui was their fifth album, and the label describes it as a record that reveals its charms quietly and continually with every listen.
After a break in which members painted, made solo records and built studios, the band returned with a clear goal: to sound like a band recorded live in a studio. Paul Mertens arranged horns and strings, but the group blurred the strings with synthesizer tones so the songs would not become too orchestral. Start with "Afternoon Speaker," then let "Seemingly" and "I Missed the Glance" wash over you.
4. Future Islands, In Evening Air
Future Islands call their music Post Wave, combining the emotional fragility of new wave with the drive of post punk. In Evening Air, released by the label in 2010, was their first full length after moving to Baltimore and their first as a focused three piece of Gerrit Welmers on synthesizers and programming, William Cashion on bass and Samuel T. Herring on vocals.
Welmers builds the landscape, Cashion punches through it, and Herring moves between a whispered croon and a wail. Chester Endersby Gwazda produced. The label describes it as a record about growing beyond your city and yourself, moving from slow burn to the highly ecstatic.
5. Wooden Shjips, West
West, released in 2011, was the first time Wooden Shjips recorded in a proper studio and the first time they worked with an engineer, Phil Manley. The label says it was recorded and mixed in six days at Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco.
The theme is the American West and all of its mythology and idealism, seen by band members who grew up on the East Coast. Steady, driving rhythms carry thick, distorted guitar lines, while the vocals float half buried in the mix. It is a perfect long drive record.
6. Wooden Shjips, Back to Land
The follow up to West, released in 2013, moves the story north. Ripley Johnson and Omar Ahsanuddin had moved to Oregon, and the label says the lush climate became a major influence on the songwriting. Acoustic guitar entered the band's palette for the first time, and the songs are brighter and more melodically direct.
It was recorded over an 11 day session at Jackpot Recording Studios in Portland. Play it after West to hear the same band trade urgency for confidence.
7. Matmos, The Marriage of True Minds
Baltimore electronic duo Matmos, Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, are known for turning unusual sound sources into catchy music. The Marriage of True Minds, released in 2013, was built around telepathy. For four years, the duo ran experiments inspired by the classic Ganzfeld test, in which subjects in sensory deprivation described what they saw or heard as Daniel tried to transmit the idea of the album to them.
The transcripts became scores. A hummed phrase became a melody. A described action had to be acted out and recorded. The album ranges from techno and musique concrete to doom metal, and the opening song uses a tap dancer on a stone floor for its beat.
8. Liturgy, Aesthethica
The heaviest entry on the list comes from Brooklyn band Liturgy. Aesthethica, their second album, ignores the boundaries between black metal, hardcore and experimental music. The label describes songs that begin as a chant or hypnotic abstraction and then grow dense and complex, linking black metal techniques with the spirit of film scores and post Romantic composers.
It is intense, but it is also joyful. Start with "High Gold" if you want the full effect quickly.
Where to start
If you like instrumental music and studio craft, begin with TNT and Standards. If you want songs, start with Oui or In Evening Air. For heavy, hypnotic guitars, go to West and Back to Land. For sound art and big ideas, choose Matmos. For extreme music with a philosophical streak, go to Liturgy. The label sells its records directly, and it is worth browsing the catalog page by page.
Want to dig further? Read our post rock starter guide, our Kranky Records starter guide and our krautrock starter guide. Find more records in our vinyl and reissues hub.
