Review Summary: “keep musicianship out of punk”
Sputnikmusic is no stranger to the more artful side of the punk rock world. Their most well-known post-hardcore darlings being Fugazi, At The Drive-In and Refused. For reasons unknown, Deep Turtle have always remained in the shadows of these musical giants. Today we will dig up this little art punk gem from its long forgotten digital mine.
The descriptor prog punk is something that’s sure to raise the eyebrows of most power-chord addicted punk rock fans. After all, isn’t it something of an oxymoron? Not according to the members of Deep Turtle.
Flutina sees the band stretching the punk genre to its limits, by showing a healthy disrespect for musical boundaries. Deep Turtle implement jazz riffs, death growls, Arabic scales and elements of Spanish folk without ever sounding forced or insincere. Listening to
Flutina it is easy to hear where bands like Refused and The Dillinger Escape Plan got their inspiration from. The song
Juzbu even seems to act as prototype or blueprint of the sound The Dillinger Escape Plan would later expand with immense success.
The musicianship is extremely tight and the vocals energetic. Unexpected turns taken by the band give the listener no chance to get bored. Additionally resulting in a high replay value. Despite being a Finnish band most of the lyrics are in English, but occasionally the language randomly shifts to Spanish, which compliments the weird vibe of
Flutina.
Although this EP is only 11.5 minutes, Deep Turtle take this time to display more creativity than most punk bands do in their entire career. Does this mean
Flutina is the perfect release? Almost. An annoying change of production style and volume before the final song soils an otherwise smooth transitioning EP. I couldn’t think of a better introduction to Deep Turtle,
Flutina will surely leave the listener willing to sink their teeth in the band’s classic album
There's a Vomitsprinkler in My Liverriver.
