Sonic Transmission: Turtle Skull – Why Do You Ask?

Summer is here. If those recent views of Bournemouth are anything to go by then odds are this is one summer you may in fact dread what with all this Covid malarkey still in the air. But you know what else flows through the air right now? Flowers and a generous wafting of acid. And love, why not! Chasing the run-up to their immeasurably lysergic debut longplayer, Australia’s finest purveyors of flower doom Turtle Skull are generous enough to tease us with a second single of drifting desert psych drones to make us fall back in love with this time of year – and the earth itself – without the fear of catching something besides the next wave or the incoming upflow of blotter papers. If all this conjures up images of George Carlin, Martin Mull, ponchos, and a bottling plant accident involving a frisbee, then do yourselves a solid, wrap your ears around the majestic jams in ‘Why Do You Ask?’ and retune your mind.

A steady pulsing lifeline becoming engulfed by fuzzed-out wizardry, swirling desert rock motifs and enough ambient synths to give Kikagaku Moyo a run for their money, ‘Why Do You Ask?’ is the journey the cool sea air embarks upon before clashing head-on with the scorching heat of the inner mainland. Coupled with Dean McLeod’s entrancing dove-feather vocals the evaporating, dreamy psychedelia the song imbues never ceases to rise with the currents whilst constantly in pursuit of some kind of nirvana. It’s so light the slightest breeze would blow it out of your reach into the distance. But this isn’t some hollow, airy artifact – there are enough swells to crash into the mainland here but the beauty here and across the duration of Monoliths (more on that at a later date) is this deluge is beyond refreshing, perfect for the summer months ahead. Take that unforgiving sun!

Mr Sun will certainly be doing its job between now and the album’s release on August 28th via Art As Catharsis and Kozmik Artifactz, but you can cool off with this, preceding single ‘Rabbits’, and the self-titled EP whilst you wait. Patience is a virtue. Or so they say. And to think, the song began life as a suburban joke jam where the words “fuck” and “you” were pretty darn prominent. The more you know…

Follow the band here.

You can preorder Monoliths here.

Be sure to become a little more familiar by blissing out to the Turtle Skull EP here.