As the third single off the album, Apple of Your Eye is comparatively calmer than the rest of the record.
As the third single off the album, Apple of Your Eye is comparatively calmer than the rest of the record. The dreamy vocal harmonies and sulky guitar wistfully echo from a time where shoegaze dominated alternative music scenes. Yet in the here and now, one can’t help but witness the song in its glory: an accentuation of the diversity that Monoliths offers, flickering within the final unfolding moments of the record itself.
“Apple of Your Eye is actually a song about the relationship between parent to child and child to parent,” begins drummer/vocalist Charlie Gradon. “I wrote the lyrics when I found out I was going to be a father. The first verse is from the perspective of the child speaking to their caregiver and the second verse is the reverse and what the child has learnt since becoming a parent himself.”
Taking inspiration from Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Turtle Skull’s blend of warped psychedelia, shattering doom and indie-rock sensibility merges into their own brand of music dubbed ‘flower doom’.
While the final product contains a faint similarity to the sounds of King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard, Khruangbin, or Kikagku Moyo, Monolith is distinctively its own beast. It’s a record that heaves and soars, taking joyous compositions and steering them headfirst into a realm of fuzz and fury.
“For me this album and this band was an opportunity to take everything back to the simplest form,” says vocalist/guitarist Dean McLeod. “I’d been listening to lot of drone, heavy psych, stoner doom, ambient stuff, and one of the things that often unite these somewhat disparate genres is the extensive use of drones and ambient synths.
“This record is about the intimate connection we share with the Earth on which we stand. It’s about the world and your place in it. It’s about looking deep inside yourself and seeing what you find. It’s about life and death and everything in between… and most of all it’s about the pure joy of creation. We are very happy to share it with you. “
Jumping from intricate picking to scorching low end riffs, Rabbit hits with some of the most memorable sounds in Turtle Skull’s repertoire to date. Undeniably catchy, the guitars and drums bounce off each-other with crushingly heavy hooks, nearly anchoring the listener to the shuddering depths of their collective tone.
“Rabbit is an interesting one,” continues McLeod. “It’s the shortest song on the album and in some respects it’s different to the others, there’s a more frantic energy to it. Thematically it’s about Australia’s terrible track record of dealing with refugees. It’s something we feel pretty strongly about. Australia is a giant country with seemingly infinite wealth and space, yet we continually ignore our legal and moral obligation to provide assistance to some of the people on this Earth who need it the most. It’s an unfortunate situation that the government and the media have created a false narrative to further their own interests.”
At the end of its runtime, Monoliths undeniably displays a much more fleshed-out realisation of the doom, psych rock and indie fusion that launched the five-piece into the public eye following their self-titled release. Tipping between heavy and catchy is the strength of Monoliths – the roar of the fuzzed-out amps is counterbalanced by feather-light vocals, creating a contrast as clear and harmonious as sun and sky. For fans old and new, this is fusion at it’s finest – a record with something to offer every listener.
Turtle Skull’s Monoliths is available from Art As Catharsis Records as of August 28. Their third single, Apple of Your Eye, is available for streaming now.
