Last year I called Turtle Giant’s All Hidden Places EP “one of the best releases I’ve heard this year of any length.” Now that 2012 is well over, I’m happy to say that I still believe All Hidden Places EP was one of the year’s best releases. As an avid vinyl collector, it felt like a crime that this wasn’t available on wax. So we decided to do something about it. We’re proud to announce that Turtle Giant’s All Hidden Places EP is Turntable Kitchen’s first 12″ vinyl release. And it’s available now in the Turntable Kitchen Market on blue and white marbled vinyl limited to 500 copies. Here is why we love it so much:
“The Brazilian trio recorded their recent All Hidden Places EP in Macau at the historic D. Pedro V Theatre. The beautiful, aged venue provided a plush and spacious soundscape for the band, affording the trio plenty of opportunities to sprawl out and experiment with their melodies and rhythms. Indeed, each of the EP’s five tracks is built upon intricately constructed grooves that evolve through thoughtful variations and alterations of their original tunes.
Album opener, “Germany I & II” is a prime example. Clocking in at just over seven and a half minutes the trio slowly build upon a choppy, side-winding groove buttressed by a rhythm that alternates between humbly spare and crashing-through-the-walls bombastic. At times it sounds as if the band is forcibly pulling threads from Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights, but at other times they sound far more like they’ve yanked a fistful of sounds out of Wolf Parade’s Apologies To The Queen Mary, often with bits and pieces of Arcade Fire’s Funeral woven in for good measure. Nonetheless, they are never satisfied to simply borrow from any of their influences though, instead tailoring the pieces together for their own purposes.
The band’s energetic first single (and the EP’s official first release) is the gritty and explosive “We Were Kids.” It begins with locomotive percussion and chiming rhythm guitar before vocalist António Conceição enters the room and intones with a steadily rising cadence: “Oh, we were kids and torn to bits between the good things that we missed all our lives.” A wet, reverb-soaked guitar riff rips in a torrent across the chorus alongside Ritchie’s vocals and “oh, OHHH, oh, OHHH” chants. It’s both addictive and captivating.
Meanwhile, “Gold Tooth (Killer)” is a brooding, lurking jam dressed in all black and anchored by a dark, slinking rhythm and menacing, pulse-like percussion. Standing well-lit amidst the shadows, Conceição sings incredulously: “Creeping my heart, you call me ‘killer’? Vulture our homes, and call me killer?” Stabs of guitar gleam bright and knife-like through the dark melody. It’s a mesmerizing noir-pop jam.”
We’ve done a one time pressing on marbled blue and white vinyl. It’s limited to a mere 500 copies. You can get your copy of All Hidden Places from the Turntable Kitchen Market.
