THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY

Fourth album from Mother Turtle and it seems as if these guys do albums in doubles: I mean the first two records were into prog, whereas the last two ones are also into prog, but instrumental ones. However, there are some differences between them as Mother Tutrtle never repeat themselves. On the second album the line-up was broadened, including the violin and the saxophone, whereas on this one the line-up is "Rush-ified" which is to say they perform as a trio minus the vocals, of course. As the title implies, there are only three songs which extend forty minutes long, though. Since the vocals, the keyboards, the violin and the saxophone are absent, it is the guitar of Kostas Konstantinidis that takes over the role to lead the songs. The riffs are occasionally very technical, the meter changes abound, the bass lines are killing it and tiny details are all over the place. Zigu Zigu (no idea what is this one) is a very strong opener with a live feeling and a funny "music existential" monologue at the end. If Notwatch sent you browsing your dictionaries and the internet about its meaning, it was a waste of time. It is a word game where the band "translated" the word Dirge into the Greek one. So maybe now this dirge you're listening to halfway the song makes absolute sense. The song is divided in three parts, on the first one Konstantinidis solos and riffs away on his guitar, on the second the dirge takes over where the band creates the appropriate psychedelic surroundings and on the final part (which is by far my favourite) the song really takes off and smashes everything and George Baltas does the same on his drums. The sidelong composition A Christmas Postcard From Kim stays true to the tradition of Mother Turtle having samples on a song (consider God Games, Art Of Ending A Revolution) and this time it is Kim Jong Un who addresses a New-Year's speech. Here Mother Turtle pull out all the stops including blastbeats, vocalese parts, hip-hop parts and numerous sections aside the aforementioned speech (by the way, Konstandinidis and Baltas follow suit and do their own syllable-singing). This one might be the most interesting track of the album.

Initially, when I listened to it I thought "ahhh, Mother Turtle, not this time". But there was something in it and I kept spinning the vinyl, good for me. It took me some time to get acquainted with this new sound and direction and I heartily recommend you give this album (and the band, in general) a chance.

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to Alxrm
• Report this review (#3210117)
• Buy MOTHER TURTLE music online with PA partners
• Show all MOTHER TURTLE MP3/Stream
• Go to MOTHER TURTLE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Three Sides To Every Story page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for MOTHER TURTLE related discussions