The Giant Flying Turtles’ inventive band moniker segues into their highly experimental and innovative sound. The bustling quintet drives through a hard rock approach with prog nodes in their sound.
At first consisting of Johnny Young and Calvin Bennett, who met while playing in Kresior on Teepee Records. They found out they both shared a love in music and started playing as a duo in bars around Brooklyn. Soon they met drummer Jim Toscano, who joined forces with them and in 2016, virtuoso guitarist T. J. Jordan wanted in on the action, making the group complete.
The band’s crossover sound edges into their second release, highlighting a blend of rock, folk, jazz, bluegrass, and blues in their high energy new album, Waltz To The World.
The first track off the album, titled, “No Turning Back,” incorporates bluesy and jazzy overtures in a waltz time signature stance. The whispery vocals gets worked into a bit of upbeat piano melody that fleshes out some of the highly energetic resonances in the experimental sound. This spirited and atmospheric piece of recording inspires a bit of prog rock mixed in with traces of smooth piano on this song.
On the track, “Stay Out Late,” the vocals are sung with great gusto. The invigorating keyed up vibe paves the way for some piano-influenced tunes with jazzy flair to be played with robust bluesy guitars. The furious jazzy-enthused vocals relays a great melody and a jazz and blues-enhanced harmonies.
“The Devil And Me” is a fun-driven track with a great jiving sound. The upbeat piano tunes are catchy and produce a contagious swinging beat. The hot, sizzling uptake will have listeners thirsting for more. The lively grinding mambo sound makes this a fiery release with a frenzied appeal. Blues-driven, this song is bursting with flavors and a happening vibe.
“One Of A Kind” is filled with chaotic piano playing, where the keys are played in a sort of dis-chord. The result is a kind of organized chaos, where it looks like Jordan reins in on the control with his verbose guitars, acclimating to the disordered piano keys with a blend of chilling guitars as a base. This guitar heavy track follows through with some prog rock and a sort of industrial-ness to the sound. The rush of metallic sounding guitars take in the direction of blithe vocals, a contrast to the formation of hard rock that coalesces in the track. In mid-track is a mellow piano solo, then energetic guitars rev up to the give the song some more of its radio-active energy.
“River Runs Dry” encases an interlay of beatific piano playing. The relaxing vibe from the soothing and peaceful melody has a sort of hazy feel and seems to contain a sort of 80’s retro quality to the sound. The piano layers are the backbone to this ballad-driven track. The clashes of drums and the coursing of piano keys, makes this dreamy music great to kick back to.
A bunch of moody guitars produces an ominous sound in the following track, “Train Song.” Reverb-filled vocals adds to the overall great energy, as a wall of dark sounding guitars rev up. The track is filled with some gritty, bluesy flavor and a fiery-spirited-ness.
Towards “Three Shades of Blue,” we see Waltz To The World building up in momentum. Instead of balling up with tranquilizing ballad-induced harmonies, the album takes a turn for the bombastic with a wall of energy coming from the fast tunes filled with great bluesy and jazzy undertones. The track guns with lyrics spewed out in quick sure-fire succession sung with a speedy and catchy vibe.
The album slows down to encompass, “Hold The Flag,” that harnesses some slower more melodic piano tunes. The drifting, listless quality to this ballad makes for a great flowy vibe. Urgent piano melodies and a marching backbeat makes this a dramatic track.
A sort of rockabilly sound permeates the track, “Banjo.” Infused with a twist of jazz and blues, this retro sounding song contains some jaunty tunes as the sounds of the banjo being plucked feeds into the drunken feel-good vibes. Fun-driven and a bit of country-twang evident on this track as well, the lightning sounds coming from the fiddling resonates with a charged, electric feel. The song is sung with passion accompanied by a jamming piano vibe.
“Good To Be Alive” has an electric vibe coming from the guitars and resonates with a bluesy rock vibe from the reverberating vocals and from the grainy feel from the recording itself. Tracing some inviting piano melodies, the choral-like vocal harmonies in the refrain also add into the outcome of someone who has come across a near-life-and-death experience and thanks the stars every day for being alive. The track is sung with conviction, which convincingly dramatizes someone undergoing this experience, seen the angels, and been back all in one piece to testify.
Toward the end of the album, we see in the title-track, “Waltz To The World,” a dreamy, hazy, and haunting feel. Listeners will drown in this intoxicating sound. The blazing guitar traces an 80’s retro vibe, leading toward an inspiration note in the track. Bolstering a nostalgic bent in this retrospective track, a blend of electric guitars, dynamic drumming, and melodic keys drive this modernized waltz that like the title says flows languidly between worlds with a sound that oscillates from a prog rockabilly jive to a jazzy and blues inspired sound.
Like their band name creatively elicits, The Giant Flying Turtles are a musical force to be reckoned with. Their highly titanium experimental sound is music that will empower you with a frenzied kind of energy. Their set of sonic adventures are fruitful at best with unpredictable flares into jazz, rock, blues, and folk soundscapes. Together, The Giant Flying Turtles’ rock hard chemistry grooms together a circuit of genre-bending music with precision and control. But what is ill-contained about their sound is their energetic recordings and keyed up style of music that makes The Giant Flying Turtles the fiber of the blues, jazz, bluegrass, folk, and rock community.
The Giant Flying Turtles are rising up and comers in the burgeoning Brooklyn rock scene but are gaining traction in and around the east coast and beyond.
Be sure you give The Giant Flying Turtles new album release, Waltz To The World, a listen today!