‘Expensive Thrills’ is the debut album from Lo Fi Indie band C Turtle. The four piece are from London, and they started life as a solo project by band member Cole Flynn Quirke. As a photographer as well as musician, he then met fellow member Mimiko McVeigh on a photoshoot. Bassist Finlay Burrows and drummer Jimmy Guvercin completed the now line up.
The debut has a distinct sound as C Turtle record all of their music on Tascam four-track cassette recorders to ensure a lo-fi quality. This gives many of the tracks a minimal, no thrills sound that reminds me of early 90s experimental Radiohead. Having said that, single ‘Shake it Down’ has a fuller sound and very much has a 90s Brit Pop feel – akin to bands like Lush or Sleeper.
Scuzzy guitars infiltrate song ‘Ex Athlete’ and some punk and grunge vibes creep into tracks ‘Melvin Said This’ and ‘Have You Ever Heard a Turtle Sing?’ (A possible contender for best song title of the year, I think)! Some tracks are literal just experimental noise, the creepy laughter in ‘Shooby’ and the perfect descriptor title ‘Sniffing The Jesus Hole’!
Overall, this is quite an unique album, which might divide opinion. I would personally like to hear more music along the lines of ‘Shake it Down’ but lo fi Indie fans may well prefer some of the other tracks, it would be easy to listen to this album and not realise all the songs are from the same band as some of the tracks are so different in style to each other.
‘Expensive Thrills’ is out today through Blitzcat Records
C Turtle online- Instagram
Review by Hayley Foster da Silva
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