A brilliant and creative Finnish underground trio, enjoying a healthy cult status. The band consists of singer and guitarist Pentti Dassum, bassist Tapio Laxström and drummer/percussionist Mikko Erjossaari (formely known as Mikko Saaristo).
Deep Turtle have created a very personal sound and style (dubbed jazzcore or weirdcore by some), which is best described as a blend between frenetic hardcore punk, twisted jazz and a huge amount of influences ranging from polka to reggae to latin to Middle Eastern influences to anything. Dassum's vocal style ranges from spoken-word mumbling to furious screaming, effectively encompassing everything in between. Some of the lyrics are in English, some in Spanish, and a lot of it is just plain incomprehensible.
The music is dynamic, angular and rhythmically complex, with time signatures often differing from the 4/4 common time. All three members are superb players and keep themselves equally busy within the songs, which can go from lounge jamming to chaotic noise and back within a splitsecond, but never lack a sense of form and structure or a healthy amount of melodicity and catchiness.
The band was formed in 1990 in Pori, Finland. Before breaking up in 1996 they released a bunch of records, mostly in vinyl:
Most of these records were released through the legendary Finnish
indie record label Bad Vugum and have been sold out long since.
However, breaking up in 1996 wasn't the end of their story, since in 2002 they reformed the band with the exact same lineup and immediately began creating new material. Since the reformation they have released three records through their very own Zerga Records label (http://www.deepturtle.net/):
And finally: no, their music has nothing to do with Deep Purple.