Forget bands that started in a garage. This is Japan. These guys were born under a bridge. The year is 1999, the city of Toyota on the outskirts of Nagoya. Twelve musicians, tribal punk, taiko drums, guitars, flutes, and an almost uncontainable energy. This is East Asian temperament in its rawest form. This is Turtle Island!
Turtle Island are not a band. They are a “fuckin’ orchestra.” Pure euphoria, where ancient Asian rhythms explode into anarchic dance. Music that tears down every boundary – national, genre-based, and even the line between audience and stage. In 2011, they founded their own festival in Japan, Hashi no Shita Ongaku-sai (literally “Music Under the Bridge”), which leaned far more toward anarchic protest than a neatly curated cultural event. And yet, just three years later, that very attitude carried them all the way to the legendary Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival.