This week's PBS Feature Album is Turning Yr Back On The Dolphin, the third album by Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is the outsider folk identity of Erica Dunn and an evolving cast of essential collaborators. Born out of a compulsion to write sparse, intimate verse and named for her nervous affliction - sweaty hands - Palm Springs has been a cornerstone of Dunn’s songwriting that sits in a separate interior back room from her other creative outputs (Tropical Fuck Storm, MOD CON, Fiancée, Harmony et al.)
Turning Yr Back On The Dolphin pulls together a tangle of threads that represent seven years of reflection and rumination; an Alice-through-the-looking-glass journey which catalogues existential crisis under the arch of Hadrian ('Infinity 69'), nihilism vs. wonderment ('No Contest'), the torture and reward of unshackling from a toxic relationship ('Your Ashes, My Tree') and the weight of wading through the waters of modernity as we know it ('Lay Your Eric Burden Down'). The titular track sees Dunn enlist the piano for the first time to document an aching and introspective stream of consciousness poem which dances along the knife edge crux of this record - the beauty and the pain of existence.
Recorded to tape machine over three days by Michael Beach in March 2025, the analogue approach continues the underscoring principles of this project; to capture the fleeting moments of the songs without much deliberation or affect, wonky notes, chair creaks and street noise all on show. Bare bones nylon string guitar/vocal arrangements are accompanied this time by some new sonic partners flute, cello and harmonium which lean deeply into inspirational folk predecessors while continuing to chisel into Palm Springs bedrock; distinctive dark humour, melodic daydreaming and lyrical imagery which may resurface in your mind in the murky space before dawn.
Tune in all this week to hear tracks from Turning Yr Back On The Dolphin and PBS Members have the chance to win a copy of the album on vinyl: simply email your name and membership number to before midnight Sunday October 5.
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TOP TRACKS WE'RE LOVING THIS WEEK
Stella Donnelly - 'Feel it Change'
Cecile McLorin Salvant - 'Take this stone' feat. June McDoom & Kate Davis
OK EG - 'Spirit'
Sub Basics - 'Corners'
daoud - 'plato's twins'
Sessa - 'Vale a Pena'
Tristan Arp - 'Spiral's Leap'
Aarti Jadu - 'op.1 ādam'
Kadhja Bonet - 'Slipping'
Brothers - 'Reflections'
