“Kutsal Zeytin Halayı” traces one symbol across four thousand years: an olive branch carried in the beak of Noah’s dove, oil burning in lamps built for the Pharaohs, the same tree standing sacred on the Mount of Olives and sworn on in the Quran’s Fig Surah. BaBa Zula‘s Murat Ertel and Esma Ertel trade the lines between them, closing every turn of that history on the same vow: “I swear by that olive.”

The song moves at a steady motorik pace, running the Istanbul band’s Anatolian psych roots into the dub and electronic experimentation they’ve pursued since 1996. Where the lyric’s mythology looks backward, its politics look straight at now: the band set the olive tree against what they call “corporate techno-fascism,” standing on nature’s side through every verse.

It’s the first single from XXX, BaBa Zula’s new album, due on Glitterbeat on 25 September, at a tight thirty minutes and thirty seconds, the shortest and most focused record the band has made. Levent Akman, Ümit Adakale and Esma Ertel remain the same rhythm section that helped spark Turkey’s psychedelic revival three decades ago, joined here by guests İklim Tamkan on synth and organ and Eylül Güntekin on double bass.

Watch “Kutsal Zeytin Halayı” HERE and pre-order XXX via THIS LINK.