#turkish rock

[alyaaww]

Dilerim ki

Dilerim ki asla caymazsın benim olmaktan

Dursun zaman

Kalsın yerin derinlerinde saklanan

[3lita]

[wonstell]

<3

[mywifeleftme]

211: Erkin Koray // Arap Saçı

Arap Saçı Erkin Koray 2021, Pharaway Sounds

Pharaway Sounds’ Arap Saçı (Arab Hair) collects 24 Erkin Koray tracks originally issued as singles between 1968 and 1976. Koray is best known in the West for his groundbreaking fusion of Anatolian/Arabic folk and classical with crunching psychedelic rock on his 1974 debut LP Elektronik Türküler. However, as Angela Sawyer’s tart liner notes observe, Turkey was predominantly a singles market at the time, and back home Koray did most of his damage on 7”. The limitations of the format, and the preferences of Koray’s record company, preclude the kind of long-form acid voyages he undertook on Elektronik Türküler, but he's able to generate plenty of smoke on these “pop” singles.

Highlights abound. Arap Saçı kicks off with 1973’s “Mesafaler” (“Distances”), a scorching psych banger complete with cowbell that only stops rocking to periodically gawp and stare fixedly into space for 20 or 30 seconds at a time before shaking itself awake to get back to business. (Is there footage of a Turkish TV performance featuring liquid light art? You bet your hairy ass there is.)

The waltzing, organ and hand drum-led “Komşu Kızı” (“Girl Nextdoor”) is a classic melancholy Middle Eastern ballad that hides a wild, surprising drop two-thirds of the way through; Koray freaks “Aşka İnanmıyorum” (“I Do Not Believe in Love”) with his insinuating croon and serpentine guitar licks; “Istemem” (“I Do Not Want”) mixes a light-stepping folk beat with some stinging solos that aren’t too far off what Uli Jon Roth would get up to in Germany with Scorpions a few years later. There really isn’t a bum track to be found.

This new compilation covers much of the same ground as the ‘70s Erkin Koray (AKA Mesafaler) and Erkin Koray 2 (AKA Şaşkın) singles compilations, and Pharaway Sounds opts to follow their track sequencing as closely as possible—a good choice, as they had a great flow, though a bit frustrating for those hoping to track Koray’s musical development chronologically. Regardless, we know that Koray was exposed to Western music as a young age, learning Occidental classical music on the piano as a child and discovering rock ‘n’ roll as a teen. According to the liners, Koray was performing songs by Elvis, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis in the late ‘50s, and by the late ‘60s, when he began to emerge as a recording artist, he’d clearly imbibed industrial quantities of Hendrix, Cream, and the other usual psychonauts.

In a previous review, I briefly contrasted Koray with Egypt’s Omar Khorshid, a fellow guitar god and contemporary pioneer in electrified Arabic music. Khorshid had some familiarity with Western pop music, but he was working with the top stars in Arab folk and classical, using electric instruments to push traditional Eastern music forward rather than to fuse it with rock. Koray on the other hand was a long-haired freak who claims to have fought in the streets with a knife and joined Anglo-American-inspired combos with names like Mustard (Hardal) and Sweat (Ter). By the late ‘60s rock had become popular in Turkey, as had Arabesk music, which Sawyer describes as “a purposely uncouth… appropriation of Arabic pop and folk, popular with rural or marginalized folks who were suddenly encountering pockets of urbanized Europe in their backyard.” Koray intuitively crossbred the invasive genre (rock) with the reactionary one (Arabesk) and found himself one of the fathers of a powerful new mongrel breed of psych music.

By reissuing both Elektronik Türküler and these essential singles, Pharaway Sounds has done a real service to psych and non-Western rock aficionados. Koray makes a great gateway to the other masters of ‘70s Anatolian folk-rock, including Selda, Moğollar, and Barış Manço, a loose affiliation of artists that has been one of my most prized discoveries of recent years.

211/365

[esmikcan]

Ben buyuyunce ozlem tekin olacagim.

[idiotcoward]

Selda - Türkülerimiz 2 The Middle East and Anatolia will always have a special place in my heart, and amongst all the special things and people from the region, the music, specifically, is always something special. And from all the music out of the regions that I love, Selda has to be one of my all time favorites. If you're not familiar with music from Turkey or the Middle East, then this is a wonderful place to start. Heartfelt and beautiful.

[xzzeyno]

" Neyin bildin ki değerini, benimkini bileceksin

Bunuda tabii mahvedeceksin. "

[jesdamons]

kerem ozyegen mor ve otesi

[yxx007]

Merhaba.

[anyways-wonderwall]

Album of the Week #81

Gece

(2019)

by Altın Gün

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

TL;DR: Turkish music using a Western instrumental font

(Damn, this is an incredible album cover 10/10)

Overall Thoughts

This review is two weeks late because honestly, I don’t know what I have to say about this album. I don’t have much of a thesis, no crazy social or musical commentary, this was just generally an enjoyable album. 

This album getting a rating this high is saying a lot because this album had to overcome the big hurdle of me having never heard a single song off this album and having little familiarity with traditional Turkish music. Despite having the clear calling cards of the genre (call and response with a high-pitched instrumental, the Arab music scale, vocal emphasis on the verses over the chorus), all of the songs are incredibly distinct and fascinating in their own way. The best way I can describe this album is as Turkish music using a western instrumental font. The instruments are all familiar (electric guitar, synth, drumset, bass guitar, distortion out the wazoo) but their execution is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It pulls you into the album as you are trying to guess what they will do next to no avail. 

Upon listing to this whole album a few times there are only a few songs that stick out to me as particularly great though: “Leyla” with distorted angry guitar, “Kolbastı” with its mesmerizing guitar solos, and the finale “Süpürgesi Yoncadan” with its super catchy synth riff that would fit right in with 1980s new wave. I don’t love any of these songs enough to add them to my liked songs, yet I like the album as a whole enough to possibly download it and add it to my travel catalog. Its soothing yet interesting enough to keep your mind from endlessly wandering. 

Next week's review: Norman fucking Rockwell! (2019) by Lana Del Rey

[twistedsoulmusic]

‘Dost 2’ is the second of a two-part album release from Turkish singer and multi-instrumentalist Derya Yıldırım and Anatolian band Grup Şimşek, following on from the first half in 2021. With its genre-defying blend of Anatolian folk, 1970s Turkish rock, psychedelia, pop, and jazz, and its exploration of their lives and personal experiences. The inventiveness and inspiration of DOST 2 make it stand out. 

[m-eltdown]

[srlgemstone]

Stormy Landscape Agate