So I had this tape laying around for decades at home, but never properly gave it a listen until recently. I thought the music was typical Turkish folklore music, produced as some sort of souvenir, but it actually turned out to be one of the nicest psychedelic Turkish tapes I have yet heard.
Turkish folklore music is usually acoustic and obviously covering traditionals, often also quite hard to distinguish from each other. This tape too is a lengthy mix-up of all kind of similar traditional Turkish songs and melodies, but the key lies in the fact that the whole thing is electrified with the electro-saz (electric bağlama) as well as with keyboards that were manufactured in the 80's. The music is easily to be put in line with the sounds of older Turkish and Anatolian psychedelic music like Selda, Erkin Koray or Edip Akbayram in which the use of electric instruments took over from the acoustic predecessors. A bit like what Miles Davis did in Jazz at a certain moment.
The music on Burcu Burcu Türkiye'm could very well be the summer soundtrack of you moving forward in an ever-lasting trans-orient-express while its engine driver and yourself are spacing out on a fair amount of hashish and opium discussing Rumi's poetry. You're flying through the Turkish countryside after a magical woman has just red your future in the coffee ground while you're solving the mysteries of the Nazar. It could be this.
But aside from that, the music is also creating a similar atmosphere as contemporary artists like the Syrian musician Omar Souleyman or the Sahrawi psych-force Group Doueh from the Western Sahara. Obviously these are different geographical regions, but they are somewhat musically connected in their use of the endless repetitive psychedelic oriental sounds inducing their trance.
The tape is unindexed which seemed a better choice. Specially the B-Side is a psychedelic treat! Enjoy the trip!
Get it HERE
this seems great,thank u
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, very good tape, but I don't really like the orientalist vision in your text :)
ReplyDeleteI am writing from Turkey. I had this tape, I sold it. I'm busy with a job selling cassette-CDs. I have purchased hundreds of tapes since 1993. The tapes are still my biggest interest. I have an independent home production company where I release albums in tape format. I publish and distribute cassettes of music made by Turkish musicians. I am interested in and publishing different music such as Experimental, Indie, Hardcore, Punk, Metal, Ambient, New Wave. It
ReplyDeleteThe tape you see is the 1988 edition. First edition. It was later reprinted. Let me give some information .. There are so many albums of this type that they do not sell here, they do not attract much attention. It attracts attention abroad. Turkish melodies are works that the intellectual people here generally never listen to and are not interested in. This type of music is usually listened to by poor people, who we will call the lowest class here. They don't make much sense for it to attract so much attention abroad. Village weddings take place with these songs and albums. Orchestras play these songs at city weddings as well as at weddings. These songs are totally a tradition to hold weddings. Nobody actually listens to these music in their homes. Everyone knows and dances by heart, since the Turks have had weddings with these songs for many years. Everyone, people of all ages dance on the stage. People who are in the dance industry like belly dances do not often attend weddings. Belly people are dance workers that we watch on TV on New Year's Eve for a long time. They perform in nightclubs. People who play belly dance only. They don't do anything else. They cheer people up. They never sell themselves or do anything like prostitution. I am writing for those who do not know. There is nothing strange about it. Unfortunately, I also do not understand friends who do not understand. Only their clothes are decorated and colorful like this, and they are a bit open. Please don't think of anything more.
If you wish to Turkey could contribute to some of the older or newer albums in different music styles. The blog is great! I follow it closely. Noise
I'm waiting for albums in musical style. Thank you so much. Greetings from Turkey.
Just discovered your blog. Such a treasure trove! If you get a chance, would love a re-up of this one.
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