We will deal with another heavyweight of Turkish music today, one who refuses the genre name ‘Arabesk’ for being „inadequate and uncomplete“, and prefers labels such as ‘Progressive Turkish Music’ or simply: ‘Gencebay Music’. Orhan Gencebay has officially sold 80 million records in Turkey- which already makes him one of the most succesful artists on …
The first, largest and commercially most successful independent record company in whole Germany until today has been Türküola. It was founded in Cologne by the Turkish migrant Yılmaz Asöcal in 1964. In the history of independent record companies as well as in the history of pop music in Germany Türküola and the many other Turkish …
In this episode of Crazy Turks, we talk about the unquestionable king of Anadolu Rock & Turkish Psychedelic, the great Barış Manço. Outside of Turkey the perception of Manço seems to start and end with his 1975 prog-voyage 2023, an album that is not among his most popular ones in Turkey and really not the …
John Carpenter doesn’t know that his glorious theme to “The End“ is leading a parallel existence in Turkey. It is detached from the horror genre which is no thing over there, but serves as rape music in many films. More precisely, as the onset to an indicated and invisible rape after a K.O. pill was …
And yet, all things that touch us, you and me,bind us together like a violin bowdrawing but one sound from two strings.On which instrument though are we both strung?And what violinist holds us in the hand?Oh, sweet, sweet song. Rainer Maria Rilke, Love Song If I had to describe to anybody the special beauty and …
Melodramas are the filmic equivalent to country or arabesque music- they have a history of being stubbornly dismissed by the cultural elites who labeled them as sentimental and fatalistic trash for the simple and stupid people, and intolerably inferior to arthouse. This closed-minded understanding of arthouse cinema was temporarily exposed and suspended when Danish director …
Kilink, the Turkish super villain in a skeleton suit, who was inspired by the Italian comic hero Killing, who again was inspired by the other Italian superhero Kriminal, opens the long series of Kilink installments (11 in total*) with this blockbuster cult movie of Turkish cinema. The film’s synopsis reads like this: „Kilink visits Istanbul …
I’m not here to be the light for anybody’s darkness- I’m burning for my own pleasure. Ibrahim Tatlises Every country has its Pavarotti, although not all of them are necessarily shining in posh opera houses. Having the same voice range as the heavy, scarfed tenor from Modena, Ibrahim Tatlıses can certainly be labeled the Turkish …
How the Soul of Anatolian Rock Ended up Making the Greatest German Protest Record Constructing a daydream often starts with the same setting: I’m in a stripped down universe that must be close to the gates to heaven due to its bright nebula of bliss, and I have to give an angelic answer to a …
Our insular existences do not allow us to grasp all the wonders of this big, wide world, and know about all the many facets beyond regional stereotypes and canons. Facets that present themselves as phenomena in our perception, but are equal expressions of the soul of a nation. Few outside of Turkey will know that …
