Hologram İmparatorluğu (2016)
12 tracks, 43 minutes
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The past four or five years has seen an explosion in the retro-styled Turkish psychedelic scene. Sounds niche, right? But the number of artists in that niche – from Turkey and elsewhere – with booming international careers seems to keep rising: younger groups such as BaBa ZuLa, Altın Gün and Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek command hardy followings and undertake hardcore tour schedules, and stars from the original 1970s scene such as Selda Bağcan and Moğollar are getting used to a new-found worldwide audience due to a bunch of reissues and compilations. Even comedian Stewart Lee did a bit in his 2017 show Content Provider about the style, name-checking Moğollar, Selda, Erkin Koray and Toz Hasat along the way.
One of the most successful artists from this unexpected resurgence is Gaye Su Akyol. She’s often referred to as the sound of young Istanbul, but her sound owes a lot to those retro stars. Bağlama and oud and plucked alongside warped surf guitars, frame drum rhythms are bolstered by tight kit drumming, and Akyol’s throaty and thickly-vibratoed voice swoops over it, reminiscent of Turkish classical singers. There are also elements of film-score like string orchestras, Latin rhythms and dabs of electronica to mix things up too. While she uses many retro sounds in her music, there’s a powerful modernity to it.
Akyol’s style allows European and American listeners to approach Turkish music in the way that she herself approached rock. Her core influences are actually artists like Nirvana, Nick Cave and Jefferson Airplane, but in the way she first heard them – relating them in her mind to the older Turkish music she’d grown up with. It makes sense, too: Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’ would fit alongside any Turkish psych compilation with ease. Now we get to hear those sounds parsed back through the same filter.
As her first international release, Hologram İmparatorluğu was a revelation and a powerful announcement of her arrival. The music was as striking as her on-stage presence and in the same manner – her fashion sense seems set at least 20 years in the future…or perhaps it’s a 1970s view of 2030s fashion. It’s all about looking back and looking far forward at the same time to make insightful – and not to mention insanely groovy – statements about the present.
What about the shared zeitgeist of the ultra-hip across Europe and Anatolia has led it to pick up on those intergalactic sounds of 1970s Turkey all the way over here in the 2010s? I won’t pretend I know any further explanation than ‘cos it sounds great’ and that’s good enough for me. And if it’s bringing around such cool artists as Gaye Su Akyol, we surely can’t have any complaints.
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