13.
Selda- S/T
My last record, which I briefly mentioned earlier, is an album by a folk singer from Turkey called Selda. You probably know this record, it was reissued by Finders Keepers and it’s so heavy. There’s so much heaviness on the record and so many fuzz guitars and intense psychedelic sounds, and yet her voice cuts through all of it in this really intense way. Obviously I’ve not read a lot of the lyrics because they’re in Turkish, but they’re very political. She’s known for being a political leaning folk artist, very much an artist for the people. These songs contain some of that, and certainly the way they were recorded there’s an immediate energy and power to the psychedelic aspects of it as well. Heavy rhythms, heavy fuzz, killer Turkish vocals; it has everything. I love Finders Keepers and I love all the things they curate and the records that they put out, and this was just one of those cases where I’d seen this record and I think Andy Votel had spoken about the record and they put a quote on the front of the CD. And I love Andy Votel so I was like well, shit, this guy’s into it so I need to pick this record up. I had no idea of what it contained, and I put it on and it totally took me by surprise and introduced me to something that I’ve since done a lot of exploring into. I have many Turkish 45s in my collection now and I’ve since spent a lot of time in Turkey and had a chance to see Selda perform live with an Israeli psych band, and I got to meet her which is incredible. But this particular collection of songs I think is her best representation, and probably her most effective and psychedelic. There’s even one song that has almost a dance structure to it, which is extraordinary. I love that record; a good first foray into Turkish psychedelic music.
Selda Bagcan plays Pop-Kultur festival in Berlin on September 1; for full details and tickets, head here
