Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Music / Crickets Turning on to some new psych jams
Posted by Miles Raymer on 01.02.07 at 03:47 PM
I like to think that, between my Internet addiction and the number of CDs I get sent to me every week, I'm pretty much up on everything coming out, but the fact is that some of the best records I've heard recently have come to my attention via friends saying, "Dude, you have to listen to this." In the past week this old-timey technique has turned me on to a couple of killer psyched-out records I probably would've missed otherwise.
I think it took maybe 20 seconds between my friend Kara putting the Finders Keepers reissue of Selda's 1976 self-titled album on the stereo the other night and everyone in the room scrambling for the liner notes to figure out what the hell we were listening to. Selda's described as an Anatolian folk singer, and I guess I can hear some of that in there -- although most of my exposure to Turkish music has been while watching schlocky Turkish action movies, so I'm not exactly an expert -- but this record is far from traditional. Unless of course insanely trippy analog synths are a traditional part of Anatolian folk that I don't know about. Selda is a serious skull fuck, produced with a flagrant disregard for any preconceived ideas about what constitutes "too much flange." I want to call the end result something like a Bollywood sound track recorded by Black Sabbath, but that's still not freaky enough.
Pop Levi's Blue Honey EP has been sitting on my desk for a couple of months now, but I didn't really give it a serious listen until my friend Krystal told me she was using it as part of her post-New Year's recovery regimen. Maybe it was the dude's look on the CD's cover -- the eyeliner-plus-facial-hair combo he rocks makes him look like he just failed a tryout for Turbonegro -- or the number of times the word "magick" appears in his bio, but for some reason I just didn't give him a chance. My bad. Levi's doing Zep-style blues swagger better than anyone else right now. Dude can write some catchy jams -- it's cool to see someone taking the concept of riffs seriously -- and the record has a cheap-sounding, homemade vibe that I've completely fallen in love with. He's got a new record coming out next month, and that thing's going straight onto my iTunes.
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Here, here. Koray is the man. But there's tons of other great Turkish music, too. Miles, you need to expand your blog reading. Too much indie stuff will make your brain rot.
Tons of great Turkish psych stuff for sure. Non-Cricket Josh would highly recommend the Love, Peace and Poetry compilation series. LPP #9 is all late-60s, early-70s Turkish psych. Each comp. features a different country or continent and even the U.S. one conjures up some freakin' obscure shit. Plus you get the hot, psych-lovin' Playboy Bunny who graces each cover and the liner notes! You know, um, if you are into that.
Plus, if you want kick ass, lo-fi riffs, no record may have done it better last year than Entrance's self-released, limited Prayer of Death album. That shit is sick. I think Tee-Pee just put it out for mass consumption.
Thanks for the tips. I tend to avoid compilation and reissue series because they make me all OCD and nervous unless I get all of them. I had a bad experience with the Killed by Death and Back from the Grave series back in the day that I'm still recovering from. But I doubt a new obsession with Turkish psych rock could do much to damage my current social life, so maybe I'll look into it.
Except for that time I made a Jawbreaker mixtape for a girl in high school, every music obsession since has not helped my social life. So, you have nothing to lose. I still remember the tale of my old college roommate who used to talk of the day he chose Rock 'n Roll over girls: Go to the Senior Prom or go see The Melvins live? He chose the Melvins. So choose Turkish psych rock, Miles. And keep your obsessive sonic habits. Dude eventually got married and sold all of his albums once he met something called a "girl" (sp?). Where would you rather be? Exactly.
