Turkish bands of the era (pre-80’s) began to adopt tunes of Great British rock from the 60’s onward. With Istanbul as the natural hotbed of such musical experimentation, musical formations soon merged the adventurous chords and melodies of Led Zeppelin and the Beatles with long-promoted and established folk tunes of Anatolia, the Turkish hinterland. While drums and electric guitars brought forward brute force and power from bands like Deep Purple and Pink Floyd, old Turkish ensembles offered the derbeke, the saz, alongside soulful, Oriental-style singing.
Once Western tourists and travellers appeared in Istanbul and as the psychedelic bands of the 60’s and 70’s hit the horizon, the jazz-infuenced line-ups and arrangements of British and American psych-rock such as Hawkwind and Iron Butterfly soon found their way into tracks by Turkish formations. Eager to pick up sound-effects, moods, and tempo-changes from leading Westen groups, the Anatolian rock scene was quick to invent the saz on steroids: the Turkish lute grown-big with added fuzz and the wah-wah.
With the Golden Age of Anatolian Rock soon over, it was the younger bands from the 80’s onwards that picked up the torch, by then already familiar with the darker scene of European rock festivals added to the mix. The Dead Can Dance, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy gave huge boosts to Turkish bands springing up in Holland, in Germany, and both sides of the Bospore.
Ünlü – a major formation from Germany – create strangely intriguing moods and scenes with their blend of alternative rock and music videos shot from across deprived alleys of Istanbul:
The tight and intellectually mysterious, Turkey-based combo, Nemrud is often thought of as the first home-grown Progressive Rock trio, with their first album The Journey of the Shaman hitting the shops and the internet in 2010. Beginning of Divine Inspiration from 2011 is more of a classic intro song with several rhythmic variations throughout: Nemrud
Their song In my mind (from 2013) could also open at any A-list festival’s prog rock stage in Europe alongside Dream Theatre or The Dear Hunter:
The contemporary Altın Gün from the Netherlands is bringing forward the most exciting psych fest feels concocted with the beats and vocals of modern Turkish pop music:
Turkey’s number 1 folk-metal act maNga should be in any rock-enthusiast’s record collection and a feature of Western arenas in a world after A System of a Down and the Russian Pagan Reign.
An Epic Symphony from 2023 is playing on the strings of theatre-nested new metal with symphonic orchestration, a genre well-known from the days of Deep Purple (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1969).
maNga are deservedly the hopefuls of international metallurgy, and a band that combines speedy double-bass drumming with the cleanest guitar sounds and studio technology that puts them on a par with the Muse and Queensryche:
Text theme photo from: https://saloniksv.com/en/birlikte-guzel-altin-gun
