Mazhar Ve Fuat: Türküz Türkü Çağırırız! (Yonca, 1973/reissued Shadoks, 2015)

May 16, 2015 at 6:05 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Mazhar Ve Fuat: Türküz Türkü Çağırırız!

I know nothing about Turkish music and I don’t really follow the endless glut of obscure/private press psych reissues that will never cease, but Shadoks has always been a label that’s unearthed some of the more interesting rarities, to my ears at least. Mazhar Alanson and Fuat Güner ended up founding hugely successful Turkish pop group MFÖ, but this is an earlier album the duo recorded in 1973. This album is closer to folk-rock than psych, but it has its mystical, ethereal side. The album’s title translates to “We are Turks, we sing Turkish folk songs”, and the opening title track is appropriately declamatory. “Sür Efem Atını” is as close as we get to fuzzy psych-rock, but there’s nothing “acid” about this album. “Derdimi Dökersem Derin Dereye” and “Türkmen Güzeli” feature lead vocals from Mazhar’s wife Hale Alanson, and both tracks are gorgeous, chilling hauntological loner-folk which transcends any language barrier. “Upside Down” is the album’s only English track, and it sounds like it could’ve been taken from any number of American folk-rock LPs from 1973.

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