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Regarded amongst hardened collectors of Anatolian rock as The Daddy of all Turkish rarities, this record simply has to be heard to be believed and even then it's still literally unbelievable. Is this record for real? Either these guys had time-machines or DJ Kool Herc had secret Eastern connections. If a box of original copies of this seldom-sighted album had made its way to the South Bronx in the late seventies then Mustafa Ozkent would be sharing throne space with other ultimate breaks and beats such as Michael Viners 'Incredible Bongo Band', Funky Drummer and Johnny The Fox bringing modern record collectors new found Turkish obsession forward by some 20 years.
The material on this album was recorded in 1972 for one of Turkey's more obscure bespoke record labels, 'Evren' records, who were keen to experiment with new developments in stereo reproduction for a commercial market. Ozkent had a good reputation amongst forward-thinking studio engineers and was respected for his work as an arranger with an open mind and wealth of unique musicians at his disposal. On request of Evren bosses, Mustafa embarked on his first self-penned LP which would test the boundaries of the new sonic medium by creating a lively and futuristic rhythmical pop sound. Mustafa enlisted the services of 'Evren' hammond organist Umit Aksu who would inject Hawkshaw style Champ-vamps throughout the LP while a young (future Anadolu SSW star) Cahit Oben would accompany Mustafa on a second guitar to secure some heavy Anatolian-psych interplay begging comparisons to that of Micky Karoli from Krautrockers 'Can' . The utilisation of twin drummers and a percussionist who would play long rhythmical passages without accompaniment would also explain a secure future audience amongst DJ's who were lucky enough to track down the original article. After initial rehearsals of Ozkent's new compositions, Evern were able to secure studio time at Istanbul's legendary Grafson studios where the full band would assemble to record the live music in single takes without overdubs and in the absence of multi channel recording Mustafa adopted some handy microphone techniques to emulate the total-stereo effect and capture the heavy psychedelic effects and solid close-miked beat breaks. In 1973, the ten track album was released with the Turkish title 'GENCLIKLE ELELE' ('Hand In Hand With Youth') with a warm reception from DJ's and nightclubbers through the city, whilst receiving regular plays on radio and television. |
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