We're getting to the point now of tidying up loose ends on Music Arcades, getting our affairs in order, before this site itself becomes rotting compost for the web. That means I'm rounding up some of the stuff that I've noticed on my shelves that never made it into the database that had underpinned this site for the last five and half years. The introduction of these leftovers could mean that we're going out with a whimper rather than a bang — but not if these cassettes are any portent of what we're in for.
During or after his teaching post in Ankara, Richard visited me one time in Sheffield and gave me these cassettes. They came with a story of a long bicycle trip to the east of Turkey. And the assurance that at least one of the cassettes was considered subversive in Turkey. "You can get arrested just for stocking this one," said Richard. I guess from my Wikipedia researches that that was probably Grup Yorum, because Richard told me how the Kurds were persecuted in Turkey, though Cem Karaca also spent years in exile. More of that in a minute. I fear that, not for the first time, I was insufficiently grateful to Richard for these gifts, and I don't think I played them much. I was so dismissive of their value that I didn't even bother to include them in the database of my collection (which I first compiled about a decade ago for insurance purposes — after Tim's collection got flooded in a domestic accident!).
My loss, because as soon as I put the Grup Yorum tape on, I realised it was something special. True, the first track on their Türkülerle remains my favourite across all three albums, but there's plenty to savour here. The Boy enjoyed Le Hanim and asked me to sing along, even in the instrumental bits. Here's a live performance of another of the songs on Türkülerle (which translates simply as "folk songs"):
It makes you realise how long the long tail is. I thought I knew about world music. A moment's reflection shows what a stupid, conceited notion that was — as though anyone could keep on top of the best music from around the world. For here are three acts, all making interesting noises, all with careers that span decades, all with well-developed Wikipedia articles and, of course, plentiful songs on YouTube. Perhaps they get covered in magazines like Songlines or fRoots. But I searched the BBC sites, and Cem Karaca has been played a couple of times on 6 Music (Gideon Coe is such a star: his programme reaches the parts other DJs cannot reach), Arif Sağ twice on Late Junction, but of Grup Yorum there's no trace of a broadcast. They're still going strong — and, refreshingly, with the same logo as they had twenty years ago.
Cem Karaca seems to be pretty hardcore. With a tape that's over two decades old, it can be hard to tell which effects are on the original production and which are the effects of physical decay, but sometimes the drum sound is really extreme: a snare that sounds like a tea tray, a bass drum that sounds like elephant hide, and nothing much in between. There's plenty of drama in his delivery. Of the three, Arif Sağ is closest to the kind of thing you might expect to hear in a restaurant in Kilburn on Dalston.
But there I go being dismissive again. What's wrong with music played in restaurants, and why are we so snobby about what we hear there if it's not featured in fRoots or the Guardian music podcast. I love this part of the account of Brian Eno's game of "radio ping pong" with Charlie Gillett:
Brian introduced his first choice by observing that some of the best music he hears these days is in his local newsagent in Queensway, West London, which plays nothing but modern Arabic pop music. If Brian hears a song he particularly likes, he buys the CD and takes it home, unable to read the Arabic script and having no idea who the singers might be. We asked listeners if they could identify the singer of his first choice, and several recognised Amr Diab, whose flamenco-flavoured 'Nour El Ain' has been one of the biggest Arabic pop hits of the past ten years. Brian's choice turned out to be a song from Amr's latest album.
You see, Eno wouldn't have ignored these gifts. Thank you, Richard.
|
MusicBrainz entry for Türkülerle Wikipedia entry for Grup Yorum, Arif Sağ, Cem Karaca Some metadata about Türkülerle at Last.fm |
Comments