ianmcdonald ([info]ianmcdonald) wrote,
@ 2006-12-04 16:56:00
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Current location:Porcupine Tree: Voyage 34
Entry tags:manchester city, music, turkey, writing

your assistance please
well, since meeting with New Editor last week in That London (much talk of football and the existential catastrophe that is Chelsea), it seems like a quick change of writing plan. Yup, looks like it's going to be Turkey next. (Mainstream novel on hold again) Draft outline blazed out of me in half an hour yesterday (and will include Enron-esque energy trading, a stray line from an old edition of Prospect about how some hospital patients might benefit more from a prescription of religion than pharma, and a Mellified Man. Set over a week in post-EU membership Turkey circa 2025-2028. Lot's more work to do on the outline, but it's big, it glows, it's complex.

Here I need your help good people. Listening suggestions for a soundtrack, please? All other suggestions very welcome and will be acknowledged in the book.


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[info]liadnan
2006-12-04 04:15 pm UTC (link)
http://www.mercandede.com/md/index2.html ?

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[info]liadnan
2006-12-04 05:08 pm UTC (link)
(Or there's always http://www.kanyak.com/lyrics.html )

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[info]alexmc
2006-12-04 04:26 pm UTC (link)
very very hard to reply to this without being sarcastic about Turkey (eg "The Theme tune to MASH")

I'll comment again when I can think of something serious.

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[info]mawombat
2006-12-04 07:52 pm UTC (link)
don't understand this...

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[info]alexmc
2006-12-04 08:06 pm UTC (link)
I wouldnt worry about it. It wasnt a good joke likening Turks to the North Koreans.

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[info]mawombat
2006-12-05 05:20 am UTC (link)
what a stretch!

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[info]taraljc
2006-12-04 04:52 pm UTC (link)
this may sound a bit daft, but I've found the Children of Dune and Battlestar Galactica (particularly season 2) scores are very very conducive to writing, particularly with the drums in both. And no pesky lyrics (in English) to get in the way.

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[info]rimrunner
2006-12-04 05:36 pm UTC (link)
For some reason, Savina Yannatou came to mind.

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[info]flyingsauce
2006-12-04 05:44 pm UTC (link)
The Turkish 'ney' flautist Kudsi Erguner is pretty much obligatory. Plenty of his stuff on Amazon, but I recommend a very moody/ethnic 1991 CD 'Oriental Dreams' on which he features. If you like I can burn you a copy as it's probably pretty hard to find now.

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[info]aeglefinus
2006-12-04 06:23 pm UTC (link)
Turkish Eurovision 2003 winner Sertab Erener - http://www.sertab.com/
MTV Turkey launched recently - http://www.mtv.com.tr

Turkey 2005 population = 73m, Germany = 82m, UK = 60m
Turkey 2025 population = 90m, Germany = 82m, UK = 64m
using UN medium variants - http://esa.un.org/unpp/
So it would be the biggest EU country.

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[info]melusinehr
2006-12-04 06:26 pm UTC (link)
The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan wanders a little from Turkey, but quite a lot of the music on the set has Turkish origins. Some really gorgeous stuff on there.

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[info]slothman
2006-12-04 07:06 pm UTC (link)
Not quite Turkish, but you might want to try Sebastian Taylor’s work on Angel Tears and Kaya Project; this is work in the vein of Songs from the Victorious City, which he acknowledges as an inspiration. (He does some good goa trance under the name Shakta.)

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[info]kfringe
2006-12-04 07:27 pm UTC (link)
I really don't know your musical taste (mellow, hard, dreamy, trippy, groovy, insane, awful), so I'll hold back on my suggestions.

Unfortunately, it is my moral duty to remind you to blast Cortez the Killer at high volume for at least part of the time. Blast it. You want your speakers to have you arrested for abuse. It'll be good for your soul.

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[info]mawombat
2006-12-04 07:50 pm UTC (link)
Laço Tayfa's Turkish jazz is amazingly atmospheric.
For Turkish pop, Tarkan's Dudu and Mustafa Sandal's Moonlight are very usefl (and the latter is in English).
Can Attila's techno instrumentals are gorgeous, and In Betty Ween's are funny but both less typically "Turkish" if the latter is what you are looking for.
Mor ve Ötesi is great Turkish rock and Duman is great Turkish grunge.

This post:
http://mawombat.livejournal.com/64293.html
has a lot of Turkish music listed...

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[info]pompe
2006-12-04 07:54 pm UTC (link)
Hmm. The soundtrack to Midnight Express is perhaps a bit too synth-dated and a bit unfair to a modern Turkey.

Preisner's "Song for the Unification of Europe", two versions from his soundtrack to Kieslowski's "Bleu" - that might be fitting for a post-EU Turkey. I guess you've already read Pamuk's Istanbul, if not I'd certainly recommend that.

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[info]mckitterick
2006-12-04 07:55 pm UTC (link)
Hm. Near-future Turkey...I suggest:

Galactic Caravan: Intergalactic Bellydance.

Sa'id Mrad 1,001 Nights.

Anything by Natacha Atlas.

If you want some espionage-sounding stuff, I'm really happy with the
Propellerheads. Probably especially good for writing action sequences is this CD.

Of course, I like all kinds of things for writing; mood is more important to me than specific content. For a funky epsionag-ey mood, I always love Chemical Brothers.

Now I shall stop this *g*

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[info]mckitterick
2006-12-04 07:59 pm UTC (link)
Oh, and not quite Turkish, but you might want to try Sebastian Taylor's work
on Angel Tears and Kaya Project; this is work in the vein of Songs from the Victorious City, which he acknowledges as an inspiration. (He also does some good goa trance under the name Shakta.)

Going. Now.

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[info]asphalteden
2006-12-04 08:02 pm UTC (link)
You know I could give you recommendations from my genres, but are you looking for purely Turkish and Turkish inspired music?

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[info]frandowdsofa
2006-12-04 08:30 pm UTC (link)
There's some interesting Russian urban folk/jazz out there. I don't understand the lyrics, but the music seems to be about taking old cultural traditions and adjusting them to new political circumstances, sometimes with urban sound effects sampled as part of the mix. Look for Zulya (the album I've got is The Waltz of the Emptiness). It's dark, melancholic, melodic and yet somehow cocktail lounge at the same time.

Or there's a Turkish podcast out there called Alt Sokak, which will give you an idea of what modern Turkish culture likes. It's horrible ...

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[info]ianmcdonald
2006-12-06 03:31 pm UTC (link)
horrible could be just what I'm look for... I love popular culture. Thanks!

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About Alt Sokak
(Anonymous)
2007-04-25 06:47 pm UTC (link)
It is horrible for some people and precious for the rest of us. Thanks for giving it a try by the way. :)

Alt Sokak Team

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[info]outerego
2006-12-04 09:26 pm UTC (link)
Although Spanish with an Arabic influence: Esplendor Geometrico.

A bit more on message with the Turkish theme: Peter Murphy, beginning with "All Night Long", "Holy Smoke" and then the more overtly Turkish collaboration "Dust".

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[info]markteppo
2006-12-05 04:23 am UTC (link)
Laszlo Hortobagyi -- Hungarian, but he trawls wide with his net.

Burhan Ocal -- Groove Alla Turca especially. The stuff looping on his site is from his collaborations with Peter Namlook on FAX

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[info]ghostwes
2006-12-05 05:10 am UTC (link)
Interesting request.

A while ago, Peter Murphy (of Bauhaus fame) converted to Islam and moved to Turkey. A lot of his recent music has been very much inspired by this and what I've heard has been quite good. I supposed a Europified Turkey and a Turkified European might have something in common heh.

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60s Turkish psych-rock
(Anonymous)
2006-12-06 01:27 am UTC (link)

The underground music scene is beginning to get into Turkish music, especially 60s psych-rock.

I did a search at Aquarius Records (http://www.aquariusrecords.org) for the following:

V/A Beyond Istanbul: Underground Grooves Of Turkey (Trikont) (from very recently)
Edip Akbayram, 2CD comp (Shadoks) (60's psych-rock)
John Berberian, Middle Eastern Rock (not strickly Turkish but from the 60s and definitely in the spirit)
Erkin Koray Elektronik Turkuler (Dogan / World Psychedelia Ltd.) (more Turkish psych-rock)
MOGOLLAR s/t (World Psychedelia Ltd) (60's psych-rock)

You can find more by searching under Turkey at the Aquarius Records website. They're big into Turkish pop & rock so it might be worth your while.

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Re: 60s Turkish psych-rock
[info]ianmcdonald
2006-12-06 09:50 am UTC (link)
I've got 'Beyond Istanbul', which is great fun.

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[info]narmitaj
2006-12-06 10:32 am UTC (link)
Well, there's the Pogues and "Turkish Song of the Damned" which sounds pretty good but appears to have little to do with Turkey.

There's also Banoffi, a UK 3-piece folk band with some East European and even some Turkish influence. They split up in 2004 and may be hard to track down as they've let their websites go & Amazon & iTunes don't appear to carry them. Produced 3 albums incl Galata Bridge, which includes the title song and Aya Sofia. http://www.last.fm/music/Banoffi/+wiki

I haven't posted here before but have been looking in since I finished River of Gods a few weeks ago.

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[info]ianmcdonald
2006-12-06 02:49 pm UTC (link)
you're very welcome! And thanks for the suggestions!

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[info]mawombat
2006-12-12 04:43 pm UTC (link)
istanbul calling is good too
and tea party's "the grand bazaar" is very good even if it's about turkey but not turkish, if you get my meaning

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[info]mawombat
2006-12-12 10:11 pm UTC (link)
oh and loreena mckennitt's An Ancient Muse. Stop me! I keep thinking of more music. AAAAA!

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Not specifically Turkish
[info]happyinmotion
2006-12-12 08:16 pm UTC (link)

but more about all the boundaries of Europe:
Asian Dub Foundation - "Fortress Europe"
New Model Army - "Higher Wall" and "Brother"

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Re: Not specifically Turkish
[info]ianmcdonald
2006-12-13 09:46 am UTC (link)
'Fortress Europe' is great --it's part of the River of Gods soundtrack, as well as their excellent Rafi's Revenge

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Music and Books
(Anonymous)
2006-12-20 02:44 pm UTC (link)
All of Tarkan, of course. Another good one on the pop side is Hakan Peker. I have a compilation here called Bodrum Nights (from BMG) that's all Turkish pop. They suggest the web site club-rakkas.de for keeping up with Turkish parties (mostly in German, though). If you can't get to Turkey much for research, then any large German city will also have connections that you'll want to sample, and in addition to the ethnic businesses, the main record shops will have decent selections of Turkish stuff. I've also long enjoyed the soundtrack to Suleyman the Magnificent: atmospheric and traditional, but not stodgy. The same people tried something similar on an album called Fire Dance, but it didn't work quite as well.

You've read Bruce Sterling's Zeitgeist of course? Don't know if it was widely available in the UK, but Stephen Kinzer's book Crescent and Star not only gives good overview but also investigates interesting corners, like his stint as a blues DJ or the effect of returning Korean War veterans back in the 50s. Pamuk, naturally, Snow and Istanbul being the best. Andrew Mango is probably better known in the UK, with The Turks Today preferable to the exhaustive biography of Ataturk.

-- Doug Merrill, fistfulofeuros.net

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