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ARTIST
TITLE
Istanbul Sokaklari
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
GB 163CD GB 163CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/6/2025

This legendary Istanbul band remains the most experimental exponent of the hotly-tipped contemporary Turkish psych-rock scene. BaBa ZuLa are revered sonic trailblazers who have built a cult following in all corners of the globe and can count members of Einstürzende Neubauten, Can, and Nick Cave the Bad Seeds as their fans. Pulsing, hypnotic tracks powered by Turkish percussion, glitched electronics, deep bass, electric saz and dual male/female vocals. İstanbul Sokakları (Streets of Istanbul) is a vivid sonic and political statement from a band that continues to show listeners the future. It's a modus operandi that has marked them out as true iconoclasts. "Lots of Turkish musicians are fundamentalists," says co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Levent Akman. "They want it acoustic, and they hate Murat because he plays electric. We are trying to break these kinds of borders." Their latest album İstanbul Sokakları (Streets of Istanbul) contains no shortage of the hypnotic jams that have become their calling card. Across three extended pieces -- the six-minute "Arsız Saksağan (Cheeky Magpie)," the eight-minute "Yaprakların Arasından (In Between the Leaves)" and the eleven-minute "Yok Haddi Yok Hesabı (No Limits No Calculation)," they delve deep into group meditations that surge and swell with relentless percussion, dark atmospherics constantly pushed into ecstatic peaks by the biting electric saz, and vocals by turns seductive and exhorting by Murat Ertel and female vocalist (and spouse), Esma Ertel.