Extremely compelling work from the Turkish scene of the early 70s -- music that fuses rock and folk roots, and which makes heavy use of the Turkish baglama -- an instrument with strong sitar-like qualities! Most of the tunes here are instrumentals that lay the baglama solos out over heavier rhythms -- in a driving sound that's certainly got roots in folk, but which comes off with more of a rock-like intensity. There's a bit of fuzz on some of the instrumentation, but we can't tell for sure how much electricity was used by the band -- and although the English language notes on the CD do a great job of laying out the group's history and recordings, we wish they'd give a bit more specifics on that front! CD features a fair number of bonus tracks, including key recordings done by Mogollar in Paris -- and titles include "Ozum Kaldi", "Misket", "Behind The Dark", "Hicaz Mandira", "Yine Bir Gulnihal", "Senhaz Longa", "Hitchin", "Dag Ve Cocuk", and "Garip Coban".
--Dusty Groove
Anadolu Pop, yeah! It's no secret that for the Aquarius staff and quite a few of our customers, the rock 'n' folk of hippie-era Turkey holds a BIG attraction. We're way into all the comps and reissues that have come out in recent years documenting how back in the late '60s and early '70s Turkish youth took the Western beat and psychedelic sounds that were current at the time and melded them to traditional Turkish folk forms, with fuzz guitars and ethnic instrumentation like saz and iklig combined into an energetic, 'exotic' and exceedingly infectious hybrid pop music. And perhaps the best example of this Middle Eastern psych-rock is the band Mogollar (aka Les Mogol). We've already freaked out about the one cd of their stuff we've previously been able to stock, the Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie album from 1971. Now, the same Korean reissue label brings us another, their rare self-titled second album (also it seems from '71), and it's just as good! The first track you might recognize from the Asian installment of the Love, Peace, & Poetry series. And one of the bonus tracks is on Hava Narghile compilation, while two are amped-up versions of songs from Danses et Rhythmes. Yep, there's eight utterly kick ass bonus tracks, all from 1970 or '71 singles releases, that are a bit more rocked (and tripped) out than the somewhat folkier instrumentals on the album proper. You can hear more of an Iron Butterfly influence on a few of these...and Byram hears hints of the Beefheart rhythm section circa Mirror Man on "Behind The Dark", one of the couple English-language tracks here. Awesome, essential. As is the whole album. Languid grooves, frenzied fretting, such great atmosphere, just wonderful stuff. The cd booklet includes photos and an informative English-language essay detailing the history of the band, which is great to have (even if it doesn't tell us in what year this was released). Definitely add this to your Turkish psych-pop collection, or start one with this!!
--Aquarius Records
Ace album of hard-driving instrumental Turkish beats - heavy on the percussion and Middle Eastern twang! One of the best Turkish albums you can buy! This is a great reissue of the incredibly rare second album from Mogollar, which does not even appear in the band's own discography, but was released on Diskotur all the same sometime around 1971; eleven perfect examples of the group's 'Andalou pop' mixture of ethnic Turkish music and Western elements, plus eight bonus tracks from singles (including different heavier versions of two tracks from their Danses et Rhythmes album) makes for one great disc! The CD booklet comes with band history and includes some photos! Very highly recommended!
--soundsoftheuniverse.com
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