Paul Stokes, Q and BBC Radio 6 Music journalist, on Grup Simsek’s Kar Yagar.
It’s frightening to think what one might miss – both old and new – without Reverberation Radio. Posted online every Wednesday by members of the Los Angeles band Allah-Las, each playlist is joyously mind-expanding both sonically and in terms of what you might need to add to your record collection.
Not too long ago, tucked away amongst the vintage cuts, was a song called New Kaldi by a band called Grup Simsek.
On one level the group didn’t sound out of place among the classic sounds, yet there is also something fresh about their psychedelic explorations. Naturally, I’ve become obsessed.
Nem Kaldi is an intoxicating mix of sitar-like guitars, enveloping melodies and singer Derya Yildirim’s bewitching vocals. She hails from Turkey and gives the group a unique East meets West dynamic. The other players – Andrea Piro, Graham Mushnik and Antonin Voyant, who are based in London and France and run Catapulte Records, and British composer Greta Eacott – ebb and flow through a variety of musical traditions.
The result means their recent debut album Kar Yagar proved an enthralling and varied Turkish delight.
