BaBa ZuLa – Derin Derin
Glitterbeat Records – 27 September 2019
Derin Derin is an album after my own heart. Multi-cultural, spanning different genres, blending together many diverging elements, this release fits in an ever-growing number of artists that bridge East and West, bringing together cultures all too often assumed to be at odds with one another.
Baba Zula are a four-piece based in Istanbul. Founded by and based around saz player Osman Muret Ortel, the group’s influences range from traditional Turkish music, psychedelia, dub, electronic music and especially the music of krautrock pioneers Can. Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit played with Baba Zula on numerous occasions before his passing and was a major inspiration on the band.
Derin Derin is their first release in four years, based around a soundtrack for a documentary about falcons that the band was asked to make. The music is cinematic and airy, a smorgasbord of sounds running the gamut from abstract electronica to beautiful acoustic and heavy psychedelic sounds.
Experimentation rules, but melody and beauty are never far. One of Baba Zula’s trademark sounds is the combination of saz, a Turkish string instrument, and the Moroccan oud. Both are electrified and although they belong to different traditions, their combination works beautifully and gives the band a unique sound.
Opener “Haller Yollar” starts with Osman’s electric saz playing a slinky melodic figure, as timeless as it is seductive. But then he steps on the wah pedal, letting us know this is not your grandfather’s Turkish folk. The song is mostly hand percussion, saz and vocals, but towards the end electronic elements start creeping in, setting the stage for what is to follow. The juxtaposition between acoustic and electronic elements defines the album, which constantly veers between the two poles, sometimes awkwardly, but most of the time quite masterfully.
“Kizil Gozlum” sounds like a jam by a Turkish indie rock band, or maybe the Velvet Underground stoned out of their mind on some very potent Turkish hash. An irresistible beat, a catchy melody, intense percussion, and psych-rock saz. In a just world, this song would be a world music hit. In “Salin Caksin” the electronic and psychedelic elements really come to the fore, while “Kervan Yolda” is a catchy trance-like tune, with a sombre minimalist groove over which Osman intones the lyrics in a subdued baritone voice.
True to its name, closer “Transendance” is an ethereal little gem, where the influence of having worked with dub producer Mad Professor really shines through. Built on acoustic percussion, Eno-esque synth layers drifting from speaker to speaker and swirling echoes, the song slowly builds up to a frenzied rhythm before fading out the same way the album starts, with a lone saz playing some final ghostly notes.
Maybe a hundred years from now, if mankind survives that long, releases like Derin Derin will give historians an intriguing picture of our times: Fractured yet unifying and exhilarating as they coax beauty and meaning from different sounds, styles and cultures.
Released 27 September 2019. Order via Amazon.
They play at the Jazz Cafe, London on Saturday, 2 November 2019.
Photo Credit: emir sıvacı