Wild Turkey: Everybody's Erkin for the Weekend

Erkin Koray - Türkü

OK, I admit it: I can't resist a good pun.

So I am here to fill up your Turkey Day with... wait for it... some of the greatest music ever to emerge from Turkey.

Years back, I covered perhaps the most beloved musician ever to come from that country, and the fruits of 11 years of labor can be found here if you're curious... and you should be, because this shit bumps.

Today we shall cover maybe the second most revered Turkish rock musician, with a little tape I have in my phone for those moments when I need to hear something that sounds halfway between ancient Anatolian mountain music and the funkatized clavinet stylings of Stevie Wonder or Isaac Hayes.

I got into this crazy genre called Turkish Funk and Psych many moons ago... for the full story just read the other post I linked to above.

Anyway Erkin Koray has been at this a long time and (AFAIK) he is still alive in his eighties!

Sometimes referred to as the Hendrix of Turkey, his music is perhaps the most guitar-driven of the myriad Turkish rockers of the folklore of the last 60 years, since the first fuzzbox landed in Ankara.

I've never covered him before and this compilation's been in my phone for years, so I thought I'd use today -- it's associated with turkey! -- to drop it in your cranberry sauce like a big ol' Istanbul in a china shop.

Erkin Koray
Estarabim
1972-83

01 Züleyha
02 Arap Saçı
03 İllaki
04 Suskunluğun Ötesi
05 Cümbür Cemaat (version 1)
06 Ay Bir Tane
07 Estarabim
08 Mağarada Düğün
09 Goca Dünya
10 Bekle
11 Bir Olasılık
12 Karli Dağlar
13 Dişi Kedi
14 Hele Yar
15 Cümbür Cemaat (version 2)
16 Türkü
17 Ve...
18 Şaşkın

Total time: 1:18:55

compilation from various out-of-print -- some bootleg! -- issues of 1970s/1980s funky Erkin Koray tunes, made by EN (who denoised and speed corrected some of the tracks) sometime in the mid-2010s
479 MB FLAC/direct link

I might do one more for November or I might not... I have had a nasty cold so I've been off audio remasterings for a minute.

The tryptophan might put you to sleep, but you better not slumber upon this 79-minute shot of Wild Turkey, which comes courtesy of psychmaster Erkin Koray! Happy Funksgiving everyone!--J.