Nublu Records is psyched at the moment in more ways than one as now able to re-release DJ Baris K's classic series of edits of funky psychedelic Turkish 70s classics . Baris took the original songs and extended the breaks and the funky parts for added dance floor effectiveness and the series of 7" 45s these edits were originally released on has become highly sought-after. Barış K, whose Eurasia compilations have helped break the 70s blend of Turkish funk, disco, rock and psychedelia internationally, is an acclaimed DJ with countless festivals and disco nights across Europe under his belt. His editing skills are really showcased on these tracks including pieces from rock stalwarts Cem Karaca and Erkin Koray to disco folksters Derdiyoklar, Urfali Babi and psych-funkers Kamuran Akkor and Nazan Soray. For all those with an interest in exotic world-psych from the 70s this is something not to be missed.

Western music first made inroads within Turkish culture towards the end of the Ottoman Empire. It dovetailed with the efforts towards Westernization of the Empire, entered the country first within urban and cosmopolitan Istanbul and quickly spread from there. Encompassing everything from tango to jazz to rock n' roll, as well as the obligatory foreign pop hits outfitted with Turkish lyrics, new hybrid genres began emerging in rapid succession. Istanbul's aforementioned cosmopolitan nature soon ensured that Turkey experienced new global genres and styles at the same time as everywhere else, powered along by the standard scenario of records being released, receiving copious airplay and catching scores of young ears with the added factors of live performances by touring foreign musicians, and short live music performance videos screened before movies in theaters. As elsewhere around the world, this quickly resulted in an entirely new youth-centered musical and cultural movement.
Popular music in those days followed a similar path worldwide with different genres combining and influencing one another to produce yet more new genres...and Turkey was of course no exception. The fusion of styles, rhythms and instrumentation of both local and Western origins took this diversity even further and the stories of Anatolia came into play. A new genre referred to as "Arabesque," based on Middle Eastern scales and motifs but within a more modern pop framework, took over radio airwaves in the late 70s and was soon dominating the market. Established stars soon found themselves compelled if not obliged to add Arabesque songs to their repertoires. Combined with the socially and politically turbulent period Turkey was experiencing at the time, this soon resulted in socially-conscious big-selling records from the likes of Selda, Cem Karaca and Edip Akbayram.
Moving into the 80s, the Turkish Radio & Television Corporation (TRT) decided to enroll for the first time in the iconic Eurovision Song Contest. Turkey's biggest composers all submitted songs for the country's Eurovision audition which was in itself highly competitive. Turkey didn't initially fare too well in the international competition, which was blamed on "political issues," but remained an enthusiastic yearly participant well into the 90s when Eurovision's (and TRT's) popularity began to wane with the allowance, for the first time, of privately-owned television and music channels in Turkey. Sertab Erener's 2003 victory did, however, reignite the old Eurovision excitement for a new generation.

Istanbul 70 is a compilation originally made and released in 2011 (with the subtitle "Psych, Disco & Folk Classics") that brings together songs from different eras. Many of them were edited by Baris K, one of Turkey's most prominent DJs, and the edits were released on sets of three 7" 45s and 12" singles. What you are holding in your hands is the collected contents of those 7"s and 12"s, containing all of Baris' edits of classic tracks mainly originally from the late 70s when disco swept the planet. There is an impressive diversity on display here despite the similarity of many of the arrangements of that era.
The first track, "Hal Hal," is a love story set in a village and composed by Barış Manço, one of Turkey's absolute most iconic popular musicians. This version is performed by film star Nazan Şoray. Elsewhere on this compilation you will encounter another performance by Nazan Şoray, "Teselliye Sen Gerek,” written by known pop hitmaker Ali Kocatepe. The latter track perfectly exemplifies ‘arabesque’, the dominant music style of the era. "İkimiz Bir Fidanız" is originally an arabesque composition by Hakkı Bulut, one of the hit-makers of that new genre, but this version here, sung by Kamuran Akkor, is more of a ‘westernized’ arrangement. “Ayrılık" performed by Edip Akbayram with his band Dostlar, Erkin Koray’s “Cemalım" arrangement, and "Nem Alacak Felek Benim" performed by Cem Karaca are all important pieces adapted from Turkish folk/roots music. Likewise, "Derman Bulunmaz" by Ersen with Dadaşlar: the folk song from the Sivrialan region has been recorded with the touch of Taner Öngür and Fehiman Uğurdemir. "Yaz Gazeteci”, by Derdiyoklar, published in 1984 in Germany within their sub-genre-defining album called "Disco-Folk", is another title that directly reflects the political atmosphere of its time. It was originally composed by Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, who was one of the last figures of the troubadour tradition, traveling from village to village with their ‘saz’, turning people’s problems and complaints into folk songs to get them heard, before they happened to be broadcasted on radio or pressed on vinyl. Note that Mahzuni was a figure that got arrested for his lyrics, as his records were often confiscated in a manner similar to Brazilian artists like Chico Buarque or Taiguara during the same era.
"Dönme Dolap" is another Ali Kocatepe composition which represented Turkey at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest. It didn't fare very well but proved quite popular on the home front regardless. Performed by Modern Folk Üçlüsü, an interesting band of the era influenced by America's Kingston Trio, playing folk songs in polyphonic. The featured version is performed by Ayşegül Aldinç, who would also become a pop-star over the next few years. It was one of the band's last works but one of her first. “Dalkavuk", is a later track Şenay who was popular with her freedom songs in the 70s. Another product of this same disco line is idiosyncratic singer Urfalı Babi's "Disko Kebap". Osman İşmen's arrangement of "TV Ara Müziği" (literally, "TV Interlude Music") is self-explanatory, being the music heard as a placeholder behind landscape images when TRT was having technical difficulties during a broadcast.
Istanbul 70 tells us the story of Western Music in the land of Turkey, showing us the  panorama of an era, through the filter of popular songs. This compilation carries the diversity of this genre into the present...and of course to the future.