5 Songs From The Zenith Of Turkish Progressive Rock

Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Guerssen Records Courtesy of Guerssen Records

My love affair with Turkish psychedelic pop and funky progressive rock developed over time.

First came the chance discovery of a Turkish television music-library record sitting in a New York music store's basement. "Not for sale," the owner said with a laugh as he played me some of the most vicious jazz-rock I'd ever heard. (Later, I confirmed that the "Nathan Davis" listed on the record's label was indeed the Pittsburgh-based saxophonist, which further intrigued me.) Then came the whispers of hip-hop producer J. Dilla sampling the Turkish jam-rock heroes in Moğollar. But I'll never forget the feeling that swept over me as I grasped the cover of the mustachioed maestro Barış Manço's "Gonul Dagi" seven-inch and listened to some of the deepest, funkiest music to ever grace a record's grooves.

Its sonic quality reminded me of a mid-'70s David Axelrod production. Its melodies, filtered from the Anatolian countryside into Istanbul over centuries, sounded perfectly at home when played on a Moog synthesizer. Manço's passable tenor invited comparison to French icon Serge Gainsbourg, while his Ottoman ensemble — pictured on the single's picture sleeve — suggested a flair for the outrageous. Enveloped by the sublime feeling of standing on the edge of a precipice and deciding to jump or meekly back away, I threw myself into Manço's career with abandon.

Spanning nearly four decades, Manço's oeuvre could compel a record collector to purchase a one-way ticket to Ankara in the hopes of uncovering rarities like his Dünden Bugüne, a white whale of a Turkish psych album if ever there was one. Many of Manço's peers — Erkin Koray, Edip Akbayram, Ozdemir Erdogan, Cem Karaca and Ersen Dinletin among them — were Turkish rock innovators in the '70s. But they didn't release such a wide variety of music, nor have they been so celebrated by their own (and other) cultures in the decades since. This sampling below — taken from the early- to mid-'70s portion of Manço's career, when he was most clearly under the spell of psychedelic and progressive rock — helps demonstrate his genius.

Egon is the general manager of the Stones Throw label. He also founded Now-Again Records, which reissues American funk and soul albums, and the Soul-Cal imprint with Peanut Butter Wolf. He DJs funk and psychedelia sets at venues all around the world.