What do you think?
Rate this book
The Turkish Psychedelic Explosion: Anadolu Psych 1965-1980
The long forgotten story of Turkish psychedelic music in the twentieth century, told in relation to the social, political and cultural climate of the time.
In the mid-1960s, a new generation of young Turkish musicians combined Western pop music with traditional Anatolian folk to forge the home-grown phenomenon of Anadolu Pop. But that was just the beginning. Through the second half of that turbulent decade, Turkish rock warped and transformed, striking out into wilder and stranger territory – fuelled by the psychedelic revolution and played out over a backdrop of cultural, social and political turmoil.
The Turkish Psychedelic Music Explosion tells the story of a musical movement that was brought to an end by a right-wing coup in 1980, largely forgotten and only recently being rediscovered by Western crate-diggers. It’s a tale of larger-than-life musical pioneers with raging political passions and visionary ideas ripe for rediscovery.
In the mid-1960s, a new generation of young Turkish musicians combined Western pop music with traditional Anatolian folk to forge the home-grown phenomenon of Anadolu Pop. But that was just the beginning. Through the second half of that turbulent decade, Turkish rock warped and transformed, striking out into wilder and stranger territory – fuelled by the psychedelic revolution and played out over a backdrop of cultural, social and political turmoil.
The Turkish Psychedelic Music Explosion tells the story of a musical movement that was brought to an end by a right-wing coup in 1980, largely forgotten and only recently being rediscovered by Western crate-diggers. It’s a tale of larger-than-life musical pioneers with raging political passions and visionary ideas ripe for rediscovery.
- GenresMusic
281 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 13, 2018
6 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 1, 2020
Daniel Spicer's 'The Turkish Psychedelic Music Explosion: Anadolu Psych 1965-1980' has been gettting excellent and rave reviews for one reason and one reason only: The reviewers know even less about the subject than Spicer who made 300+ mistakes in a 255 page book. But that's the kind of book that results from a 3 week vacation in Turkey and lots of furious googling: He has a real knack for referencing sources that don't know what they're talking about. Thus, he presents incorrect song titles, incorrectly translated titles, bogus song titles, incorrect years of release, etc. He is unable to discern the big picture and misses the essential 'little pictures,' and ignores essential precursors. He does have a nice chapter on Turkish jazz, but why is it in this book? I guess he happened to meet a jazz musician while on holiday... It's too bad that Spicer didn't meet a belly dancer; then, instead of the irrelevant chapter on jazz, he might've had a chapter on Turkish psychedelic belly dance bands. And yes, they existed and were great! It is a relevant sub genre of the Turkish psych exposion. And I doubt that Spicer even knows that these bands existed or that the best one was reissued on CD a few years ago to zero fanfair and zero reviews (and I'm listening to it as I write)... Here's just one example of a problem caused by lack of actual research: Spicer has a nice description of the venue where Erkin Koray's fantastic live concert was recorded. It is known as 'Live in Nazilli' and has been bootlegged and bits are on Youtube. In the summer of '74 Erkin's Süpergrup did an Aegean tour. Drummer Nihat Ororel recorded every concert on tape as a reference to check out the next day. He recorded every concert on the one tape, taping over the previous concert. And Nihat has no idea where the concert was recorded. Nazilli is just one of 4 or 5 towns where it might have been recorded. So why is it called 'Live in Nazilli'? Because the jackass who uploaded the tape to Youtube picked that town to mention. Maybe it was Nazilli, maybe not. (BTW: Uploading the tape to Youtube caused an American record label to drop plans for a legitimate release with copious liner notes written by yours truly.) And what happenned 25 years later when Erkin tried to reform the Süpergrup? Spicer can't tell you because that would've required actual research...
While fans of the Turkish psych genre are few in number, they deserve far better than this, as Spicer just didn't bother to make the effort. If you bought this book, you were cheated. This is the worst, most incomptent music book I've ever read; a book so bad that I question just how reputable the publisher can be. I would guess: NOT VERY.
While fans of the Turkish psych genre are few in number, they deserve far better than this, as Spicer just didn't bother to make the effort. If you bought this book, you were cheated. This is the worst, most incomptent music book I've ever read; a book so bad that I question just how reputable the publisher can be. I would guess: NOT VERY.
July 18, 2018
2.5/5
To some degree I admire this book but also think it would be better suited much abridged as liner notes for a compilation album. It’s mostly a collection of biographies that largely entail descriptions of music - that is, tiresome music-journo adjectives ambiguously telling us what a bass line sounds like. Reviews that describe what’s being heard are pointless, and this is essentially a 250 page book of them. I wanted more analysis, more history, more context. The author hints at an artist having left-wing tendencies or at a band combining ‘east’ and ‘west’ but these lines of enquiry are essentially inconsequential. There’s no real thesis, or revelation, or meat to it.
That said, it is mostly enjoyable. The writing is decent and it does do the music justice, I guess. The final chapters (an interview and a conclusion) are the most enlightening although perhaps that returns to my comment that it’d be better suited, abridged, as liner notes. Enjoyable, just underwhelming.
To some degree I admire this book but also think it would be better suited much abridged as liner notes for a compilation album. It’s mostly a collection of biographies that largely entail descriptions of music - that is, tiresome music-journo adjectives ambiguously telling us what a bass line sounds like. Reviews that describe what’s being heard are pointless, and this is essentially a 250 page book of them. I wanted more analysis, more history, more context. The author hints at an artist having left-wing tendencies or at a band combining ‘east’ and ‘west’ but these lines of enquiry are essentially inconsequential. There’s no real thesis, or revelation, or meat to it.
That said, it is mostly enjoyable. The writing is decent and it does do the music justice, I guess. The final chapters (an interview and a conclusion) are the most enlightening although perhaps that returns to my comment that it’d be better suited, abridged, as liner notes. Enjoyable, just underwhelming.
March 28, 2020
Colorfully written and with a decent amount of historical context, but I kept wishing the whole thing had been reorganized into chapters focused on shared themes instead of individual artists. As it is, it reads like liner notes rather than a book.
March 21, 2020
Great introduction to this music, and you can make a great playlist with all the songs he mentions.
March 26, 2018
This was a wonderful book. Thank you very much! This was a wonderful book. Thank you very much! This was a wonderful book. Thank you very much! This was a wonderful book. Thank you very much! This was a wonderful book. Thank you very much! This was a wonderful book. Thank you very much!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews