Obscurity Points // Selda
So, interviews are a pain in the ass to transcribe. Because I don’t do them very often, the feature section doesn’t get updated much, so now I’ll be posting about obscure bands and artists from time to time with this new feature called Obscurity Points, as in you get points for knowing obscure stuff. That’s the idea behind the title. Anyways…
This week I was listening to Young Magic‘s awesome mixtape that Portals posted in the Silk Screens post they did with him. One track stood out big time and I found out it was a song called “Yaylalar” by a Turkish artist from the 70′s called Selda.
According to AllMusic.com, Selda was just a Turkish chick that liked to play guitar and sing until some singles she recorded sold close to a million copies. Then she made some albums that got a lot of attention, was imprisoned by the Turkish government in the 80′s for singing some political stuff they weren’t too pleased about, was released, and made some more albums.
Listening to her, it’s easy to see why she captivated Turkish listeners and hardcore record collectors alike: she’s pretty damn good. Her guitar work is great – fuzzy spirited stuff that sounds a lot like what 60′s psychedelic guitarists were doing in their time, but what’s really interesting is the use of synthesizers that sometimes sound kind of like Arabic/Indian flutes or something. And whoever’s playing bass is also doing a pretty solid job holding stuff, down, at least on her ’76 eponymous debut, which is, so far, the only album of hers I’ve heard. As a vocalist also she’s pretty solid.
She’s released some music in the last decade, but apparently it wasn’t that great. Not unusual. Anyways, there you go, your obscurity points just went up big time. You’re welcome.
Tags: portals, selda, young magic
