Album Preview: Various Artists, Import Export A La Turka

Label: Trikont

This companion piece to the 2006 collection Beyond Istanbul: Underground Grooves From Turkey illustrates everything that makes Trikont the world’s best archive compilation label.

From the initial idea – anthologising the music made by Germany’s Turkish immigrant community – to the exhaustive bilingual annotations of the accompanying CD booklet.

It comprises not so much Turkish ethnic music with aWestern gloss, as rock, rap and pop with a Turkish twist, ranging from Fresh Familee’s “Ahmet Gündüz” – the first ever German rap record – to Muhabbet’s “I Liebes Liedchen”, a crossover between modern R&B and the traditional Turkish “arabesque” style.

In between are heavy rock from Grup Ünlü, dancehall reggae from VolkanikMan and the hypnotic trance groove of Beser Sahin’s “Mamanî”.

To order any CD previewed here, call the Independent Music Service on 01634 832 789.