The Off-Colored Officer - Erkin Koray



Yes, the Off-Colored Officer has come back again after quite a long absence, making way for the 30 best albums list. And by the look of things, this should also spell for the return of One Day Holiday and Very Grammatic features as well. To avoid confusion over things, here's an itinerary of how these features will be featured in this blog:
1) One Day Holiday - This is the original feature in this blog where new albums are reviewed. But please do not confuse this feature with REVIEWED. Check number 4 (Hint: Some random thoughts are included)
2) Very Grammatic - When there is absolutely nothing (musically) to talk about, here's where random musings go
3) The Off-Colored Officer - If there is any interesting piece of music from the realms of psych rock, cosmic rock, or anything that is 'weird' that is worth raving about, this is the place to do so
4) REVIEWED - Here is where an album is reviewed, and nothing else. No bulshits, only cold hard facts baby
5) LISTED - When we've ran out of things to BS about, we'll come up with a list. Of things

To kick off 2011 in style, here I re-post again (if not in this blog then it must've been at my previous no-longer-existed blog) a video from Turkey's prominent figure in their rock music history, Erkin 'Baba' Koray. It was largely thanks to this website (quite an unlikely place) who introduced me to this Turkish rock music legend. There will be another Turkish musical legend making an appearance soon, so watch this space out. I don't know why but there is something quite hypnotic about Turkish rock music. Maybe that's why they call it psych rock?

I have absolutely no idea what this song is about but I know that it's one of my all-time favorite off-kilter song.

Very Grammatic - Türk müzik şaşırtıcı

*Very Grammatic is an unscheduled, published-whenever-I-feel-like-it column for Hafeez, a resident blogger for this blog. This column is centered mostly on Hafeez's other main interest: unusual, unique, arty, and weird music that sane people only listen to while high on drugs.



After a long while writing on music that the general population can listen to, I guess it is only a matter of time before I move to my other, shall I say asphyxiation, with unusual music. This usually involves the so-called 'out there' materials - the kind of music that people only make when they are taking something. You know, 'something'. The kind of music that you listen to not for the lyrics, not for the melody, but for the sensation that comes with listening to such songs. I give you a hint: mainstream music, like Lady Gaga for example, are what I reckon as fillers. They fill in the gap in my day - the silence in the absence of any companionship. Then you have underground music which is the party music. You listen to it because you want to enjoy it. You want to revell in the song. Then you have left-field music, like Sigur Ros. You listen to it because you want to feel it. There is always a story behind the lyrics (and if the singer is too groggy to say out the words clearly, then it is the tune), so you want to understand what is it that they are trying to tell you. You listen to it closely and carefully.
Then you have Erkin Koray. It's not a filler. It's not a party tune. It's not trying to tell you any story (apart from the fact that this guy is from Turkey, and he sings in Turkish). It's not even a proper song. It's madness. It's like holding a spoon in a threatening pose up your father-in-law's throat during a Raya gathering while reading out loud a portion of Valdimir Nabokov's Pale Fire. There is nothing that you can make any sense out of. And because of that, it deserves a pigeon hole. It deserves a recognition because if someone had done it and countless other people had done it too, then it darn had to be recognized. Call it the madman's music, the once in a blue moon happenstance, the God-forbid-it's-a-mental-disease-thing-we-have-here twilight zone moment. Bottom line is, someone did it and I am loving it.
I don't know why. It's not about the lyrics, not about the melody, not about the artist or singer involved. Maybe it's the aesthetic of the whole thing. Drugged music is a novel idea that appeals to me like any girl would when receiving a bunch of roses from their significant other. The physical product itself is of no major concern, but it is the thought of it. The very existence of it that makes it all worthwhile. Nevermind the bunch of roses are actually crummy dead flowers obtained from the rubbish bin behind the florist. If it is given, it is romantic. Same with psychedelic music - nevermind that it does not make any sense whatsoever to any and everyone dead and alive, and does not appeal to any and everyone dead and alive and never will, it doesn't matter. Because it is there, someone is doing it, that is all that matters. Nevermind the fact that Erkin Koray is the first rock musician in Turkey. He wrote and played psychedelic rock and that made him simply kicks ass.