As promised earlier, continuing with our current interest in folk music from far-out corners of the Earth, today we feature another big name from Turkey: Arif Sağ. While our first feature, Erkin Koray, headlined the rock & roll movement in Turkey, our bağlama virtuoso here is more of a folk music hero. Again, as it probably is the norm with musicians from country where English is not the national spoken language, our research on Mr. Arif returned lots of websites in Turkish. But well, you know, sometimes persistence does pay...
Arif Sağ (born 1945 in Aşkale, Erzurum, Turkey) is a singer, bağlama virtuoso and leading figure in modern Turkish folk music, as well as a former MP in the Turkish parliament, and an academic. He taught more than 40.000 students in his music school ASM (Arif Sağ Music). He is a big influence in Turkish Folk Music... (Source)
Yeah, that is pretty much it that we could gather about him. I mean, you could give his official website (Resmi Web Sitesi) a shot, and with the help of Google Translate, we could be going somewhere further, but then that would have probably defeated the real intent and purpose of this post - sharing great music with the rest of the world. I'm not sure about other people but I prefer my foreign language songs to remain alien, so that the exotic remains as exotic as when it was first discovered.
Embedded at the end of this post are two of my favorite songs from Arif Sağ, entitled "Su Samsunun Evleri" (Yeah, very funny Google Translate) and "Osman Pehlivan". Plus, if you really have to find detailed information about the man, this here is it.
I'm feeling a bit nostalgic today as I was browsing through my CD collection when I stumble upon this particular album by one of Malaysia's leading (at one time) electronic music powerhouse, fronted by the 'crazy' duo of Murali and Ghani (of the Syko-G fame). They were called Discomafia and at the turn of the century, they were really huge; albeit in the fringe, but it doesn't matter because they were really good.
It all started way back in the year 2000 when suddenly electronic music started to find a host of talented young men (and woman - just one, from my last count) getting their hands dirty dipping into the burgeoning scene, hoping to make a big breakthrough and strike gold. First there was Deanna Yussof (yes, that only female) who made a surprising switch from the TV screen to FM airwaves with what could possibly be the first (and perhaps the only) English dance music that made it into the mainstream media. Since then, Malaysian listeners, especially those with their ears on the underground scene, were treated with host of other Electronica acts like Discomafia, Spacebar, Herb Vendors, and Rabbit - the once mysterious artist that got the whole nation into a guessing game of trying to figure out who the Hell Rabbit was. But of course right until that moment when he won an award at the AIM for... something that I can't quite remember, when he made his first public appearance and revealed himself to be a somewhat fat Chinese bloke. (No disrespect there, just stating the fact)
The history of Discomafia, if to look at its entirety, is of course all boils down to one man whose stage name is (or is it was?) Syko-G, a.k.a. Ghani. He was once referred to as the "Godfather of Electronica" for his contribution as both artist and producer. He first came into the limelight in 1994 when he won runner-up in the DJ Open Competition held in Kuala Lumpur. Since then, he worked his way through by producing various albums and songs by wide ranging number of artists, with one particular song that got him listed for an award.
After his successful foray in the mainstream music, Ghani retreated into the dark and unforgiving world of underground music by producing his own composition, mixing samples from many popular Malaysian bands, into his own brand of industrial electronica. This was also when he formed the Metaldogg Records - the home base where Discomafia's first and only album was produced, entitled Attaque the Megaphone. It is suffice for me to say that as how it stands at this moment, this album now is a legend. It is a huge milestone where the development of Electronic music in Malaysia is concerned.
It all came to be with the ill-fated Melawati Jungle Rave party in the year 2000 where Discomafia performed at some club partially hidden among the wilderness (which is absolutely understandable because the Melawati area itself was purposely built to be 'in' the jungle). It was perhaps an entirely innocent party where a few guests had some drinks and live music was played but somehow one certain tabloid got a whiff of it and blew the Goddamn trumpet off towards the local authority, claiming it was some sort of 'wild party' that is taking place in the jungle. Here in the reserved, humble country called Malaysia, such 'wild' antic is a cardinal sin an therefore cannot be tolerated. No sir, no way.
Alas, despite the solitary bad note there created unnecessarily by those idiots at Harian Metro (they are a very famous tabloid here in Malaysia - famous for melting your brain every time you go anywhere near it), there were also a number of respectable achievements that Murali and Ghani received that is worth mentioning here. This album managed to be on the top spot in the charts for some time, and the leading track off this album, "Searching For..." made it to number 2 on the Malaysian English Top Ten chart in 2001. The now legendary publication Tone Magazine listed them at number 3 in their Urban Malaysia's Top 30 list. The praises just keeps on coming in until when the committees of the POPKOMM Music Festival got hold of the band, they instantly fell in love and listed them to perform at the festival, held in Cologne, Germany in 2001. From there onwards, they performed at festivals in Berlin and Amsterdam - of course, the homeland of Dance music. Sadly though, 2001 was also the last of which anyone would have hear on anything regarding Discomafia because Ghani then parted ways with Murali and soldiered on, alone as Syko-G.
Yes, just like Komplot, they too existed for only two years. Sad.
P/S: This was the only video of Discomafia that I can find after nearly one hour searching through Youtube. I would probably skip through to 4:30 where they broke out into the song that was track number 2 on the album (I forgot the title) in which they were really famous for among Malaysian listener. Their album is now a real rare item because even a good second hand CD shop don't carry their album. The only place that I somehow managed to find it was here. Thank God I already bought that album before it went almost extinct.
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 withREVIEWED. 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.
