The Istanbul Music Scene

What comes to mind when you hear the word "holiday"?

One can only presume that it's lazing around on sunny beaches with a Mojito in one hand while with the other hand you draw circles in the warm sand with your finger tips as you give yourself skin cancer for a tan that will only last you a month. If that doesn't float your boat then I'm going to appeal to all American films and suggest drinking hot chocolate by a crackling fire, high up in the mountains where you make the occasional skiing trip in the cushion like snow. Sorry, the literature here is terrible because I can't be bothered to emote you today.

Moving on, my holiday this year consisted of me making a two week trip to what I consider to be the most beautiful city in the world, Istanbul. 2 years ago if I had mentioned Turkey to any of my non-Turkish friends, women in black sheets, men with 3 wives, 7575 children and 9867587 grandchildren along with forced marriages came to mind...lets not forget the incest. However, that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. I won't go into detail because i'm slowly getting bored of trying to get to the point. ANYWAY, it wasn't the City or the progression in Turkey that caught my attention, it was the music scene.

So here's my list of musicians who (for me) define the Istanbul Music Scene...

Athena

Hayko Cepkin

Can Bonomo

Dengesiz Herifler

Duman (I was very lucky to be able to meet these guys when they did a gig here in London, and let me tell you...they're quite simply something else)

Halil Sezai

ZagaBand

Yasar Kurt

I could go on and on and on if I wanted, but these guys have their own playlists on my iPod because they've made or could potentially make such an impact on this new and upcomming scene.

For anyone who may recognise any of these artists, I know that some of them are also very mainstream yet others...i'm guessing 1% of the Turkish Population know of them. Check them out for a musical orgasm.

Peace x