The second featured album this week is the new one from Derya Yildirim & Grup Şimşek, Yarin Yoksa, on the Big Crown label.
Yarin Yoksa translates to “If there is no tomorrow.” The band’s PR describes their sound as “Anatolian folk (combined) with psychedelia, pop and soul influences,” and that’s a pretty good starting point. Think Iron Butterfly and Vanilla Fudge from the 60s, with a bit of sunshine pop on tracks like İstanbul’un Kuşları. Other songs, like Bilemedim Ki, lean heavily into singer Derya Yildirim’s Anatolian roots, as do the handful of traditional songs such as Hop Bico, which to my ears, highlights the geographic and cultural overlaps with the rest of the Middle East, despite westerners tending to view Türkiye as a European nation. Plenty of protest lyrics hidden within the sounds. It’s of course not necessary to speak the language to understand that keeping joy in your life is one of the most important tools of resisting oppression.
sounds of the sea 