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Mustafa Ozkent, "Genclik Ile Elele"
Rare records are funny things; to some people the value of the record is in how many were pressed and the quirks of individual pressings. To others it is the music that counts, to hell with catalogue numbers and whether it has misprinted labels. This is a release to appeal to those in the former category, rare as hen's teeth but nothing to write home about.
A lot of this album sounds like jams without much direction; the music does not have enough energy to warrant a jam for jam's sake. Moments of excitement do occur like the savage bass line of "Burcak Tarlalari" or the organ solo in "Zeytinyagi" (which is strangely faded out just as it gets going). However, much of the music just blends into one amorphous blob. There is no identity to the music, no fire in the performance and considering the 35 years since its first release, there is nothing here that does not sound completely dated.
This is surprising considering that according to the album's sleeve notes Ozkent was a whiz kid when it came to modifying and inventing instruments. Yet despite the talk of guitars with extra frets and his apparent mastery of electronics, Genclik Ile Elele comes across as a soulless version of Can's Ege Bamyasi as covered by the resident band of a tacky Istanbul drinking establishment. It fades into the background just as much as a holiday resort band does, it does not command attention in any meaningful way.
I can understand why B-Music would like to reissue this considering that the breaks are pretty cool but I would rather hear the end results of this being sampled for use in other works. Even then, I am not sure how important a good break beat is any more considering the vast majority of sampled music (read: pop) is incredibly boring and astoundingly lazy. What was cutting edge in the early days of the turntable is a hackneyed standard now but I digress.
Genclik Ile Elele is of curiosity value for those who do not have big enough wallets to buy an original copy or for those afraid of devaluing an investment. Yes it is a rare record but rarity does not equal quality.
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