Review: Kırkbinsinek - Sis Pus Sus

This is a real beauty from Turkey via World In Sound records. Kırkbinsinek are four guys from Istanbul (Alper Antmen (guitars,lead vocals), Barış Güvenenler (cello), Tolga Öztürk (bass,backing vocals), and Özgür Devrim Akçay (drums, backing vocals) who play a heady mix of psychedelia and prog rooted in the late sixties / early seventies with a strong oriental and Turkish motif running throughout. With the addition of an electric cello and the laudable fact that the guys sing in their own language make this an intriguing and satisfying listen.

Opener 'Hoyrat' starts slowly with some lovely psychedelic guitar before the tempo picks up, the eastern motif obvious from the start and there is more than a touch of progressive rock about it. The wah-wah gives the track a real spacey feel and lifts the track to cosmic levels. 'Nefes' is the first vocal track and the fact that they are sung in Turkish add a whole different dimension, as does the first appearance of the electric cello. The vocals and cello imbue the track with an indigenous quality that entirely compliments the underlying psych structure of the song. 'Derdimdert' takes the structure of a native folk song and overlays some fine psychedelic prog to make a bright and breezy song with some heavy overtones. 'Oyun' takes its cue from the seventies, the guitar laying down some heavy psych refrains over a thudding drumbeat, and the cello playing its part as well.



'Karaiplik' has the cello picking out another folk tune whilst the vocals intone heavily, but when the guitars kick in it becomes a slow, heavy psych/prog number....the structure constantly morphs and flows, restlessly moving the musical parameters to make the track unpredictable and surprising. 'Itdalasi' has a driving rhythm that pushes it along at a pace with the momentum of a sixties action film, and the vocals, again in Turkish, dip in and out. 'Karanlik' is a foreboding track; the vocals, cello, guitar and rhythm section all combining to build a sense of drama and suspense that never really lifts. 'Shjin' is the albums longest track at over 9 minutes. It starts as another psych number but breaks down at about the 2.20 mark into something different: washes of spacey effects with some doscordant stabs of guitar and sax to make a glorious cacaphony of freeform playing, the effect it gives is one of an 'art' sci-fi film. The track gets back on course after a while to become another trip back to the heavy psych of the seventies, the guitar playing some majestic psychedelia with a a hard edge. 'Sissuspus' closes the album; another driving rhythm and great psych guitar with an eastern tinge and assertive vocals.

In all, this is a wonderful album, full of genuine psychedelic music combined with the ethos and feel of Turkey. It is really refreshing to hear a band of this quality singing in their own language and not kowtowing to a 'global' market which seems to think that anything not sung in English can be filed under 'World Music'....this is NOT world music....yes, they use traditional song structures and sing in Turkish, but this is an album to be filed under 'Psychedelic', it just so happens to be Turkish. Anyone with an interest in psych needs to check out this album, not for interest's sake, but because it is a damn fine album, played by consumate musicians. It is available from the World In Sound site.