Altın Gün, a psychedelic rock band formed in Amsterdam, released their sixth studio album “Garip,” on February 20.
Uniquely, the band formed in 2016 after Jasper Verhulst, the bassist for the band, created a Facebook ad looking for different Turkish Musicians.
After their formation, the band began to experiment with various traditional Turkish folk songs, transforming them into psychedelic rock songs.
They released their debut album “On” in 2018, pushing them into the spotlight. They have been nominated for Grammy in 2019, opened for big artists such as Tame Impala and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.They have also done performances at various major music festivals, notably Coachella as well as Primavera Sound.
As the band continued to expand their sound and musical direction, they explored different genres to achieve new sounds. Rock, folk and pop have been important parts of the band’s sound for nearly a decade.
Before the release of their new album, they released the single “Neredesin Sen,” a mix of funky bass and influences of Turkish folk.
The album was released on February 20 on streaming, featuring a track list of ten different songs, all paying tribute to Neşet Ertaş, a praised “folk bard” who passed away in 2012.
When asked about the style of “Garip,” Jasper Verhulst stated; “It’s our most eclectic album, there’s a little bit of everything.”
I was able to get a physical copy of this album before its release on streaming, obtaining a promotional CD given to KWSC. I listened to the album front to back, without any prior knowledge of the band.
Many of the tracks feature great guitarwork and organized beats. The vocals of songs on the album are never the same, offering a vast amount of diversity across the 45 minutes of runtime the album gives.
The vocals for the songs are in Turkish, so I did not understand what they were saying, however the vocal inflections and range of each song still let me vibe with the music, which seems to be what this album was going for.
Despite the limits of language, the album conveys many interesting guitars and folk remixes that created an atmosphere of amazing sounds that I’ve never heard before.
If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary and want to potentially challenge yourself to listen to music outside of the English language, this album is a perfect fit. I enjoyed this album a lot and I may begin to follow this band more as they release new material in the coming years.
