Ironhand Records dig deep into their musical archives to present us with four outstanding tracks from Mustafa Kuş and his band İmece.
These classic tracks are a fine, nostalgic blend of jazz, psychedelic funk and classic Anatolian rhythms.
Turkish singer-songwriter Mustafa Kuş (top, far left) had originally gone to Germany to further his education. He ended up forming İmece in 1976, which went on to record three albums and one single. Their final release came in 1985.
The band’s original line ups were as follows:
Guitar / Vocals – Mustafa Kuş
Bass – Cengiz Karaköse and Doğan Yakın
Sax – Halil Arslan
Drums – Hulusi Kınayman and Fevzi Vatansever
Keyboards – Kemal Çivicioğlu
Mustafa Kuş and İmece’s new “Veda” [Turkish for ‘farewell’] EP, out on small independent German label Ironhand Records, contains four songs from that era: Sefer Tası, Evleri Yol Üstüdür, Madımak, and Veda.
Each one is a cool blend of Anatolian rhythms overlaid with psychedelic funk and jazz, their catchy beats driven by entertaining bass lines, crazy drum attacks, saxophone, smooth vocals, and keyboard solos, and even an element of krautrock. The songs leave us pining for the music of that era.
Out of the four tracks on offer, Madımak is, without a doubt, my favourite thanks to the reggae lilt, melodic saxophone, and synths – an ideal song to chill out to.
Remastered from the original master tapes, the EP is out now, available to stream and buy digitally on iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp and Amazon Music.
For record collectors, the label also had a limited edition of 300 transparent yellow vinyl, freshly pressed up, but sadly all sold through pre-release orders. Let’s hope they do a new run…
