Rock & Indie CD 562 Items

Two years after the success of „Nem Kaldı“, outernational psych-pop sensation Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek deliver their debut album, „Kar Yağar“ - and it was worth the wait! Over the course of it’s 12 tracks, the powerful sound of the Bağlama [Turkish lute] and Derya Yıldırım’s stunning vocals, builds and unravels stories together with the guitars, organs, drums, flute and bass.

Kar Yağar (which translates as „Snow Falls“) has the dynamics of an epic journey through the Anatolian highlands where deep-rooted folk effortlessly switches to sparkly improvisation or dancy pop tracks.

The album was self produced at their studio in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and the band's tour de force resides in their ability to develop their personal sound and approach whilst keeping their heart tuned to Derya Yıldırım's Anatolian roots.

The album opens with „Üç Kız Bir Ana“ (three daughters, one mother), a smooth, yet epic 5/4 track that introduces the live and psychedelic sound of the band with influences ranging from Anatolian music to 70’s jazz and early prog rock.

The title-song „Kar Yağar“ [written by Derya Yıldırım] is a fresh pop track melodically rooted in the Turkish folk music tradition. The song's lyrics, referring to snow falling in the summer, are an extended metaphor which tells a strong and emotionally charged personal story.
Here, Grup Şimşek bring out their unmistakable signature sound - light and movement inducing tempo, elegant wah wah guitars and magical quartertoned synth licks.

Original songs and instrumentals - all composed and arranged by the band - are scattered throughout the album. Notably - „Seni Hala“, a tear-drawing ballad with stripped-down acoustic arrangement and haunting choir… And Graham Mushnik’s dreamy instrumental „Çocuklar“, in which the band chose to feature a poem by one of Turkey's most renowned 20th century poet Nâzım Hikmet Ran whose title translates as „give the world to our children“. The poem is meaningfully read by Derya’s father Mustafa Yıldırım.

The LP also contains a string of Turkish folk songs, that the band entirely re-arranged whilst preserving their original spirit and soul. In „Ey Şahin Bakışlım“ Grup Şimşek pay tribute to the Alevi culture, a minority community in Turkey for which music - and particularly the Bağlama instrument - has a sacred value. A powerful and majestic version of Mahzuni Şerif’s „Dom Dom Kurşunu“ - one of Grup Şimşek fans’ favourites at live shows - is also featured.

Recorded and Mixed by Grup Şimşek
Mastered by Tim Stollenwerk at Stereophonic
Vinyl Cut by Adi Flück at Centraldubs

Arctic Monkeys and War Child UK are proud to announce the release of ‘Arctic Monkeys - Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ on December 4th 2020. All proceeds from the album will go to War Child UK to help fill what could be up to a £2 million deficit they are facing in 2021, caused by the devastating impact of Covid-19 on their fundraising. These funds are urgently needed to support those who are worst hit by the virus.

Recorded at the start of the band’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’ tour, ‘Arctic Monkeys -Live At The Royal Albert Hall’, features 20 of the band’s finest moments to date.

Born in 1866 BC, Abraham lived a peaceful life near the town of Sodome, NC. He married his half-sister who gave birth to some 14 kids while already aged far over a hundred years. those golden days are gone, but the virile power of Abraham's beard survived and he was reborn in 2007 as a rock band near Lausanne, Switzerland. Committed rehearsals and songwriting eventually led the band to record their first full-length, 'An Eye on the Universe', which was released in early 2011 on Pelagic Records. The critically acclaimed album was presented live all over Europe, with the likes of bands like Red Fang, Intronaut, Khoma, EF, Celan, Birds In Row, Mumakil or Kruger. Abraham's second album "The Prophet, The Serpent and The Whore" was inspired by a novel by J.G. Rawls. In case you're not familiar with this writer, well, shame on you! A bit of Wikipedia research will tell you that Rawls lived at the beginning of the 20th century and died in an motel room somewhere on the East Coast. It is not exactly clear whether his works are authentic or not; they might have been written by college students trying to pull a prank. The title of his most well-known book is The Chronoception. Abraham found this book on a flee market and used it as an inspiration for their second album. The lyrics were freely adaptated from the story, not wanting the record to become a literary illustration of the book. The story of an unnamed man falling from the sky to crawl through this world's lowest spheres; and the prevalent themes of falling from grace, primal fear, physical pain, loneliness and mystical visions resonated perfectly within Abraham's continuous state of mind. The music to this exploration of the human soul and consciousness was composed with these themes in mind and thus emerged darker and more tortured than what the band had done before. Magnus Lindberg from Cult Of Luna mixed the album and drove the contemplative aspects of their sound to even bleaker aural landscapes, while pushing its violent side further towards armageddon... Expect to see the band live on stage in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy soon.