Kenan Behzat Sharpe

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Kenan Behzat Sharpe seçti: Yerli sahnenin en iyi albümleri (2025) Müzik eleştirmeni Kenan Behzat Sharpe, geleneksel yıl sonu seçkisiyle karşınızda

On senedir yerli sahnede olup bitenleri yakından takip ediyorum. Her senenin sonunda da en ilginç bulduğum albümleri yazıyorum. @velvele.net için hazırladığım bu listede 2025'ten 12 albümü bir araya getirdim.

velvele.net/2025/12/30/k...

And I hate to do this, but if you want to read the rest, you can find the full thread on the formerly bird, now bad website whose name I will not say here. I don't want to fill everyone's feeds here with 55+ posts, so look there if you want to keep reading.

And happy listening!

The first 10 songs on the playlist gave us a sense of the variety of styles in Turkey’s contemporary scene and the high level of musicianship here. We’ve honored musical legends and also met new talent. Now we’re slowly transitioning into the first of two clusters of rock songs.

10) I've covered Min Taka in earlier playlists. Having left Turkey for the Netherlands to further her music career, she's playing with English lyrics & new sounds, both classic & experimental. Like this bossa nova-style groove cut through with '50s audio samples about eye health.

9) Another discovery for me is the trio heryol. Like what Duman once did for Turkish rock by adapting Nirvana to the local sound, heryol absorbs the lessons of Radiohead and The Smile (minus the bad politics). They describe their sound as “sufi bedroom art rock." That checks out.

8) A new discovery for me in 2025 was Ilgaz Altın, who has a classic rock/folk sound with a maturity beyond his years. In fact, some of his songs remind me of the theatricality and tongue-in-cheek humor of certain early MFÖ songs and 70s/80s pop-rock more generally.

7) Let's also take a moment to honor those who have passed, like MFÖ bassist and singer Özkan Uğur. Two years after his death, we were treated to an EP of unreleased songs, including this world-weary take on the vagaries of romance. His words of wisdom continue to move us.

6) Thankfully, musicians also responded to the cries for rights, rule of law, & justice. Pop musician @mabelmatiz put his own career on the line to write an anthem for the mostly young protestors who broke down the police barricades and spent months in the streets for democracy.

As we wrap up 2025, one highly significant event was the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and the hammer of repression coming down over the head of Turkey’s opposition. The short-lived protests centered in the Saraçhane district of Istanbul was one of the few rays of hope.

5) Dilhan Şeşen is one of the best young songwriters in Turkey. Her new EP is worth a listen.
There’s the gorgeous arrangement reminiscent of 2000s indie rock like TV on the Radio. Then there’s the powerful lyrics about shedding one’s shame and finding beauty in the wreckage.

4) Musical doyen Sezen Aksu returned with an album this year. I was most moved by "Linç," about children who never get the chance to grow up: whether it's those slaughtered in Gaza, or kids abused and killed by their families, or the child laborers of Turkey's MESEM project...

3) Here’s a song from the talented trumpeter @dilan_balkay, best known for work with the band Dolu Kadehi Ters Tut but also a unique vocalist and songwriter. Such an evocative description of mental/physical exhaustion here: “Two arms and shoulders, I can’t carry them all.”

2) Batuhan Polat is a very talented young musician. He has a unique voice and a strong command of melody, in addition to clear skill behind the guitar, drums, and bass. In a year where music has gotten faker than ever, there’s something satisfyingly organic here.

Song 1) To start, we have a song from rising star @paptircem. I love the stylistic contrast between the loud, synth-heavy choruses and the quiet, jazzy verses (not to mention the powerful vocals!). A good example of the sonic variety and strong musicianship of the local scene.

Best of Turkey 2025

But if you haven't quit Spotify yet, here's that link too:

open.spotify.com/playlist/10p...

Best of Turkey 2025 The best songs from Turkey, from indie rock and pop to punk and rap. Listen in order! Sequenced for flow 🎧

We're all mad at Spotify for its shady business dealings, coziness with authoritarian governments, & bad treatment of artists. So I'm going to share Apple & YouTube links. Still not ideal, but less egregious.

music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

Below is the playlist link. Read along as you listen! The songs range from pop & indie to rap & rock.

As always, the songs aren’t rated from best to worst or whatever. They're all good. Rather, the track sequence is designed for the ideal listening experience & flow by genre.

BEST OF TURKISH MUSIC 2025 🧵

The year is nearly over. The music magazines gave their top picks, everyone analyzed their own listening habits, and now it's time for our 7th annual list of songs from Turkey.

Here are my mini-reviews and a playlist of my 50+ favorite songs!

Mabel Matiz: Music and Censorship in Turkey Mabel Matiz, one of Turkey's most famous pop singers, risks prison for his latest song, which has been labeled "obscenity" because it sings of homosexual love: a further crackdown on the LGBT communit...

I wrote about a chilling criminal case against one of Turkey’s most important musicians: Mabel Matiz. He and the girl group Manifest both face prison time over lyrics and dance moves. It’s all part of a new wave of repression in the name of “family values” www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Tu...

With the recent example of a screenwriter being taken into custody and the case against girl group Manifest’s stage performances, it’s clear that laws are being used in new way that very much interferes in content, particularly regarding female sexuality and LGBT representation.

In periods like the 1980 coup, songs have been banned & records confiscated for political lyrics or lyrics in Kurdish, but I believe this is the first example of a song being censored for erotic lyrics—and when I say erotic it’s nothing that would be out place in any 90s pop song

The latest single by Mabel Matiz, Turkey’s preeminent pop singer and songwriter, will likely be banned after a complaint by the Ministry of Family and Social Services about it being a “threat to the public order” for erotic song lyrics. Yes, lyrics are now cause for censorship.

Thanks so much!

Amidst all the bad news here & in the world it's been hard to find a time to share the good, but I wanted say that I'm thrilled to have started as an assistant professor in the Cultural Studies program (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) at Sabancı University in Istanbul!

Bad Bunny’den çıkarılacak dersler: Türkiye’nin müzisyenleri Porto Rikolu rapçiden neler öğrenebilir? Kenan Behzat Sharpe yazdı.

Onu hakkıyla kullanmamız için biraz daha vizyon, biraz daha hayal gücü lazım sadece.

velvele.net/2025/01/30/b...

Bad Bunny’nin gösterdiği gibi, geleneksel müziklere sahip çıkıp onları günümüze uygun bir şekilde uyarlamak sadece farklı kuşakları değil, geniş coğrafyaları da birleştiren bir hareket. Elimizde köklü ve çok yönlü bir müzikal miras var.

Aynı zamanda geleneksel müzik topluluklarıyla daha fazla işbirliği yapılabilir. Bad Bunny bir plena grubuyla çalışabiliyorsa, neden bir popçu Kardeş Türküler’le çalışamaz mesela? Ya da bir rock grubu, Aynur ile çalışsa ne kadar ilginç olur.

Daha da derinlere inersek, başka neler yapılabilir? Mesela reggaetón’un dans ettiren ritmiyle en çok aşık atabilecek şey olarak elimizde, Roman müziğinden bildiğimiz 9/8’lik ritim var. Onunla başka janralarda neler yapılabilir? 9/8’lik rap olabilir mi mesela? Denemeden bilemeyiz.

...Porto Riko’yu yansıtması.

Türkiye’de elbette müzikal geleneği yeniden yorumlamak konusunda benzer yönelimler görebiliyoruz. Ancak birkaç istisna dışında izlenen strateji, bir pop şarkısında bağlama tıngırdatmaktan veya rap’e biraz arabesk serpiştirmekten öteye gidemiyor.