Turkey
by Oznur (Noizine)
Greetings! This is Onur Güzel from Turkey. I want to inform you about the hc-punk scene in Turkey. Like everycountry,in Turkey a lot of people think Korn is a hc band and Offspring is a punk band,so on... There are a lot of teenagers that are fans of Korn, Limp Biskit, Offspring.That’s why some people(metal fans, rock fans..) think listeners of hc-punk are stupid rich & pich teenagers...
According to some people,there isn’t a real hc-punk scene, but I don’t think like them. I accept there aren’t a lot of people who listen to hc-punk. For example, until today any hc band hasn’t come to Turkey to give a gig yet. New Model Army came, but they don’t play hc. Agathocles and Mastic Scum came, but they don’t play hardcore either. I hope one day we will see a hc band like Sick Of It All. But as I said, I think there’s a hc-punk scene in Turkey because there are some bands, distros and zines under the ground. It doesn’t matter how many people listen to hc-punk. I think -heart-core is a global spirit...
Istanbul has the biggest scene in Turkey due to its population and economy. Hammer Muzik (old Turkish distributor of Victory Records) and Kod Muzik are official labels that are interested in the hc-punk scene. Hammer released some bands’ albums like Radical Noise (www.radicalnoise.com or mp3.com/radicalnoise), Antisilence ( anti(at)antisilence.com or mp3.com/antisilence), Something’s Wrong (www.ancore.cjb.net hardcore-metal), Hasret, Ascraeus (not active,new metal band). Antisilence plays crossover. They are a politic band and I think in Turkey Antisilence has the cleverest lyrics. Their vocalist’s brutal vocal style and their live performance are very succesful. They released 2 albums from Hammer . (The first album”New World Order Suck” is a death-thrash metal album, but it had very strong powerful politic lyrics. The style of the 2nd album is crossover with death metal-punk-hardcore influences and according to many metal/hc freaks "Suffer Hits” is a great CD.). They gave gigs with the bands like Anathema, Overkill, Destruction, Rumble Militia. At www.punkinternational.com you can find their second CD review. (You can find another Turkish hc-punk scene report by another guy and Radical Noise interview). I mean, if you want to hear a really good band, Antisilence could be one of your alternatives. Radical Noise is an old band, that plays oldschool hardcore with eastcoast style melodies (like O.Land). Their drummer, Emre”pedroloco” Sahin, is in Germany now and he gave the address of this website to me. (Thanx Pedro!)
He is one of the most important people in our hc-punk scene.Radical Noise has got 3 albums and latest stuff released by Hammer Muzik. They got a distro called Radical Productions, but I think, it isn’t active now. Some Radical Noise members write for a hardcore zine called ArtCore. There isn’t any English version of ArtCore, but you can contact them: artcore1(at)yahoo.com or www.artcorezine.cjb.net. The editor of ArtCore distributed a hc-punk zine called Feedback Zine. (Another good hc-punk zine from Denizli (feedback(at)punkmail.com) Idiot Zine, the other punk-hc zine from Denizli (idiotzine(at)post.com).
If you want to contact with Radical Noise, send your e-mails to pedroloco(at)hotmail.com. (I don’t really know what other Turkish hardcore listeners think about RN, RN is not an ordinary hc band for me it is an attention, spirit and more...)
Kod Müzik has released two bands’ albums: Rashit and Crunch. Both of them have got a good underground past. Crunch changed its name to Kranch. Anyway, you can download their tracks from www.mp3.com/kranch or www.mp3.com/rashit. Kranch gave gigs with Agathocles, Mastic Scum, New Model Army, OVO, etc..... They got one album called "The Love Album” and we wait for a 2nd Kranch album from Vermiform Records. The drummer of Kranch played in a punk band called Vae Victis and they released first demo as a CD (horrorrawpunk(at)hotmail.com). Rashit write lyrics in Turkish language and they are a political band like Kranch. Rashit released a split with great English punk band called Active Minds. They got one album called "Telesa Mahal Yok”. We wait for their 2nd album. Some members of Rashit and Kranch released a fanzine called Spastik Erol. (Another good hc-punk zine from Istanbul.)
After official labels and their bands, I want to tell you more about the underground scene. There are 4 distros are interested in hc/punk bands: Crackpot Distro, Molotov Tapes, Fracas Distro, March For Liberation and Extreme Response...
Crackpot Distro is my own one man project distro and I first of all released a compilation tape called ”Unity Underground” Crackpot Distro Compilation Tape Vol.1. I will release a new fanzine called 156 and new compilation CD in September 2001(political hc punk fanzine). There will be bands like Dropdead, Fate, Napalmed, DPA......I am interested in all kinds of hardcore-punk-grindcore-crust stuff. If you want any distribution of your releases in Turkey, write to me. Falldown is my distro band and plays crossover with Downset, Spine Shank influences. They joined two compilations and we wait for their first demo recording (www.mp3.com/falldown). Some Falldown members write for Asperger (punk fanzine: monosyllabic(at)punkmail.com) and Noizine (hc-metal webzine: www.noizine.cjb.net). Not very original, but pretty good sound. I think they will become bigger and bigger...
Jailblock is a nu-metal band and they plan to record their stuff for their first demo. I listened to them and I think they are a succesful band. Handcuff released two demo records and the last of them was released as a CD. It contained 5 trax. Handcuff (they are from Ankara) plays crossover with Biohazard,Thumb influences.(cool website: www.handcuffstyle.com)
Kill Frenzy is a good band that plays crossover, but they haven’t released any stuff.(www.mp3.com/killfrenzy). Maybe they need more time,but I believe they will release good stuff. Falldown and Kill Frenzy gave a gig with Brotherhood (a Turkish hardcore band from Ankara with no release: Brotherhood(at)marijuana.com) in Istanbul on June 01. One Brotherhood member plays for Flatground (another hardcore band from Ankara with no release: www.geocities.com/flatground2). They are recording their first album and it will release by Zoo Music (an official label from Ankara: tatokan(at)hotmail.com). Zoo Music will release a compilation CD contained Brotherhood, Flatground, CideSphere, Slut and more good "core” bands. We still wait...
Molotov Tapes (collectivo(at)yahoo.com, PK 12 Bahçelievler, 34590 Istanbul, Turkey) is a two men project distro and released its first compilation tape (Yurttan Sesler/Voices from Country) like me. I think, these two compilation tapes are one of the most important releases in our scene. We wait for new compilations...
Sert IthamZine (politic zine from Istanbul-sertitham(at)hotmail.com), Kara CüceZine (a-zine from Izmir-blackdwarf(at)lycos.com), Dis Mihrak Zine (an old hc-punk zine from Konya -dismihrak@hotmail.com), Medya Tavirs (anti-media zine from Istanbul-medyatavirs(at)hotmail.com) and Katran (a punk zine from Ankara- xktnx(at)yahoo.co.uk) are the politic hc-punk fanzines that are distributed by Molotov Tapes in Istanbul.
Molotov Tapes distributed Less, Pisliks and Çürük’s demo tapes. Less is a melodic anarcho punk band from Izmir (south of Turkey), they released 2 demos band and I like their music very much. Great lyrics, great vocal, great music and more...I can find all of them in their songs. Now, they are busy with recording their first album containing 12 tracks. Their album is written in Turkish language. (www.less2.cjb.net, l_e_s_s(at)hotmail.com). Listen to them and enjoy.
Çürük is from Bursa,plays punk with politic lyrics.Their demotape name is "Demo-Tez”. I don’t like very much their style, but maybe you can enjoy Turkish punk (curuk(at)yahoo.com).
Pisliks is a side project of Tolga from Rashit.The recording has got a bad quality and it is in tape. But I don’t know why, I like very much Pisliks’ demo tape "Elektrikli Testere Katliami”. Full of Turkish and I found it interesting.
Fracas Distro distributed some political stuff (Class War Newspaper, The Anarchist Resistance to Franco.....), fanzines (Punk Shocker #9/ Product #8 split English fanzine, K.Sytuacja #4 / 5..) and demo records(Diaspro, Heist...).The person of Fracas Distro releases a zine called Katran Zine (a_fracas(at)yahoo.com).
March For Liberation distributed demo tapes (Active Mind, Twisted Truth, Adolf and The Piss Artist...etc.). Contact with MFL : marlib(at)hushmail.com
Extreme Response (extremeresponse(at)yahoo.com) is a new underground distro and two men project from Noizine and Vae Victis. They plan to release their first compilation CD and it will be full of political bands. It sounds great. (Sorry for last 3 distro information, I don’t know a lot about them. Write to them...)
Ask It Why and Moribund Youth are good old bands that play hardcore, but they aren’t active now.The first Turkish hc demo tape is "No”/Moribund Youth in 1990 and the first hardcore official release a split tape ("Sevdasiz Hayat”Radical Noise-Ask It Why) in1994 by Kod Muzik. I hope you can understand, why they are important bands for Turkish hc-punk scene..
Now these are some important compilations and bands who join the tapes...
TELASA MAHAL YOK-Turkish hc/punk comp. (I think it released by Rashit members and a lot of these bands joined to the tape aren’t active now.)
Ask It Why / Sert Itham / Necrosis (great band) / Pick Axe / Radical Noise / Empty
Cage / Dispute (this band released a demotape and they are one of the best
melodic punk bands with female vocal) / Rashit / Godzilla (hey kemal) / V.O.1/2/5
B7 / Regorge / It Jibs / M 37’s / No
Name/T.P.G.F./X-Youth/Turmoil/Homework/Köpek/Prof./E.T.C./Tampon/Nicht
Personlich Nor Arbeit/Novaya Lemliya...
UNITY UNDERGROUND-All kinds of bands comp. -July 01-
(My first compilation tape,all of them are active..)
Radical Noise(allschool hc) / CideSphere(grind-death) / Sapik Inek(porngrind)
/ Falldown(crossover) / Handcuff(crossover) / Found Deep(ska
monosyllabic(at)punkmail.com) / Pancake(pop punk pancake.topcities.com) / Lynch
Law(thrash metal) / Dementia(thrash metal) / Antisilence(crossover) / Drain Of
Impurity(gore death) / Bastardz Fuckoff(noizy
grindgore) / Cadaverous(grind-death) / Leviathan(dark metal) / Suicide(death
metal)
YURTTAN SESLER-Turkish hc/punk -May 01-
(It was released by Molotov Tapes...)
Less (comp. Contained their 2 tracks:1st and the last track.melodic
a-punk), Çürük(punk), Pogo’s Not Fight(2 tracks
-erce_t(at)yahoo.com),Rashit(www.geocities.com/punkestra), Tasma (I like them
very much: hklpunk(at)hotmail.com), Cemiyette Pisiyorum
(cemiyettepishiyorum(at)hotmail.com), Luck Of 13(old punk band from Ankara:
c/o Baran AY,Birlik mh. 44.sk Tansa Apt. 8/3 06610 Çankaya/Ankara
TURKEY), Regorge (my favorite Turkish hc band,by old Kranch members and not
active) / Kukla (kukla69(at)mynet.com), Nebula(very great band:
www.3-nebula.4mg.com), Çapa Çürek (enginboynik(at)hotmail.com), Kranch(PK 67
34711 Istanbul TURKEY), Axak (Molotov Tapes is going to distribute their
demotape,punkband from Ankara: PK 217 Yenisehir Ankara
TURKEY), Miskins (zildijiancustom(at)hotmail.com), Pisliks (contact with Molotov
Tapes), Sokak Köpekleri (they released 3 demo tapes and their first album
will be released by Zoo Music, punk band from
Ankara), Falldown (www.falldown.cjb.net this adress isn’t online now).
I don’t think they are all of bands-zines-labels in Turkey, but you can have
an idea by them. I hope after downloading the MP3s and reading this
report, you can write to me about your idea/feelings.
I like newschool hardcore with emo-metal influences more than the other
styles. For example: Shai Hulud, Earth Crisis, Poison The Well, Killswitch
Engage, Ignite, Snapcase, Boy Sets Fire, Stretch
Armstrong, Yage, Waterdown, Facedown and more...
There are NYHC bands, crossover bands, punk rock bands, DC hardcore bands
But i don’t know any newschool hc band from Turkey.
Feel free to contact me.Every underground hc/punk distros-bands-zines
and freax can write to me.
Stay positive...
Thanx!
Onur Güzel/CRACKPOT DISTRO
Contact: onurguzel@hotmail.com C/o Onur Güzel Hurriyet mh. Adnan Kahveci cd. Metem Birlik Sitesi B3-18 Yakacik-Kartal/Istanbul TURKEY