Mustafa Özkent Genclik Ile Elele

Originally released in Turkey 1973, Özkent’s masterpiece creation of an all instrumental Turkish Psychedelic Funk album filled with classic beats and breaks still inspires long time fans and first time listeners. The funky rhythms, hypnotic percussions, and heavy break beats makes this a holy grail amongst DJ’s and music fans alike. The original concept was futuristic and eluded categorization: traditional folk songs mixed with rock, jazz, blues, funk and psych, reconstructed for the new “hip” generation. (The monkey on a microphone album jacket also eludes categorization too.... or comprehension). The album was recorded live in just one day with some of the best studio musicians in Turkey. Lacking a multi-channel recording deck, Özkent used microphone techniques to emulate a total stereo effect and capture the heavy psychedelic effects and close-miked beat breaks. Özkent created his own unique guitar sound by adding extra frets and a clutch of effect pedals in order to create quarter notes and emulate turkish traditional scales. Mustafa Özkent has since made arrangements for hundreds of other artists in Turkey, but this unique album documents his most revered work—and the world is still just discovering this gem. The fact that only a handful of copies from the original pressing are known to still exist partly explains why, making this reissue a welcome addition to any record collection.