Ok, I think this will be the last post I’m doodling on 70s music for a while. I’ve mentioned Derdiyoklar before and now I wanna announce you that they will be having a gig in Istanbul next thursday.

Unlike other Turkish psychedelic stars of the time, Derdiyoklar made their name first and actually only among the “gastarbeiter” Turks in Germany. They played weddings and parties almost exclusively of Turkish workers and rural population; clung tightly to their Turkish roots, in the face of cultural shock and obvious social problems. Their lyrics converged around socio-political and cultural topics of the era.

Ali Ekber Aydoğan, the brains of the operation, was (and he still is) a progressive, so he forged these Turkish topics and traditional music with new forms that he was hearing in Europe at the time, creating a new musical genre named Diskofolk. This authentic fusion of Turkish immigrant culture in Germany, which for a long time has been dubbed banal by both Germans and Turks in the motherland, is a unique gem which deserves more publicity now. This gig will be the inauguration of an Anatolian Pop concert series, so stay tuned, if you are interested.

BTW, Derdiyoklar means something like “The Noproblems” which of course is quite the opposite of their lyrical content.