16/12/2023
Urfalı Babi – Bağkur Gardaşım / Lâmbaya Püf De (1973)
A late addition to the collection, and what a beauty it is. Little introduction needed for the simultaneously smouldering and haunting b-side Lâmbaya Püf De, a track synonymous with Anatolian psychedelic rock’s magnetic maestro Barış Manço (also released in the same year).
Babi (to my ears) does his level best to amp up the seedier side of things; his vocals are lower, sung directly into the ear, the whole production is looser, seemingly coated in a fine layer of filth, with the drums satisfyingly slopping about as it builds to a climactic frenzy. More garage than prog, and all the better for it.
Bonus points for company sleeve, apparently as sought after as the record it houses. Not as clean as I might have liked, but with this kind of rarity beggars indeed can’t be choosers, and I can’t say a little bit of crackle, like a dying fire, doesn’t lend something to the whole mood.