2008-02-22

Genre of the Week: Turkish Bubbling

Ever since I first read about Dutch/Aruban/Surinamese Bubbling I've been trying to keep the genre in mind, occasionally searching for it on the 'Tubes and stuff. Most recently today a post about hip-hop/eurotechno hybrids on a trendy Swedish blog reminded me of it and I did a new search.

Only to discover a whole new offshoot of the genre.

In Turkey.



It's quite fascinating. The whole genre has seemingly leaped from Holland to Istanbul and Izmir without making a mark anywhere along the way (because I've yet to hear any from anywhere else in Europe). But there it is, well-formed and complete with quite a few artists, a living remix culture and even the occasional dance video.

I'm especially fond (as you can tell above) of the hardcore bubbling sounds of DJ Kantik from Izmir who I definately think I could dance the night away to. (He seems to have developed a decent fan following too.) I like his (and others) remixes of turkish pop material too, reminds me a bit of Bollywood remix. One thing both types have in common is that they seem a lot further removed from the Caribbean than most of the Dutch material (which is probably only natural).

And how did the music make this journey across the continent? I think that the presence of a large Turkish minority in Holland explains a great deal. The hardcore end of bubbling (an interesting genre hybrid in itself) seems to be dominated by obviously Turkish-descended people like DJ Zeki and DJ Yildrim, and the line seems to blur as to who is Dutch and who is Turkish in many cases. Turkey is of course a prime holiday destination too and I guess it could have spread that way, like Garage to Ayia Napa. But it doesn't quite have the inuitive feel of an implanted genre...

I've not found any writing on this scene nor any proper videos, so I guess it's still got a ways to develop. But it does seem lively enough. If anyone has any information or linkage on it I'd be glad to receive it, this genre is definitely showing promise!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff! I guess it was a matter of time. As you point out, I think the (post-gastarbeiter) connection between Holland and Turkey is pretty clear. There's no need for bubbling to "mak[e] a mark anywhere along the way" when there are direct flights from Rotterdam to Istanbul.

Birdseed said...

"I guess it was a matter of time."

Really? I wouldn't have expected it myself. Are there any other good examples of diasporadic music returning to the home country (directly through the people, so to speak)? I know british-style bhangra has done okay in punjab but not brilliantly.

Another thing which surprised me is that (yet again based on a couple of years of occasional web searches) it seems to me that bubbling is mainly a genre on the vane, turning formulaic and boring. That certainly isn't the case with the Turkish version! (Or the "hardcore/hardstyle bubbling" variant in general.)

BTW, I think I've found the "Calabria" of bubbling: "Samir's Theme" by ATL-based Bmore DJ Debonair Samir. There seem to exist a million bubbling and hardcore bubbling remixes of that one.