Monthly Mix: Midnight in Istanbul

Istanbul at Night, by Yoav Lerman

Years ago, I made a mix for my sister called "Nightfall at the Arabesque" full of songs that were at least mildly Arabic-sounding. I never gave her a playlist. But a few months ago I had her describe each song, and it was an embarrassment. Dreadful stuff. Like reading 'poetry' you wrote in high school. I won't go into details - it's too horrible. Anyway, I'd been jonesing to put together a new middle eastern mix, but I only had a few bits and pieces of stuff I liked hanging around. I finally decided I would do it in a manner that allowed me to fill gaps with some instrumental scoring, and therefore it became a movie soundtrack in my head.

Now, this sort of thing isn't unusual for me. As in that conversation I had with Patriate Jeff (read about it here), it comes back to the fact that I am, at my core, an Ideas Man. The potential artwork is quite often more beautiful than the finished work. That's why I make random generators - they are little idea seeds floating past in a river of entropy, and they are often as beautiful as the other seeds that grow up to be trees, albeit more ephemeral. I brainstorm ideas for web applications I'd like to see all the time, but rarely am I interested in the work necessary to bring them to completion. I have an idea for an intensely interesting TV series, but I don't think I'm capable of writing a script I'd accept. Likewise, this month's mix is a soundtrack for a movie that I'm not sure could be made at all. It certainly couldn't be made by me. But I can come up with a soundtrack.

Elevator pitch goes like this: A tale of youth, drugs, hip-hop music, and violence, but not set in LA or Chicago - this is mainly in Istanbul, with occasional narrative side trips to Algeria or elsewhere in the Maghreb. It could only be made (to my satisfaction) by a brilliant, angry, young Turkish filmmaker, probably living in Berlin.

I'm not going to tell you who does the score tracks here, but I will give you their original titles.

1. Ceza - Araturka Fasli
2. Revenge
3. Ayben - Benim O
4. A-500
5. Fuat - Okyanuslar
6. Zara - Kesik Çayir
7. Kolera - Irtifa Kaybi
8. Shadows
9. Ceza - Yerli Plaka
10. Refinery Surveillance
11. Cartel - Cartel
12. Bakara
13. Sagopa Kajmer - Al 1'de Burdan Yak
14. Rumble City
15. Ceza - Shinanay
16. Rachid Taha - Barra Barra


Get it here or, if that doesn't work, here

I hope you can picture it.