Umut Adan is an Istanbul native currently living in Italy who Jack White chose to open on his Turkish tour; on Adan’s first international album he’s working with producers Liam Watson (the White Stripes’ engineer) and Marco Fasolo (of the Italian psych band Jennifer Gentle). The result is a revelation: a set of eleven superb songs steeped in gorgeous Turkish traditional melodies, shot through with vintage psych rock detail – it’s where baglama saz and the Mellotron meet. As Turkey veers backwards toward authoritarianism and fundamentalism, the sound of Anatolian rock couldn’t be more timely. Don’t miss this one.
