Derdiyoklar Ikilisi – Disko Folk

This release by Derdiyoklar Ikilisi may have slipped under the radar upon its initial release in 1979, but the folks at Guerssen Records have decided to reissue Disko Folk as a CD / LP. There is very little information about Derdiyoklar Ikilisi on the internet, but they were a couple of Turkish immigrants who lived in Germany where they stormed the Turkish music market. They play a version of Anadolu pop, which was created by Murat Ses in the 1960s-1970s. This style mixes Anatolian music with Western elements and is still found throughout Turkish music.

Derdiyoklar Ikilisi (which roughly translates to The No Problems), are two guys armed with electro saz, guitar, drums and synthesizers. They were known for playing their sets of traditional flavored electro-folk in weddings and circumcision feasts for Turkish emigrants in Germany. International Tapes has an excellent review of Derdiyoklar Ikilisi’s 1984 live performance video. This was no ordinary wedding band. Over the course of the ten minute video, the band plays a saz-like guitar behind the head and back, dances like it’s nobody’s business, rocks a synth solo played with a beard and features a drum solo which appears more like a mental breakdown. To top it off, someone plays guitar with a shoe. To get a taste of the Turkish electro-folk you’ve been missing, listen to a track from Disko Folk below.