Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time on KEXP, is "Maçka Yollari" by Altin Gün, from the 2021 album Yol on ATO Records.
Amsterdam-based, but globally influenced with Turkish, Indonesian, and Dutch band members, Grammy-nominated band Altin Gün continue to add a psych-touch to traditional Turkish folk songs on their third album, Yol. Today's Song of the Day hails from the Trabzon region near the Black Sea coast, with Altin Gün giving it their usual funk infusion.
Like many recent releases, Yol was created during quarantine. "We couldn’t get together, so we demoed everything from home," vocalist/keyboardist Merve Daşdemir explained to American Songwriter. "We all work on Logic, [so] essentially [this album] sounded a bit electronic. But it wasn’t super intentional. It was more like, pandemic, so we have to do it differently. Which, I really enjoyed. This is the most creative input I put on an Altin Gün album so far, so it’s kind of my personal favorite, in that sense. Because I really like working alone, so this was perfect for me."
