The Solar Is Parallel could also be one of many most interesting debuts of 2022, although it appears odd to credit score Mehmet Aslan as a debutante when his rising star set off into the heavens a number of moons in the past. The Berlin-based, Swiss-Turkish DJ memorably reworked ‘Mechanical Turk’ by the chess-obsessed Romanian synthpop outfit Karpov Not Kasparov in 2014, and he’s launched various 12”s since then and rocked Istanbul and Abu Dhabi for Boiler Room, to notice just some of his actions.
None of that is prone to put together you for the accomplishment of The Solar Is Parallel although. Mixing conventional Turkish and Center Jap people with electro may not be something new (the dabke of Omar Souleyman; the sonic métissage of Acid Arab, to call however two), however the dovetailing of parts is finished with such tasteful panache that at occasions the cohesive tapestry is solely breathtaking. The textural synthesis works greatest on tracks with dwell instrumentation: the distorted break beats of Alican Tezer on ‘Domo’ enhanced by vacillating arpeggios and all nailed down by the spaghetti western guitar twang of Daniel Pankau.
The flamenco singer Niño de Elche heightens the drama on ‘Tangerine’, with Pankau dampening guitar traces as an ominous drone of doom builds the awesomeness as we transfer into ‘Tangerine Solar’, the second a part of the suite. A lot wanted drummer-composer Valentina Magaletti additionally enters the fray, bringing an nearly free jazz sensibility to ‘Backyard’, although the waves of ambient synths take it to a spot that’s much more otherworldly.
There’s a playfulness and a capriciousness to ‘The Solar Is Parallel’, with sufficient corridors resulting in completely different dimensions to trigger a welcome sense of disorientation. The acid funk of ‘Rowndbass Acid’ is adopted by an summary soundscape referred to as ‘If I Can Belong Anyplace’; with the denouement, ‘Everybody Is Additionally You’ (it’s title taken from an earlier James Baldwin pattern) collapsing in on itself like a disintegration loop.
Maybe the one factor that doesn’t fairly work is using samples from James Baldwin and R. Murray Schafer; the album appears to espouse openness, understanding, internationalism – laudable however amorphous goals, with the recordings feeling just like the aural equal of conspicuously-placed brainy quotes. Except for that small qualm, Aslan is clearly a sonic connoisseur, which is clear within the music he makes. The music by itself speaks volumes. Extra volumes please, monsieur Aslan.
