NEKROPSI

"Ta Ta Du" has a very familiar, Math Rock-adjacent sound. I mentioned Battles and And So I Watch You From Afar in a previous review for the band, but it's really in here [Man, I should listen to more Battles...]. Cool, super metallic--jangly, not heavy--riffs, with a grooving bass. Stellar drums here, too. This is such a breath of fresh air. And a little quirk goes a long way in my eyes. I like the way things morph into a more dancey feel after minute 1.

In Nekropsi fashion, Sekizler is a very rhythmically focused song. And unsurprising to me, though I've actually never explicitly made this comparison (and put it in writing), it has a vibe about it reminiscent to me of Tool. The drums do sound pretty good here. Great to not hear plastic, obnoxious sampling or harsh clicks here... [See my review for the 2013 album...]. I've made this comparison before, too, to their also-Turkish contemporaries Çilekeş. Something about the way the guitars sound at times. But yeah, a more modern Prog-Metal feel is here in part, but it's not super heavy. Nor is it, like I've come to know them, super compositionally interesting. But yeah... Not bad.

"Aralik" is our opener, a spacy extended jam with light percussion and airy synths. Hmmm though... "4/4" is in fact in 4/4. The guitar riffs, which flow within and without one another (in almost a KC-like fashion), are pretty cool. Some sorta funky bass, too. But the track at large didn't do much for me. "Daphnis" is sample city, but with this really harsh click-track-like sound [You'll be hearing about this a lot in this review...]. As with the two that preceded, very spacy, very unidirectional: boring to me, to be honest. "Dedikodu (Canli / Live)" is a track that they ended up releasing as a studio single 5 years later. It's a lot of vocal rounds using the various vocalizations of the title's syllables. It reminded me of... that one from... Battles? Or... was it And So I Watch You From Afar?... Oh(!), it's "Ka Ba Ta Bo Da Ka" by the latter (ASIWYFA). But yeah, also boring [unlike that song].

Up next is "Pusula", a pulsating number with crunchy guitar. Best ideas on the album thus far. Then it's "Rüzgarlar", equally pulsing, using that sort of click-track sound... to an annoying effect. There's guitar haha. That's for sure. Nothing happens... The annoying clicking continues on "Istanbul'a Dönüs" (sorry I only know so many alt-keys for special characters and I'm deathly lazy for this one). Much cooler guitar on this. It is a return to the spacy hypnosis of the earliest tracks. Then we have "++++" and the plastic drums sound just awful... So loud... Some interesting guitar ideas; the guitarist is more than decent. It's just that there's, like, no songwriting or... anything I want to listen to here haha.

Coming to the close of this album... "Okonomiyaki" is next. Another guitar loop that reminds me of latter-days KC. But guess what? Nearly nothing happens at all... The annoyance of whatever the hell drum sh*t they're using throughout here continues on "Kis Kis", a barrage of percussion. Sh*t cuts in and out in a hectic, though clearly intentional manner here. Hmmm I have nothing nice to say. Finally (and I mean it), "Corba". This is one of the better tracks on here. Still spacy. Still using some annoying clicking something rather. But cool guitar and bass ideas. Overall, very not it...

True Rate: 1.25/5.00

If one thing can be said for Nekropsi, it is their willingness to explore various, more unusual time signatures and complex rhythms. With "Harf Devrimi 1998", they are also apt to mix these progressive ideas with, as I've tried to explain before, a trance-like, electronic thing; the use of samples, for instance, and the more or less hypnotic songs that they tend to come up with lend to this notion. The bass on "Kusmuk" sounds like a pig, or something haha. Some interesting ideas here, but it's just a little too not it. "14" explores some more interest. The guitar clangs and the bass thumps. The drums on "Mecidiyekoy" remind me of Drum 'N' Bass. Thus far, there are a lot better, more fleshed out ideas on this record [but still only by a hair, and only, mostly, in this first half].

"EBO 1998" begins with a drone. There are some pretty cool harmonizing guitars that buzz about as the song builds. Again, interesting ideas, but the songs are just half there for me. "Heidi"... hmmm. Nothing to say on it. "Dusuk Amper" has a sort of Claypool-esque bass-pop. The quirky sample they use throughout the entire damn thing is just plain annoying though... Not it, goi. "AVL Kisa" brings us back into a dreamy hypnosis. This is the most something we've gotten from this album thus far. Cool guitar riffs, and a relatively interesting composition, front to back. "Baglama 1998" just drones on and on with the same chord and distant (maybe?) voices. I don't know, really. "Ateis 1998" is yet another sample-heavy number. And finally, we have "Crying Game 1998" with beefy, yet low rhythms and eerie clangings on the guitar. Decent.

Again, the jury is still out. I'm not quite sure what the appeal is.

Back in the club on "Papa 2005". I thought that was German for a second ("...Papa ist Deutsch"?)? I'm really not sure what the appeal is to this here. Merp. And then finally we are back to something intriguing on "Harf Devrimi 2005". Interesting, angular riffs over wild, tinny percussion. Something in this sort of reminds me of Ruins, actually. I guess I'm not too keen on the vocals, to be more frank about that here. Given how actually interesting this track is to what's come before, as for Spotify, it's shocking to me how much less this has been streamed... than literally everything else on the album(!!!). "Yok Var" has a feeling in its choice riffs not dissimilar to some material from their Turkish contemporaries Çilekeş (a band with Alt Metal influence that I feel would very well fit here on ProgArchives). Their first album from a year before this is called Y.O.K. ("none" in Turkish), which is why they really came to mind. But anyways, they are pulling out more rhythmic stops on this one, to a positive effect.

We return to overtly Eastern melodies on "Ebo", and I say praise be, really. The song, much like the rest, is compositionally rather static, but I like the feeling of it a lot. More farty synth (like to a MAX'd extent) is the second version of "Papa 2005". Does absolutely nothing for me... And finally we have "Baglama" with a hypnotic, folksy intro. This slowly, slowly crescendos with light additions of percussion and another string instrument (it can't just be guitar). Not a whole lot here, but I don't mind it.

Overall, just not very progressive, interesting or... anything. There were a few tracks that stuck out, though nothing "Excellent": "Harf Devrimi", "Harf Devrimi 2005" (I didn't even pick up that they were variations of the same track, if that's accurate), "Yok Var", and "Ebo".

Opening song "Crying Game" is one of the striking openings I've ever heard. Sadly, this song is short (there are more gems in this albums like this!). Basses and electro-bağlama dominate this with backing vocals yelling, murmuring and so on. No lyrics here.

Fok (Turkish: The Seal) starts with 2-3 seconds sound of a seal, and then basses. Speed and power is variable in this song along with good melody.

Efsane (Turkish: The Legend) is an upstanding song. At some point, folk dance ambiance is present with vocals of "Hey, hey!", then everything stops and ambience switches to dark.

Çarşı (Turkish: The Market, or downtown, especially in older cities) is another short song with guitar, bendir, and darbuka. Fully folk-inspired excellent melody.

94 Kor (Turkish: 94 Cores) has metal influences and speed. Drums enter and exit like there's a gunfire combat with otomatic ones. Too angry. Remember, in their first years, Nekropsi was a thrash band! (This could be used as a film music)

Derinlik (Turkish: The Depth) starts harshly, then gets soft as you don't imagine and relaxes you after a chaos.

Dımlı Mi (Turkish: Wet Mi) is quite psychedelic and tribal. Kemençe have been used here differently, creating dark atmosphere. (Ironically, it makes you play in anywhere if you're from Black Sea) Also, some ascents and descents are present, taking you from one place to another.

Lim (I couldn't understand what it stands for) is another short song, show of electro and bass. Hindu (Turkish: The Indian) is the same, with drums joining.

Çarklar (Turkish: The Wheels) is one of the songs I love in this album. It emulates spinning wheels perfectly, just with bass and bağlama, with speeding and slowing!

Ateis (It should reference atheist, one letter absent) starts with accords, then dominated with basses, has some metal influence.

Göç (Turkish: Migration) instead starts slowly and ambiently, then finishes suddenly with heavy guitars.

Kubbealtı (Turkish: Under The Dome) is just 30-seconds long improvisation record from 1993. A feeling like you're under a dome and echoes present.

Yollar (Turkish: Roads) starts with some ambient sound, then suddenly accerelates, takes some breaks, and finishes softly. Folk melodies exist highly, with usage of darbuka. Good guitar work.

Son (Turkish: The End) is chaotic, with guitar playing like a siren, and drums attacking sometimes. Good closing.

41 (A number has some mystic meaning) should be a track that added later issues. It resembles some industrial to me, with chaos. Like a game music.

Conclusion: An album that you can't find easily in it's genre. Masterpiece. Rating: 8.5/10

This band from Turkey released two albums, if I am not mistaken. This is their debut album. An album I guess is a typical Post Rock album with both it's King Crimson and doom metal influences. Not to mention the pretty obvious oriental folk rock and Pink Floyd influences. There is no vocals on this album. The music is based on twin electric guitars, drums and bass. A lot of bass, in fact. The music is pretty good with a lot of interesting rhythm patterns. This is also a highly original album from a scene which is saddled between east and west. Between Arabia and Europe. The result is this album. I am not overwhelmed positive about this album, but it is certainly a good quality product. For that reason; three stars.

3 stars

Mi kubbesi has lots of influences from the bands like Ozric Tentacles and Pink Floyd, the atmospheric and psychdelic ambient is kind of a composition which was melted down from those bands through the holes of the unbeliavable music of nekropsi.

Drumming is the first thing one might notice while listening to mi kubbesi, it is really dynamic and has signs of native Turkish music. It is almost close to a style of jazz drumming but at the same time there are lots of metal influences. The guitar work is also interesting, really experimental, loyal to the basic principles of rock music but this loyalty doesnt make it a classic one, on the contrary it is feeding the classic rock principles with lots of developments.

In my opinion this is a top class album when the cricumstances in Turkish music environment is considered by an objective eye. Pay special attention to 'Efsane'