Sezen Aksu remixes

While preparing an overview of Sezen Aksu's thirty-three year long career, I have come across some rather interesting remixes that both attest to her versatility as a composer, and the creativity of the people she works with. While most of these songs have a very strong folk flavour in their original form, they easily become rousing dance anthems when stripped of their percussive ornaments, soaring trumpets and melancholic oud solos. At the heart of the melody, Sezen's genius for fusing traditional and modern, the old with the new, becomes more apparent than ever.

As I've said in my previous post about her, Sezen has always been extremely careful at the moment of crafting songs, giving equal importance to both tradition and modernity, in fusion the old with the new. Her early to late nineties work is particularly interesting, as she travelled across the world several times with each new album! Thus, in amassing this impressive body of work (not to mention, the exceptional task that must have been the research to find each different folk genre), Sezen made Turkish pop one of the most sophisticated movements of the late 20th Century.

The first song I'm presenting you with was my favourite of Sezen's for many years, and is also become my user name! Rakkas is a trumpet, oboe, flutes, tambourines and cymbals whirlwind that enters your body through your ears, and doesn't stop shaking it until the very end of the song, which has one of the coolest instrumental breaks I've ever heard. Not happy with the spectacular original, Sezen comissioned three remixes - two appeared in her 1996 album Düş Bahçeleri/Gardens Of Dream. The first one is a disco-fied techno track that respects the folk roots of the song while giving a club friendly make over to it. The second remix is far more aggressive, combining thumping pre-programmed beats with ever changing tempos and cadences. The final and most recent remix is a mainly instrumental house track that distorts the song's original vocals and instrumentation to suit the frenzied rhythm.

Rakkas/Dancer

Rakkas (Düş Bahçeleri remix 1)

Rakkas (Düş Bahçeleri remix 2)

Rakkas (DJ Onur vs Mezdeke)



The second song and remix are far more recent, from the album Deliveren/Crazy Maker (2000). The original song version of Kahpe Kader starts as a sorroful ballad, only to rapidly morph into a fast, cheerful acoustic folk/rock number that creates a strong contrast with the song's very sad lyrics. The remix is AWESOME! Dressed in grieving chants, distorted vocals and an ever changing spiral of electronic effects set to an earth-shattering dance beat, it simply turns the song into a club jewel!

Kahpe Kader/Perfidious Fate

Kahpe Kader (Dance remix)

Next comes the very special remix of one of the most beautiful and comtemplative tracks fromt he album that made me discover Sezen - 2002's Şarkı Söylemek Lazım/The Songs Must be Sung. Dansöz Dünya is, in its original form, a very slow oud-driven ballad with a few fast spots, something that this remix respects. The beginning is relaxed, with Sezen almost speaking the lyrics. Then, all of a sudden, warbling sounds emerge from nowhere, and a dance beat that becomes increasingly aggressive kicks in. Great song!

Dansöz Dünya/Dancing World (Dance Mix)

Finally, I'd like to offer you a few songs from Sezen's latest proper studio album, 2005's Bahane/Excuse. The first remix is relatively faithful to the original song Şanıma İnanma, but instead of a vertiginously fast Summery pop song, it becomes an R&B-tinged tracks that keeps constantly changing - every single part of the song is different from the rest, yet it all merges into a cohesive unit. Quite special. The three remixes that follow are from the bossa nova and jazz fusion İkili Delilik, a huge hit in late 2005. I personally don't like the original that much, but I do love these remixes. The first one is just a myriad of electronic effects plastered over the song, but the second is far more effective, mainly because it actually merges with the melody.

Şanıma İnanma/Faith In My Own Glory (Kıvanç K Mix)

İkili Delilik/Double Madness (Dance remix)

İkili Delilik (DJ SeO vs Sezen Aksu - Club Mix)

As always, i have to remind you to buy Sezen's albums. Tulumba is a great choice, as is Amazon.