Bu Bir Ruya

The Dirtmusic duo has now become a trio, with guitarists Hugo Race and Chris Eckman being joined by saz (lute) player Murat Ertel, from the Turkish psychedelic dubsters Baba Zula. Percussionist Ümit Adakale also provides crucial input, particularly in the way his resonant bendir (frame drum) inhabits an otherwise heavily effects-loaded terrain, thwipping and booming above Race's deep basslines.

Recorded in an Istanbul garage, the production spread on this fifth album is extremely powerful, with sonic details strewn across a liquid desert of echo, reverb, phasing, distortion, and whatever else lies under the next expertly twiddled knob. Spoken narratives concerning dark times are intoned in Eckman's deep American tongue, although with Turkish and Australian assistance from Ertel and ex-Bad Seed bassist Race respectively. Turkish singer Gaye Su Akyol guests on the track ‘Love is a Foreign Country’, evoking Gilli Smyth and Sussan Deyhim. There's the steady accumulation of an intense mood, as Ertel's electric saz makes spatial explorations around the mix, working with Hugo Race and Chris Eckman to cultivate a dense, heavy kind of indoor-desert sound. Bu Bir Ruya is a churning electro-acoustic cauldron of Eastern potency.