Do you still read newspapers? Also De Standaard? We do, certainly when there are nice things to be read about Merdan Taplak (saturday 18 february in the AB)
Here's quite a good bit of praise for MERDAN TAPLAK, section 'Almost Famous', under the headline 'Two cultures, twenty genres.' (Meanwhile 'prelisten' the cd here, also at De Standaard.)
Turkish-Antwerpian DJ Merdan Taplak captures the entire world in stunning electronic dance music. 'In it for the honey' is the name of his debut: a sweet party album with international appeal.
Merdan Taplak blows voluptuous Balkan beats into the audience, accompanied by brass wind-instruments and an accordionist. Techno and exotica fuse, underground and pop trip over one another, God is a DJ and Merdan Taplak would seem to be the ideal driver of the people. Are we catching a glimpse of the future? As Taplak creates a dreadfully modern mish-mash of genres, cultures, associations and connotations, on the spot. Eat that, Shantel! And: in your face, all those who try to merge electro and world in a forced manner!
Taplak resolutely sends his sound into the 21st century with the ambitious debut 'In it for the honey'. The man is a bridge-builder, a cross-pollinator. He pulls sounds out of their context and shoves them into his thumping mixes.
Taplak's great strength? He's extremely aware of the roots of the music he re-uses and that he has mutate until it fits into his work. As Turkish Belgian he prefers to underscore his roots rather than cover them up. 'I'm one of the 50/50 people', he says. 'I don't understand why you would renounce your roots. People standing at the crossroads of cultures are much more easily able to adopt impressions and influences from so many different directions, to then send them out into the world in an entirely modified form. That's why I want to make the most of my own double identity.'
'In it for the honey' makes the most of that signal function. Taplak guides the listener from the past through the present to the future and back again. A euphoric Turkish halay dance, cosmic Balearic disco, raw New York hip-hop, exciting electro-funk, deeply throbbing dubstep: the pleasure with which Taplak slaloms between genres is infectious.
'Please don't call my music world-music', says Taplak. 'It's more than that.' We can understand his reserves. Because 'world-music'? Wasn't the far too small pigeon-hole that not only Buena Vista Social Club and Värttinä but also Emir Kusturica got squeezed into in the 1990's? A pigeon-hole where high-technology renewal and hyper-cool urban vibes didn't soon gain root.
So we'd rather refer to Taplak's hotchpotch as 'global music': a style from here and now and from the future. Diplo and Major Lazer have also dealt in it, and M.I.A. and Buraka Som Sistema too.
Taplak adds a pinch of Belgian surrealism to their funky, electronic exotica (he lets sub-genres and cultures cheerfully collide, sometimes leading to very entertaining results) and a Turkish fire that flares in the party tracks.
According to SVS in De Standaard.
Enough read? On Saturday 18 February there's that party to be had in the AB with Uphigh Collective, Kraantje Pappie and Merdan Taplak!
