Djam OST

Tony Gatlif may be familiar from his films Latcho Drom and Gadjo Dilo, which had notable soundtracks. He's back with Djam, an as-yet-unreleased film about the adventures of two young women between Istanbul and Lésvos. The music purports to be rebetika, the regional urban-underworld sound of the 1920s and 30s, but half the tracks belong to the folk canon of Greece or Turkey, with lyrics alternating between Greek and Turkish.
The Turkish and Greek musicians are not even near the top of their game. Either the performances or the recordings are often muddily indistinct, at their worst on an awful rendition of the beloved ‘Tzakitzis’, or ‘Ti Se Melei Esenane’. There's a far better version of the Macedonian ‘?stemem Babac?m’ by She'Koyokh. Music that suffices to lend filmic atmosphere does not necessarily mean a successful standalone CD. Honourable mentions, however, should be made to ‘Aman Doktor’, with its bilingual lyrics, and the soulful Despina Pagioula on ‘Agapo Mia Pantremeni’. There are French-only liner notes, mainly consisting of a Gatlif interview stressing his long fascination with rebetika, and equating the 1923 Greco-Turk population exchanges with the current refugee crisis. Like the music, they're messy – vocals are credited on instrumentals, while actual singers are not.