Melodi

Kit Sebastian is the London-based duo of Turkish vocalist Merve Erdem and Anglo-French multi-instrumentalist Kit Martin, but you’d be forgiven for thinking they were the dimension-hopping heroes of some kitsch science-fiction B-movie. With this follow-up to their 2019 debut, Mantra Moderne, they consolidate their commitment to sound – tracking a fictional internationalist utopia where Brazilian tropicália, Fench yé-yé and Turkish Anatolian pop have merged to form a day-glo mutant hybrid, and where it’s always, perpetually the 1960s.

Opener ‘Yalvarma’ convincingly sets the scene: a sunshiny ditty, sung in Turkish, that effortlessly melds Anatolian folk-pop and insouciant 20th-century French glamour, with a touch of louche jazz and a psychedelic keyboard solo. It sounds like St Etienne after an extended sabbatical in Istanbul spent studying New Wave cinema. ‘Affet Beni’, twinkling with balalaika and glockenspiel, could be an alternate universe Stereolab who decided to fixate on imaginary Greek dream-pop instead of Krautrock. Martin is a prodigiously talented musician, playing nearly all the instruments, including exotic items such as zither, sitar and oud, while Erdem’s vocals exude an unruffled, straight-faced cool entirely suited to this enjoyably camp exercise in arch artifice.