Tutku

Danish quartet Kalaha first tackled a Turkish tune on their third album, 2019’s Mandala, which was also the first time they collaborated with Danish-Turkish singer Hilal Kaya. They’ve worked with other vocalists since but, on this latest release, Kaya is the sole voice, lending the endeavour a marked Anatolian flavour – nowhere more apparent than when Kaya is doing her best Selda impression on the classic Turk-rock tune ‘Ince Ince’. This time around, they’ve also recruited the 15-piece Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, who add a rambunctious, brassy sheen to the proceedings. In fact, the extent to which you enjoy the album may well be decided by how you feel about big bands. In truth, it’s somewhat overpowering, slathering punchy stabs, woozy smears and jolly melody lines over everything. The orchestra add a noir-ish TV cop-show vibe to the funky groove of ‘Evliya’ but, elsewhere, they skirt perilously close to Saturday tea-time light entertainment.

Still, there are some entertaining moments among the album’s eight original compositions. ‘Disko Yolu’ is a catchy disco vamp with campy synth whooshes suggesting a parallel universe where ABBA were into Barış Manço’s dance-floor banger, ‘Ben Bilirim’; and ‘Ekmek Fabrik’ is a sprightly Afrobeat romp doing its best to get out from under a pile of brass.