Barakka
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | SELF
Music
Press
Mary Armstrong's story about Philly's own Turkish Folk Rock band : Barakka - City Paper
April 11, 2010
Barakka, a Turkish & Middle Eastern folk rock band that blends traditional instruments such as Oud, Dumbek, Djembe, Saz with the Western rock, came back to New York City bigger and stronger for their second performance at Mehanata Bulgarian Bar. The group put on an impressive performance and captivated the crowd with their amazing energy and unique music.
As expected, Barakka was well received for the second time in New York City just as they were at the 2008 Philadelphia Turkish Festival, Italian Market Festival, Alternative Fringe festival and several radio shows.
Barakka, founded by Baris Kaya in 2003, are expected to release their much anticipated debut album some time this year. - Turka Magazine
January 24, 2010
Barakka, a Turkish & Middle Eastern folk rock band that blends traditional instruments such as Oud, Dumbek, Djembe, Saz with the Western rock, had its New York City debut performance at Mehanata Bulgarian Bar. The group put on an impressive performance and captivated the crowd with their amazing energy and unique music.
As expected, Barakka was well received in New York City just as they were at the 2008 Philadelphia Turkish Festival, Italian Market Festival, Alternative Fringe festival and several radio shows.
Barakka, founded by Baris Kaya in 2003, are expected to release their much anticipated debut album some time this year. - Turka Magazine
TAG: BARAKKA UZAKLARDAN
September 24, 2014
Haunting, Angst-Fueled Anthems and a Drom Show by Philly Art-Rockers Barakka
Philadelphia-based Turkish art-rock band Barakka deserve to be vastly better known than they are. Even though the majority of their lyrics are in Turkish, their relentlessly intense, mostly minor-key anthems are memorable and often haunting, transcending any language barrier. They’re playing at Drom on Oct 2 at 7:30 PM, opening for another more psychedelic (and controversial) Turkish rocker, Ahmet Muhsin. Advance tix are $20 and very highly recommended because the diaspora comes out in full force for shows like this.
Barakka’s brilliant album – streaming at their Reverbnation page – is titled Uzaklardan, meaning “far away” or “from a distance.” It’s a feeling echoed in the music’s persistent unease and frontman Baris Kaya’s recurrent themes of longing and loss. More often than not, the lead instrument is Roger Mgrdichian’s incisive, rippling oud, joining in a rich interweave with Kaya’s web of acoustic and electric guitars, William Tayoun’s elegant piano and Chris Marashlian’s kinetic bass. Multiple drummers contribute to the project, including the band’s current stickman, Jim Hamilton and the New York Gypsy All-Stars‘ Engin Gunaydin.
The opening track, Agit sets the stage, piano paired against the oud as the lithely dancing minor-key intro gives way to a crunchy, intense, anthemically swaying drive: as it crescendos, the band creates a dynamic that’s both towering and eerily rustic. The second track, simply titled X builds to a similarly angst-driven peak out of a strummy acoustic waltz. Kayip is the most American-sounding, and ironically the least musically dynamic track, winding down to down to the piano over Joseph Tayoun’s clip-clop darbouka groove.,
The bittersweet Gri Sokaklar is the gentlest number here: once again, Mgrdichian leads the band up and the piano follows. Hedye kicks off with a flurrying darbouka solo and quickly builds to a moody, haunting anthem with a tricky tempo, the wounded ache in Kaya’s voice echoed potently by Mrgdichian’s tense, upper-register oud solo. The steady, precise Yalniz Kahraman is every bit as haunting, with Kaya’s spare, echoey, bell-like guitar accents behind the oud’s stoic intensity.
Sairin Celiskisi sets anthemic mitteleuropean angst to a catchy, unexpectedly tropical pop tune with a little Middle Eastern spice. The stomping, vamping, crunchily hypnotic Hey On Besli pairs the clattering darbouka with bagpipe-like guitar – it’s the most Mediterranean-inflected track. The slow, pensive Son brings back the grey-sky anthemic ambience.The album’s final cut, Hit & Run has a metal-tinged, chromatically-charged intensity, Kaya’s eerie fuzztone lines matching the menace of the lyrics. As lushly and intricately arranged as these songs are, they sound like they’d be real showstoppers in concert. - New York Music Daily
Discography
Uzaklardan October, 2012
Available on
Cdbaby.com
barakkamusic.com
itunes.com
Photos
Bio
Barakka, was founded in Philadelphia by guitarist and vocalist Baris Kaya
in 2009. Besides Baris, the band consists of Roger Mgrdichian on the oud,
Joe Tayoun on percusions, and Billy Tayoun on the keyboard. With its
members the band introduced a different direction into the standard rock
band definition since the start.
The band played at many festivals, bars and venues in Philadelphia and the
surrounding areas including New York and New Jersey. Barakka also had
the privilege to play as an opener prior to an NBA game between the
Philadelphia 76’ers and Orlando Magic in 2010.
In 2012 the first album “Uzaklardan” (from a far) and the first music video
“Agit” (Lament) was released.
In 2013, Barakka shared the stage with some very important Turkish bands
and artists such as Mogollar, Yeni Turku, Mor ve Otesi, Gripin, Mirkelam,
and Erkan Ogur.
Barakka went to Turkey in 2014 for a tour, which due to the Soma Mine
Disaster got canceled last minute. This led the group to make a documentary
of the days of mourning in Turkey. The 45-minute documentary is also
named “Uzaklardan” and can be viewed on Youtube. However, the band was
still able to arrange for two concerts with great turnout even under those
circumstances. They even managed to be on the TRT Radyo 1 show in
Ankara.
In 2015 Baris Kaya came together for a concert with local musicians in
Istanbul and performed various Barakka songs under the name “Barakka
Istanbul”.
During 2016-2018 Barakka was in preparation for upcoming tours and the
making of the second album. The second album “Yollar Bekler” (Roads are
Waiting) was completed.
The group came out with another music video from the second album before
its release. This one was for the song “Alevler Icindeyim” It reached a high
number of views so far of any of their other music videos and aired on
various leading radios throughout Turkey
Band Members
Links
