Serving as a simultaneous soundtrack and compilation,
Auf der Anderen Seite matches its topicality -- the German-Turkish co-production has its partial roots in the Turkish minority community that thrives in modern-day Germany -- with music that reflects the combination of past and the future at play. Coordinated by
Shantel, who creates a number of shorter instrumentals throughout the disc (highlights including the spacy techno rampage of "Six Bars Later," all the more effective for being so brief), its wide range can be a bit herky-jerky as a listen, but with numerous highlights nonetheless. It begins and ends with two interpretations of an excellent song, "Ben Seni Sevdugumi," balancing out a modern-sounding, lower-key interpretation by Kazim Kayuncu and
Sevval Sam with a older-sounding concluding take by Mackali Hasan Tunc, and with this as a model the disc explores from there. The contrasts avoid what has almost been a cliché of "traditional sounds/modern beats" around the world in favor of a variety of fusions, some taking on fresher takes of older styles straight up, such as
Selim Sesler's energetic "Kasap Havasi," which a band such as
Gogol Bordello could regard as a kindred effort. Meantime the Top 40-ready beats and slink of "I'll Smash Glasses" show that this is a 21st century collection, not a re-created 19th century one. Elsewhere there's reggae-tinged lopes via the Rootsman's "Ta Travudia," female chorales on "Heyamo," and
Shantel's own superior take on
the Afro Celt Sound System's styles with "Pietons -- Bucovina Dub." ~ Ned Raggett