Bashka, a seven-strong Melbourne outfit with Turkish roots, blur the arbitrary borders between ancient and modern musical forms.
Combining loops and samples with improvised music from traditional instruments, the effect is often sultry and atmospheric, with just a touch of mystery. The production is quite smooth at times, taking a bit of an edge off, but there are many subtly sinister highlights here, such as Dokuzuncu Koy, where disembodied female vocals drift through snake charmer riffs and throbbing percussion like a cursed desert wind through a through an abandoned stone city.
