"Istanbul is a beautiful city, but also a dirty and neglected one. I think our music reflects this mess and chaos of mixed cultures" - members of Replikas declare. Contrary to most bands from this city, they don't play rock covers or cheap pop, but they create their own, rough rock or even punk style, inspired by experiments of the New York band Sonic Youth. Five years ago they even had a chance to support them at concerts in their country. They regularly compose for theatre and films, and have recently been awarded for the score for Two Girls (Iki genç kiz) by Kutlug Ataman and played in the documentary Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul. With their latest album, "Zerre", they intend to conquer foreign markets at last.
Sometimes, knowledge of jazz and blues can be useful in making electronic music, too. This is the opinion of Tolga Baklacioglu, who learnt to play guitar and trumpet in his youth. But then he got bored with conventional playing and started to collect vinyl records and to perform at popular clubs in Ankara. His two works published so far, "Your Blues" and "Lovin' were referred to by music industry portals as "a perfect fusion of the East and West, using modern rhythms of house, tech-house and minimal techno" and that "his music acts like a magic carpet that takes its audience on a weird journey through crowded streets of the great bazaar in Istanbul." With such opinions and coverage, the Tolga Baklacioglu trademark grows outside Turkey, too.
