Five Songs from Eliminated World Cup Countries

Thanks to a YouTube TV free trial that I will cancel in 5 days, I’ve been watching a lot of World Cup games — something I’ve never done before — and I’ve really been enjoying it. I’ve been working hard to overcome my long-held anti-soccer prejudices, and I think I’ve been making strides (have you seen any of the Cabo Verde games? Holy Moly!)

Four nations have already been eliminated from the World Cup: Turkey, Tunisia, Haiti, and Jordan. I dove into the music scenes of these four countries and discovered some great music to share with you. My favorite thing about these artists is that they all embody what I consider to be a “World Cup” ideal: cultural exchange.

Read to the bottom for a preview of this week’s Friday newsletter!

“Anatolian Rock” is a genre of music that combines traditional Turkish music with Western-style psychedelic rock. It was at its peak in the 60s-80s, and Erkin Koray is one of the biggest names from that era, along with others like Barış Manço and Selda Bağcan. Some modern artists are carrying the torch, like Altın Gün, Gaye Su Akyol, and even King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Erkin Koray’s second album “Elektronik Türküler,” released in 1974, is one of the best Anatolian Rock records out there—one of the founding documents of the genre. The last track “Türkü” is a sprawling 8+ minute psychscape with deadpan spoken word vocals, flutes, zurnas, and hot guitars all over a bunch of time signature changes and tight grooves.

Nour Harkati is a Tunisian artist based in NYC, and his music reflects traditional Tunisian music (he sings in Arabic, plays a guembri, features traditional percussion and beats in his music) while drawing from contemporary folk and rock influences.

I’m a big fan of North African rock groups like Mdou Moctar, Etran De L'Aïr, and Tinariwen, which have some cultural and regional overlap with Tunisia. Harkati’s music feels like a more sparse, almost singer-songwriter version of that sound. “Barrani” is one of the softer songs on his latest album “Moulena,” but there are some more uptempo songs with driving drums and funky bass like “Sidi” and the title track “Moulena.”

Formed in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Lakou Mizik is a roots music collective from Port-au-Prince. The band features a mix of older and younger musicians who play an eclectic mix of sounds. Earlier stuff (like on the album “Wa Di Yo”) is traditional Haitian music, Caribbean rhythms, gospel, and New Orleans jazz.

Their latest album “Leave The Bones” is a collaboration with the electronic music producer Joseph Ray, which is full of soundscapes and textures while retaining the band’s signature sound. Ray and the band also released a remix album of “Leave The Bones” a year later that’s full of house music bangers.

Toumba is an electronic producer from Amman who combines elements of Arabic music with modern club sounds. I wish I was better at writing about electronic music (a genre I can speak very little on) but Toumba’s music sounds cool and forward-thinking to me. The “Petals” EP especially is full of rich sonic textures, interesting sound choices, and dancey beats.

If Altın Gün isn’t on your radar, you need to check them out ASAP. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard dipped my toe into the “Anatolian Rock” sound with KG, LW, and Flying Microtonal Banana. But Altın Gün is one of the handful of modern bands keeping the Anatolian Rock sound alive with chill, eastern-influenced microtonal psych rock. All the band’s music is sung in the beautiful Turkish language, which adds to the ethereal, foreign feeling.

Altın Gün is actually from Amsterdam. Everyone in the band, including their Turkish-Dutch lead singer Erdinç Ecevit, were born in the Netherlands. A similar band, Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, is similarly Turkish in origin but based in Germany. What could be more World Cup than people from all over the world coming together to make music? Cultural exchange and fusion has produced some of my favorite music ever made.

From “Waka Waka” to “Wavin’ Flag,” FIFA and its various corporate underwriters have been sponsoring official and unofficial World Cup anthems since at least the 1960s.

What happens when huge amounts of corporate money get funneled into making inoffensive, safe art for mass consumption? Sometimes you get catchy earworms you can’t help but love, and sometimes you get cringeworthy shlock.

My full ranked list of every World Cup song drops this Friday, right here on the ‘Stack. Subscribe now so you don’t miss it!

Thanks for reading this week! I hope you found some new music, and I’ll see you Friday for the deep dive.

-Joey

More than 100k songs are uploaded every day.

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