Kurdish Mix

As a music fan, you occasionally chance across a resource on the web that makes your heart leap with joy because of the numerous new sonic pathways it opens up . That is exactly what happened when Spanish compiler Manuel Sánchez sent me a link to his awesome DJ K-Sets web page. This is one of the best sets of Middle Eastern tapes I’ve come across, and the names of the mixes are enough to tantalise alone: Canaanite Galaxy; Destroy Route; Tel Aviv Bus Station; Tehran Electro Tunes; Iberia Ancient Songs … I’ll certainly be revisiting this page until I’ve soaked up each and every mix. The first selection that Manuel flagged up to me was the one below, the Popular Kurdish Cassette mix. He said: “From 2005 to 2010 I was compiling Kurdish tapes sourced from around Istanbul, Berlin and Aleppo in Syria. I made this mixtape on video to illustrate the tracks with their covers. Not many people have heard this mixtape, and now, when the progressive Kurdish citadel of Kobani is being attacked by the international jihadis, it could be a good moment to show western audiences some aspects of the Kurdish people through their daily music.” I couldn’t agree more - John Doran