EKIN FIL - HEAVY
no kings 2016, edition of 100
EKIN FIL - BEING NEAR
helen scarsdale agency 2016, edition of "somewhere south of 400"
"born ekin üzeltüzenci, based in her native istanbul, she cites shoegazing classics (cocteau twins, cranes, slowdive, etc.) as her earliest influence, worn issues of melody maker or nme from second hand shops, trading cassettes with friends. obsession with rainsoaked melodies from the british isles blossomed into a foundation for her own art. 'being near' stands as the pinnacle in her luminous career, achingly beautiful arrangements for guitar and electronics saturated in cavernous amounts of reverb, whose semi-mystical blur extends into the vocal melodies... a timelessness of human desire and longing, albeit constrained to this plane of existence. her music is not an escape valve from the patriarchal hammer of the dominant culture in turkey, but a reflection through her own condition, in her own context, from her own body that may have actualized what helene cixous theorized as 'ecriture feminine' but through sound and not language." - HSA
HEAVY is EKIN FIL's first new full length since late 2014's WIND IS NEAR (REC #8), which by my measure remains her most spectral work to date, like a secluded haunted estate, then HEAVY comes along, kicks up some dust, cuts through the cobwebs and lets some light in, but not without consequence as something dormant seems to stir and awaken - the finale run of "let me in" > "heavy" > "stranger" is EKIN FIL at her most intense, as if the spirits she's long been channeling through her music turn on her, perhaps paving the way for her masterpiece BEING NEAR out now just five months later
BEING NEAR is EKIN FIL's most engrossing work yet, it is the absolute perfection of her dirge-like dark ambient deep sleep dream pop, perhaps once indebted to COCTEAU TWINS and GROUPER, but now having meticulously explored and established a territory all her own, as documented by previous efforts on highly regarded labels ROOT STRATA and STUDENTS OF DECAY, informed by the softer zoned sides of said "shoegazing classics" as well as NICO's THE MARBLE INDEX and DESERTSHORE, drawing some contemporary comparison to folks like FURSAXA, RAAJMAHAL and ZELIENOPLE -- BEING NEAR is like some post-possession procession, a rite following the events of HEAVY as it hauntingly sets in like an eerie fog enveloping a cemetery, with a spine-tingling sense of apprehension betraying the surreal serenity, crossing the threshold from funereal into otherworldly, teetering toward netherworldly, as if the other side is but a narrow ledge that EKIN FIL dares to traverse -- BEING NEAR is a vivid and compelling work that delves into a dichotomy of the hereafter, tranquility and trepidation, and neatly wraps it in a veil of gauzy slow motion elegance that's second to none
highest possible recommendation
