Already its name suggests what Volga Çoban's label is all about: "arşiv" means "archive," "plak" is the Turkish word for "record." But Arsivplak is not exclusively a reissue imprint that re-releases rare albums and singles by artists such as Özdemir Erdoğan, Şenay and Grup Bunalım as faithfully as possible. Under the name Arşivplak (with an ş), the self-proclaimed "amateur musician, drummer and owner of a MiniKorg 700S" also puts out edits and reinterpretations of Turkish folk, funk, disco, pop and rock songs. It all started in 2012 with the EP "Turkish Disco Folk Volga Nehri." "Derdiyoklar İkilisi invented disco folk," explains Çoban, referring to the legendary duo, whose wild sound had a decisive influence on the retrospective reception of the music of Turkish guest workers in the FRG . "I only added the word ›Turkish‹."
Thus, on the one hand, Çoban distinguishes himself from labels that specialise purely in reissuing the music of famous Turkish artists such as Barış Manço, Selda Bağcan, Erkin Koray and others as faithfully as possible while on the other hand emphasising that he concentrates primarily on releases that came directly from Turkey. Which in turn does not mean that Arsivplak would limit himself stylistically. "I have been collecting records for over 25 years - Anadolu pop, pop, rock, folk, jazz - from 1962 to 1989, the year when vinyl was pressed for the last time in Turkey," explains Çoban. "Nowadays it's impossible because Turkish music got such a popularity boost, but back then nobody was interested in vinyl records."
[...]
Zum Original