Juno Daily – In The Mix: Mehmet Aslan
Swiss scene expert with a mountain of top tuneage
Swiss-Turkish, Berlin-based producer and DJ Mehmet Aslan explores the far reaches of the Swiss post-punk, experimental and electronic scenes on his new compilation Senza Decoro: Liebe & Anarchia in Switzerland 1980-1990.
During the mid-70s, Switzerland had embraced punk within its cities, informing the subsequent post-punk era of the 1980s as music splintered into freeform musical strands across the whole of the country. It was to become one of the most innovative periods in Switzerland’s modern day music history.
“It was like a wild laboratory for all forms of new and strange sounds, rackets and compositional experiments, accompanied and inspired by cutting-edge developments in electronic musical instruments.” writer and Swiss music historian Lurker Grand, says of the era “A broad, innovative scene developed and the four different language and cultural regions of Switzerland were no longer perceived to be an obstacle. There was a curiosity for the foreign and the strange. Conflicts for freedom and free spaces took place and this was reflected in the music.”
It was a period of unfiltered creativity and this free, non-commercial approach is a common denominator for the songs on this compilation. Many artists operated in their own universe; hardly any of the acts on this album actually met each other at the time. Only Liliput from Zürich achieved notable fame, building on the success of their previous incarnation as Kleenex.
“There were different circumstances that all fed into the music,” continues Aslan. “The rise of DIY synth music coincided with the political thrust of the youth movement in Switzerland which turned cities like Zürich, Basel, Bern and Lausanne upside down with violent rioting – and a lot of it ultimately in the name of art, happening as a cultural revolution. It gave birth to a spirit of experimentation that is reflected in the compilation’s subtitle Liebe + Anarchia in Switzerland. It’s a line I borrowed from a Swiss poem by Werner Bucher of the Olten Group of writers, which was closely affiliated to the ‘80s movement.”
Although Swiss, some bands were based outside of the country and many brought in international elements to their music. Compiler Mehmet Aslan touches on this aspect; having grown up in Basel with Turkish heritage, he is now based in Berlin. He’s become known for his unofficial edits that stretch into his Turkish ancestry and he has become a household name on the diggers’ circuit.
He began discovering little known ‘80s post-punk and underground gems from Switzerland and it quickly became a focus for his collecting. “Two of the first Swiss acts I discovered were KonX, via an Italian blog, and a 45 by El Deux, ‘Gletscher’. I was surprised to learn that such far-reaching music originated in Switzerland and it encouraged me to dig further into the electronic music of that period. I then created a mix and interview for The Vinyl Factory, which eventually sparked the idea to do this compilation for Strut Records.”
In celebration of its release, Mehmet has created an exclusive mix for Juno Daily featuring some of the highlights from Senza Decoro compilation, “a few of those that inspired it, and some that didn’t make it in”.
Mix tracklisting:
1. Double – Naningo
2. Dr. Chattanooga & Navarones – Kabyl Marabu
3. Yello – She’s Got A Gun (Instrumental)
4. Fizzè – Cuisine
5. Nacht’Raum – Maria Flieg
6. Guyer’s Connection – Pogo of Techno
7. Schamanen Circel – Arbeiter (The Worker)
8. Sarah Röben – Swallowed
9. Stephan Wittwer – Der Rechte Weg – End Title, Extended Version, parts 1 & 2
11. Schaltkreis Wassermann – Arabesque
12. Les Reines Prochaines – Schlafen ist individuelle Anarchie
14. Mother’s Ruin – Laugh and Shout
Buy your vinyl copy of Senza Decoro: Liebe & Anarchia in Switzerland 1980-1990 by clicking here