Barista
Open Sesame Vol 2: Press Rewind
(Monoplay)

The sprawling Istanbul-based rock project Barista, comes from Bahadır Han Eryılmaz. His sprawling Open Sesame, presented in five volumes (yes, 5!), embraces the listener in music influenced by Turkish folk and Sufism as much as Journey, Supertramp, and The Alan Parsons Project. On Open Sesame Vol 2: Press Rewind, one gets a sampler (tracks 8-13) of the 26-song Open Sesame.

“Haze,” offering verses with an obvious homage to Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty,” has a solid driving chorus and presents Eryılmaz’s truly great rough rockin’ voice. “Start,” which follows, has a tight little lead guitar line and a strong female vocal lead (Eryilmaz duets in the chorus); another solid little rock-pop offering.

“Sweet” has got a sly snare beat. I’m not sure where Eryimaz plays drums here or where killer, famous Simon Phillips mans the skins…as he is listed as drummer here as well Erilymaz, plus there is Jesse Siebenberg playing keys and guitars, which he does swimmingly on another cutting perfect guitar line on “Sweet.” 

We finally get a stab of some Sufism (best as my limited knowledge of that culture is) on the tribal and chanting of the heaviest (and best for me) tune here, “Nothing Left.” There’s Sienbenberg kicking it out of the park again, and another great vocal from Eryilmaz.

This sampler ends with the definite Supertramp-sounding “Apology” (I’d venture that Simon Phillips is playing drums here). It’s a great upbeat poppy tune, with some key sounds coming off the singable chorus.

Open Sesame Vol 2: Press Rewind certainly gives one a good idea of what to expect from what must be a brilliant (and big) Open Sesame.