There once a boy who was born in Istanbul, Turkey.
His name was Burak Ozmucur. He fell in love with western rock. He especially loved moody, dramatic, guitar driven rock. Like Alice in Chains, Tool, Pink Floyd, and Deftones.
He knew his future lay in America. He practiced his guitar, perfecting the dark, somber guitar lines, the drifting song structures, the hushed vocals that walk alongside the listener’s ear like a long, lost friend. Through a series of unknown events, that I will imagine played out something like a cross between Raiders of the Lost Ark and a Bourne Supremacy movie, Burak assassinated many people, and severely injured many more in his battle to flee his oppressive homeland and make it to… New Jersey.
*disclaimer, I really have no idea if Istanbul is all that oppressive and let’s just say the official body count was somewhere between 0-258.
But he did move to Jersey.
However, that did not stop the man with the name destined to rock… c’mon, say it aloud a few times, ‘Buurrrrr-ROCK Ozzzz-mooo-ker’. You wish you had such a name that could pick up chicks by itself.
After Burak got over his Coming To America moment, he set about bringing his work to fruition. It took a few project EPs to find proper recording equipment and techniques, but he eventually discovered the right approach to capture his art.
The culmination of this effort has coalesced into the shimmering, fading luminescence that is, “A Distant Light”.
Four tracks of dismal beauty that swirl and ebb like whirlpools of darkened water beneath unsuspecting voyagers.
The dramatic odyssey begins with the title track, “A Distant Light”. A combative Tool-like push and retreat of stuttering triplets and lyrics that pull with the same gravity as the music. “Watching a distant light, Until you’re wide awake, Descending, Fading, An ending”.
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“The Illusion”, the third track, shows a more mathematically aggressive guitar, before peeling it back into Ozmucur’s coaxing, murky smooth vocals. This is the most aggressive offering of the four, and makes a nice climax before the more subdued, “Expectations” is offered up to heal any wounds left exposed by the previous three songs.
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If there is a constant through-out, “A Distant Light” it is that liquid drift of Burak Ozmucur’s vocal presence. Eerily reminiscent of Layne Staley from Alice in Chains, the similarity can be unnerving… undeniably, Ozmucur can create a ominous atmosphere. Behind those lyrical waves, he commands an ability to toggle between mechanically precise, bullet-like guitar attacks and echo-laced, reverb drenched guitar lines that loop and twist together like shadowy ink mixing in water.
What a listener needs to be aware of is how MUCH this is Burak Ozmucur. Not only does he sing AND play all the instruments (guitars, bass, and drum programming), he records, mixes and engineers the entire work. Only the mastering is done outside of his hands.
This makes, “A Distant Light” a truly representative work, reflecting the vision of the artist. The purity of this intent is tangible throughout these four songs. The music is solid, now… all he needs is some good promo pictures and more than a YouTube video of him recording in his bedroom, maybe even put together a band that can see his vision… and the world might take some notice of this boy who was born in Turkey and came to America with rock and roll dreams.
