Get to know Istanbul’s darkest, dingiest rave scene
Captured at Pixie Underground: Istanbul’s first and only bass music club
Meet Emmy and DJoyce of Co-Select: a DJ power couple who met raving in Marrakech and now live together in Istanbul. Both heavily involved DJing in the city’s cutting-edge rave network, I caught up with them to find out more about their personal experiences of their bass music community.
Hey Emy and Djoyce (Ayoub)! How was it moving to Istanbul from London and Morocco? Was the underground scene welcoming?
Aouyb - They really welcomed us! Before COVID, sometimes I was playing out twice a week. The scene is a lot more happening for me in Istanbul than in Morocco. Emmy joined me here from London and we had some really good gigs.
Yeah, I was excited to see so much cutting edge music coming out of Istanbul!
Ayoub - There’s a really strong scene for IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Drum and Bass, Dubstep - you know Gantz? He's a big name from Istanbul. He’s one of the main leaders of the underground scene here. He always plays in Pixie.
Emmy - There’s also a big techno scene, Temple is an underground techno club that we’ve played at. But Pixie is the only bass and experimental club in Istanbul! Every night there is different… you’re not really sure what to expect!
Ayoub - “Sometimes you get electro, house, breakbeat, breakcore, noise, dnb, dubstep…”
Emmy - There’s no distinction between the DJs and the crowd really. Everyone comes together. It's like one family.
Pixie Underground: Istanbul’s first and only bass music club
What about the crowd- would you say it was more local or international?
Emmy - “The crowd at Pixie is mostly Turkish people”.
Ayoub - Yes, and Arabs - Syrians, Libyans.
Emmy - They sometimes book international DJs but it’s pretty local. I think Pixie’s really unique because of the owner, Özgür aka Madcow. He’s local and he made it happen.
Geographically SPEAKING, ISTANBUL is very much where East meets West. Has this had an impact on ITS rave culture?
Emmy - The underground scene is such a small portion of the whole society! I would say there are European influences, but overall the culture feels more Arabic.
Ayoub - Many of them have Muslim parents. A lot of our friends are Muslim, but also Christians and one Jewish.
Emmy - “The ravers are into freedom and doing what they want - often they have a lot of tattoos. It’s quite punk!”
Captured at Pixie Underground: Istanbul’s first and only bass music club
What other challenges has the scene faced? Have there been political tensions?
Emmy - Turkish people have told us the scene used to be bigger and more happening. In the last few years, they put a lot more restrictions on clubs: heavier licensing and taxes, I think.
“Since stricter restrictions took place, more things started opening up on the Asian side of the city”.
Captured at Pixie Underground: Istanbul’s first and only bass music club
Do they have a rave scene on both sides?
Ayoub - It's the same thing! Same people, same crowd. There are some really good soundsystem parties in Kadikoy (on the Asian side).
Emmy - There's not really such a divide as it sounds. A lot of people live on that side and come here to party and vice versa.
What about the sound, how would you describe the Istanbul sound?
Ayoub - Just one hour ago, my friend Fosil sent me a track. He’s a Turkish artist - it’s a really wicked track.
Emmy - He’s founded this collective called BAD MASH. They’re really experimental and do everything from producing to DJing and visuals. They have these really long beat battles on Soundcloud, like recently this one called covidwars.
Ayoub - Yeah, in these battles you can hear some really different vibes. The sound is really not from the UK, it’s like nothing you've heard before.
It's so refreshing to hear that the scene has been nourished internally. I love that it's not just been imported straight from the West.
Emmy - Yeah definitely. It's got UK influences but they're doing their own thing. It's super different and really creative. I really admire that about the Istanbul scene.
How has COVID affected the scene, do you still have any raves?
Ayoub - For us, there’s not really any raves. There’s Psytrance and Trance free parties happening in the forests, but we’ve just been to a few house parties with dancing.
Emmy - Playing on the radio has been the best thing for us. Obviously there’s no gigs. We have to be active, so doing our show on Modyan has been a big opportunity, thanks to our friend Omer.
Paradox at Pixie Underground
Thank god for radio! OK, to end on a positive:What's your favourite thing on the Istanbul scene? What makes it unique to anywhere else in the world?
Ayoub - Pixie! It’s this school you know?
Emmy - It’s the heart of the scene. Pixie is really special and the bass community is made from that. So I hope that the community is still strong even if Pixie doesn't last forever. It’s kind of hard to describe… I guess you have to go there!