Turkish Delight
Any band that cites influences as sonically diverse as Brian Eno, the Residents, Fred Frith, the Ex, Cecil Taylor, Contortions, Polvo, Dog Faced Hermans, Pharaoh Saunders, Eno, Sonic Youth, Zeena Parkins, and Peter Brötzmann (for starters) is bound to be difficult to pin down, but what’s so surprising — and refreshing — about TD is how adeptly they spun those influences into something uniquely their own. – Warped Reality
Rock music with oddly-tuned guitars, varied rhythms, clouds of dissonance, and bursts of energy wasn’t too hard to come by in the 1990s. But not everyone who practiced this DIY form got out of the decade alive: for every Sonic Youth there was a Dustdevils, and for every Polvo there was an Erectus Monotone. Boston band Turkish Delight were a casualty of the slacker decade too, but their music deserved to survive longer, and this reissue of their 1996 album Tommy Bell shows why. Not every track is a knockout, but Turkish Delight hit their target more often than not, filling whiplash songs with nerve, guts, and, every once in awhile, a bit of heart too. – Marc Masters for Bandcamp
Releases / Reissues on IHN
Releases / Reissues on Other Labels
Try Harder (7″, Gull Records, 1995)
Spin (7″, Prude Records, 1996)
Live (CD, The Archenemy Record Company, 1998)
Tommy Bell / Howcha Magowcha (2xCD, Reckless Yes, 2019)
Associated Projects
GingerBread Men / Vial of Life – bands Carl Thien played in prior to TD
The Glass Set / Betwixt – bands Leah Callahan is/was in post-TD. Leah’s solo work includes Even Sleepers (2003) and Simple Folk (2021)
