hiçamahiç – Düşünürüm

Hiçamahiç (the name translates as ‘nevermind’, probably a Nirvana reference) is a recently formed band based in İstanbul, Turkey. They play a distinctive and melancholic blend of emogaze with a lot of post-punk influences, which can be heard in their sometimes angular, yet beautiful and melodic guitars.

Düşünürüm is their first full-length album after three singles. It contains nine romantic compositions of despondency and bittersweet sadness, one of which is an interesting cover of Nirvana’s cult song “Sappy”. It is honestly a very good rendition and an original tribute to one of the most important alternative bands of all time. Interpreted in a different sound, but still managing to keep the raw emotion of the song. Creatively expressed with lots of reverb and delay—somehow a combination of the painful angst of grunge and the tender shoegaze reverberations of sadness.

Some of the songs like “Uzun Yollar” with its creative guitar constructions are very reminiscent of ’90s indie emo bands like Rainer Maria and especially Jejune, who also mixed their sound with shoegaze influences. Other songs on the album have electronic and ambient elements—making the album very eclectic and somehow compact and even conceptual, complete and wholesome. When the record is over, you are left with a feeling of fleeting sadness and a bit of bittersweet hope. It definitely seems that hiçamahiç put a lot of effort into creating their first album. The mix by Mutlu Oral and the mastering by Will Killingsworth are exceptionally well done and make the album sound full, original and most of all really distinctive—which is a breath of fresh air in this digital age of endless bands incessantly imitating the classics and adding nothing original or current.

Hiçamahiç are a rare diamond in this sea of unoriginality and they surely deserve your attention—especially if you like the romantic tunes of indie emo, shoegaze, post-punk and new interesting innovative blends of these genres. Check out their album on their official Bandcamp page and support them as they seem to be a very promising band. The direction they will take from now on is also very curious considering their raw emotional sound and beautiful compositions.