Press And Reviews

Philly's musical hothouse sprouts fresh sounds over a wide field
By Tom Moon, Inquirer Music Critic

Mutlu Mutlu(Mutlusounds.com ***1/2) "Did You Know," on the five-song EP by singer and guitarist Mutlu Onaral, begins as a gentle samba. But after two swaying verses that display jazz-vocal phrasing, there's a sharp mood change, into hip-hop. Turns out Onaral, a first-generation American of Turkish descent, is a credible rapper, and after the severe, surprisingly dexterous narrative detour, he slides back into his singing voice to take things home. Like Amos Lee, with whom he'll share the stage Jan. 23 at the Fire on Girard Avenue, Mutlu uses repetitive chord sequences to launch gloriously loose vocal improvisations. If he can pull together a full album that exudes the breezy feel of "Can't Stop," he'll be unstoppable. (For other Onaral dates, go to www.mutlusounds.com.)


Amos Lee and Mutlu
- A.D. Amorosi

Folky soul. Funked-up country. Jazz hop jive. Rhythmic-blue Turkish pop. That all of these sounds come from just two Philadelphia singer-songwriters, Amos Lee and Mutlu, makes for one-stop shopping when it comes to rapture.
With both men inspired by Al Green and Stevie Wonder, the influence could, by all rights, make each artist little more than retro-phonic. Yet each uses unique ethnic diversity (Lee is half-white, half-African American; Mutlu is of Turkish descent), powerful lyrics, and subtlety to make the borrowed and the blue new.
For Lee, now signed to Blue Note, that has meant throwing a curveball - the avant-folky frippery of Tim and Jeff Buckley - into his serene, acoustic-soul song structures. The result, on the barroom blues of "Makin' Love" and the Hammond-heavy grooves of "Morning" (both from his eponymous EP), is a blissfully raw, harmony-filled sound.
For the worldly sound of his own eponymous EP, Mutlu - alone or with a band - finds the groove to make his heady lyrics dance. Alive with Turkish-pop chords, jazz-funk changes, and tricky hip-hop rhythms, Mutlu songs such as "Did You Know" and "Damage" feel both foreign and familiar, risky and romantic.