The Anadolu psychedelic revival is the 21st-century reimagining of Cem Karaca / Barış Manço / Erkin Koray / Selda Bağcan-era Anadolu Rock, staged from three centres: Baba Zula (Istanbul 1996, early precursor), Altın Gün (Amsterdam 2016), and Gaye Su Akyol (Istanbul 2016 onward). Instrumentation combines electrified baglama (saz), fuzz guitar, Hammond organ or Moog synth, darbuka (goblet drum), and drum kit, with occasional Krautrock-derived motorik beats and free-jazz horn fragments. Repertoire is largely covers and reinterpretations of 1970s originals — Altın Gün's catalogue is almost entirely Selda Bağcan, Erkin Koray, and Neşet Ertaş songs. Recordings deliberately cultivate a monaural vintage patina, tying the aesthetic directly to the Sublime Frequencies / Finders Keepers reissue culture that seeded the whole movement.

Baba Zula was the early precursor, formed in Istanbul in 1996 by Murat Ertel out of the Gypsy Percussions ensemble. Electrified saz, dub processing, and free improvisation translated 1970s Anadolu Rock imagination into 1990s club-music language. Sublime Frequencies' mid-2000s reissues connected Erkin Koray, Mustafa Özkent, Moğollar, and Selda Bağcan LPs to Western crate-diggers, and a concentrated wave of vinyl reissues in 2007-10 seeded the actual revival. The defining moment came in 2016, when Amsterdam-based Dutch bassist Jasper Verhulst put out a Facebook advert asking for musicians to play only 1970s Turkish rock — Turkish-diaspora players Merve Daşdemir and Erdinç Ecevit Yıldız replied, and Altın Gün ('Golden Day') was born. Their 2018 debut On, 2019 Gece (Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album), and 2021 Yol made them the movement's international face. Meanwhile in Istanbul, Gaye Su Akyol (born 1985, MA in social anthropology) recorded Hologram İmparatorluğu (2016) and İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir (2018), establishing 'Neo-Anadolu Rock' as a working genre label.

In Altın Gün's 'Bakırköy'ün Yolları' (2018), compare to the Selda Bağcan original: the protest dryness has been replaced by motorik drums and wet Moog synth, closer to Krautrock crossed with Anatolian melody than to protest folk-rock. The line-up is six-piece, guitar and saz share front-line status, and Merve Daşdemir sings in native Turkish. Gaye Su Akyol's 'İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir' (2018) foregrounds her low, near-declamatory voice with vintage synth and electrified saz drifting behind — a modern-day equivalent of Cem Karaca's spoken-verse style. Baba Zula's 'Abdülcanbaz' (2001) is more experimental: dub processing keeps the electrified saz sinking into the loop and re-surfacing in fragments.

Altın Gün's 'Bakırköy'ün Yolları' (2018) — play it back-to-back with Selda Bağcan's original to hear the revival as translation rather than mere cover. Then Gaye Su Akyol's 'İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir' (2018) for her low-declamatory / vintage-synth axis. Baba Zula's 'Abdülcanbaz' (2001) for the more experimental dub side. Dim room, speakers, ideally with the 1970s originals queued up alongside.

The band name Altın Gün comes from Neşet Ertaş's 1978 song 'Altın Gün' — an explicit filial gesture toward the source generation. Jasper Verhulst had toured previously with Jacco Gardner; his Turkish rock fascination began when he found an Erkin Koray LP in an Istanbul record shop while travelling. Gaye Su Akyol's father is the painter Muzaffer Akyol, and many of her album covers use his paintings. Baba Zula's Murat Ertel wanted to collaborate with the British-Jamaican dub producer Mad Professor from the outset in 1996, but the collaboration only happened ten years later on 2006's Duble Oryantal.