Somewhere in the middle of making “Dream,” Gentilesky’s second album, Yaprak Kırdök wrote a song in her mother tongue for the first time in nearly two decades. That decision — to sing in Turkish, not Italian, not English — quietly redirected the whole record. “The moment we decided to use these lyrics kind of shaped part of the album,” she says.
The song is “1,000 Kez.” We’re premiering the video today.
On the surface it’s about a toxic relationship. But Kırdök isn’t interested in keeping those two things separate. “The song really simply talks about toxic partners and their resemblance to governments,” she explains.
“Like how we talk and talk but the other part doesn’t listen; how from one day to another we have this presence in our lives, and it actually changes everything; how toxic partners would love bomb you and make you dream just to find out that you have been fooled yet again.”
The closing lyric — asking why we keep making wars in the name of love — she describes as “a bit of a cliché,” but then immediately complicates it: “Wars/genocides are happening in the name of greed and pure evil.” The cliché holds up to a point, and she knows exactly where that point is.
“It’s a fun song that actually represents Gentilesky really well,” Kırdök adds, “and it’s also a small salute to my roots.”
She’s originally from Istanbul. Moved to Cagliari, Sardinia in 2016, and stayed. The rest of the band — bassist and vocalist Andrea Pilleri, guitarist Claudio Zucca, and drummer Simone Mura — are all Cagliari-based too, so the Turkish/Italian identity the band carries isn’t about geography so much as personal history. “The Turkey/Italy connection is simply there,” Kırdök says. They haven’t played Istanbul yet — “but it’s in the making.”
Pilleri and Zucca both have roots in the Slovenly Recordings world: Pilleri through Rippers, Zucca through Undisco Kidd, and Simone Mura through Sushicorner. The band’s 2022 debut, “Ways of Seeing,” came out on Hozac Records — a label Kırdök describes as “one of my favorite labels ever.”
Moving to Slovenly for “Dream” felt less like a career step and more like a homecoming. “Slovenly Recordings is actually, in a strange way, home to us,” she says, noting that she’s known label head Pete Menchetti since her Istanbul days, mostly through the We’re Loud Fests. “I’m so happy that our first album is pressed by HoZac, and it feels incredibly right that our second album, Dream, is being pressed by Slovenly, and we’re at home.”
The band takes its name from Artemisia Gentileschi, the Baroque painter whose work reclaimed female narrative in an era that largely wrote women out of it. That lineage carries through to “Dream” — Kırdök draws a connection between Gentileschi’s impact and contemporary figures like Nan Goldin, Jennifer Precious Finch, and the late Kathy Acker. The debut, “Ways of Seeing,” explored those artistic theories more broadly.
“Dream” pulls the focus tighter. “Dream is a continuation of Ways of Seeing,” Kırdök says, “but taking a year to plan and write the record really highlights its maturity. Recording it with Piff played a big part as well, and listening to both albums shows our growth. I love how similar yet different each one is.”
That year of planning shows in how the record was built. Recorded and mixed by Piff at Frizzer Studio and Smoking Fridge Studios in Cagliari in August 2025, then mastered by Nene Baratto — known for his work with Movie Star Junkies — in Berlin in October. Artwork by Kırdök, design by Gabriele Serrau. The Bandcamp description puts it bluntly: “It’s 2026 and the world is coming to the end it deserves… What remains of Sardinia and Turkey? Gentilesky is there, and there, and HERE.”
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Razorcake called them “shards of Gang of Four, Minutemen, Pere Ubu, Kleenex, and many others… melted together and reforged by a tight-as-hell band into tuneage that is angular yet catchy, bleak yet danceable.”
Italy’s Rumore went further, describing Gentilesky as “a group that better than any other simultaneously captures the state of health and marginality of the Italian underground. They survive within the confines of a limited circuit and are fully aware of their lack of prospects, yet they get together regardless.”
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“Dream” is out April 3 on Slovenly Recordings, available on black vinyl, limited purple vinyl (100 copies, $20), and digital ($9). A European tour follows, with dates to be announced.
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