VampiSoul
V.A. : Rangarang - Pre-revolutionary Iranian pop (IR,1970s,comp.2011)****
This double CD compilation of Persian pop music from the short-lived period of popularity during the 70s is well compiled and gives a great listen. The tracks are accompanied by a variety of Persian, Indian and Afghan instruments, Western rock instruments (rock/funk/dance music related a bit : this includes possibly organ or piano or mouth harmonica, and of course drums and electric guitar and at times acoustic guitars) and here and there some whole string orchestras. The singing is most with Persian sensibilities from the roots in their language, the emotional engagement, the feeling for poetry and a slight Persian folk influence beside the pop/rock and (actually still small) funk influences.
The booklet reveals more background history on the artists involved. Here it is shocking to read how most of the musicians involved after the Islamic revolution were either silenced, imprisoned or simply murdered, or were left to arrange a kitschier and somewhat emptied version of their previous music. Some musicians really tried to remain in their country hoping for a growth of better understanding, something which only changed slightly after more than 20 years, which somewhat destroyed a spontaneous, natural sense and feeling for creativity, and surely took away the related pleasure, an aspect Islamic Revolution destroyed with their limiting occupations (I wonder how any limited mind of certain individuals can think to represent God, Allah or Islam itself before everybody else, even before being able to free the stimulation of any principles at all). Although they claim their version of Islam will make a happy society, I only saw happy faces touched by a form of innocence and the muses of the moment from before the revolution, never after.
The album gives very well an idea of the scene that existed in Iran during promising years where the bridge between Iran and the rest of the world was still more accessible than today, so where also their music belonged to the world and the people even though it also had their typical Persian flavours that at the same time made it more unique. I truly hope that someone, especially women, who grew up in Iran only afterwards, will one day discover a compilation like this and with it will discover in themselves what is much more natural and should be more normal and what is a kind of imprisonment that simply blocks all energy and inner possibilities.
