V.A. Pomegranates: Persian Pop, Funk, Folk and Psych of the 60s and 70s (2010)

ARTIST`````Various

ALBUM`````Pomegranates: Persian Pop, Funk, Folk and Psych of the 60s and 70s
GENRE`````Psych, Folk, Funk, Pop
YEAR````````2010

Info:

Pomegranates is a 16-track collection comprising assorted vinyl 45s (or “chehel-o-panj dorehs”) released in Iran during the1960s and ‘70s. A fascinating assortment of sounds, the tracks on Pomegranates showcase the distinctive styles coming out of the Iranian music industry of the era, while at the same time offering a kind of fun-house mirror of the contemporaneous western pop industry. There are identifiable strands of funk, psych, folk, R&B and widescreen cinematic pop, though everything is funneled through the vibrant lens of a nation on the precipice of political and cultural upheaval.

Pomegranates stakes its claim in this narrative, filling in blanks in an essential story that is inherently political but also about something so much more enriching. Familiarity with the music here surely won’t halt a march to war. Such a thought would be both naïve and out of proportion with the subject. Nonetheless, I have to believe that possessing a deeper understanding of people through a common narrative — for our purposes the records, the singers, the songs — as opposed to a geopolitical one makes it much harder to want to kill them.

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