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Album Review

Kourosh Yaegmaei
Back From The Brink: Pre-Revolution Psychedelic Rock from Iran 1973-79 Now Again Records

Article written by Ged M - Oct 8, 2011

Kourosh Yaegmaei: Back From The Brink

Imagine being banned from performing or releasing music, owning “Western” instruments or even using your own image, for 17 years (and to have that ban restored after a partial lifting of 8 years). Or to sit on your album for 20 years, waiting for a change of heart by the state censors. Kourosh Yaegmaei might have left Iran like many of his peers following the establishment of an Islamic Republic but chose to stay in Tehran, staying true to his musical gift but suffering (from poverty, lack of musical outlets and political harassment) as a result. But the heartening punchline to the story is that, as the title of that classic 1980 disco movie suggests, you “can’t stop the music”.

Stone’s Throw, via their Now Again imprint, has compiled the best of Kourosh’s 70s output, some of which is copied from glitschy cassette masters because formal recording studios were forbidden. If you’ve heard Iranian compilations (like Raks Raks Raks or Persian Underground), you’ll be prepared for the fusion of Western rock and folkier Persian traditions, but Kourosh is more pain-wracked and emotional than some of the Persian garage-rockers influenced by the Stones and their ilk. Even his sunshine pop moments are clouded with melancholy. The fabulous booklet that accompanies the set includes descriptions of the lyrics, which turn out to be lonely lovesongs, frequently overshadowed by loss and death. As Kourosh admits in the essay in the booklet: “you are correct about the way I see the world: melancholic, brooding, dark, introspective”.

The 30 tracks cover gorgeous psych-pop (his magnificent 1973 debut single ‘Gole Yakh’) to wah-wah-crazy psych-rock with a funky beat (‘Ghazal’), heading off towards prog-rock. The sensuous ‘Leila’ is hypnotic folk-pop with a mysterious Eastern twist, sorrow-suffused with the pain of losing a lover to an arranged marriage. The two discs clearly show their 70s provenance at times (a touch too much prog perhaps) but everything has an authenticity that the Manics would die for - Kourosh is doing this “4 real”. Iran in the 70s is a different world – you only have to check out the amazing moustaches in the photos - and it’s a long, strange trip you follow when listening to this record, but a worthwhile one as the artist beats the Ayatollahs in the end.

Links:
http://www.kourosh-yaghmaei.com/biography/biography.htm
http://www.nowagainrecords.com/sneak-peak-kourosh-yaghmaei/