A fantastic release that has highlighted to me the importance of exploring unfamiliar territories as you may just never know what you are missing out on.
A highly cinematic soundtrack
“Enter the ultraverse. The ultraverse is the dimension that you can access when you really want to. A shared universe that provides a cornucopia of delights. Shaytoon is proud to present a collection of music gathered from Iranian artists from all corners of the ultraverse.” ~ Shaytoon Records, New York.
This carefully curated 10-track compilation boasts a range of talent who all have their roots in Iran. That is what drew me to review this piece in the first place. A country I am far from familiar with and whilst some of the artists here are based with Shaytoon in New York, USA—I can not say I have come across many Iranian artists regardless of where they live. With a population of over 80 million and with a quick glance at diaspora statistics ranging up to 2 million also—I clearly need to make more of an effort in these areas. As a naive reviewer what I do know (and at the risk of repeating myself from previous articles) is that a compilation is by far the best introduction to a collective/label—so here we are!
Kicking starting this 45~ minute collective journey is a highly cinematic soundtrack that thrills and is packed with electronic dread, here we have Aria Rostami and “Birth In The Garden Triptych,”—bare through the initial assault as we drift into an anti-gravity darkness that is harmonic in signal as washed out growls sneer from a distance. Aria has a back catalogue of 20 releases on their Bandcamp page to dig through, with a pre-order available for their upcoming release Astoria I, II & III. The compilation deep-dive begins; and this is just the first artist.
Next in we have the slurred broken beats of Saint Abdullah, whisking Eastern instrumentals into a hazy sonic field. The dust is always moments from settling just as the back beat loop throws all these particles into an intoxicated plume.
From track to track, you never know what is to come next ::
The clincher for why I promote compilations is always because from track to track, you never know what is to come next—unless a concept is the brief, you never get entranced like you would of a singular artists release. With this in mind, we step into the world of Voiski and their minimal techno blessing in “Nouvelle Vague.” The longest track on this compilation progresses through timely shifting patterns, each chapter rotating in form as we hear open chords float past into the repeat notion of bleep signaling, did I say ‘never entranced…‘ earlier—this one’s got me forgetting what time and day of the week it is!
Shaytoon label head (Sepehr) steps up next with their track “Diaspora Simalucra.” Pushing uptempo and dark rhythms there are demonstrations of dub weight whilst capturing percussive catchment that pan around this subtropical atmosphere—cementing our reason to keep an open eye on Shaytoon’s future release schedule.
Hitting the half way mark the breadth of talent we are hearing is astounding, with an all-genre pass we soon understand there is a wealth of encouraging sounds from this collective and something makes me think this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The second half we start to see developments towards dance orientated jams throughout as we are given a breaks shake down by Kasra V in “Thousand Year Dream,” and a 90’s nod from Paramida with “Konbanwa (Ibiza Mix),” heady vibes—roll on summer already!
Before the sun has a chance to rise, we delve into the experimental edges of the Iranian Ultraverse with tracks from Maral & Milad Ahmadi—both displaying that every corner has a shadow in these darker archaic sounds. Best enjoyed with your eyes closed as the sonics wash over you.
Combining all early beat orientated selections with the closing experimental edge we have Temp-Illusion and their track “Lethal Corrosion.” This one certainly falls into my top pick, directing a bass backdrop through a contortion of glitched out sound design that vapors into big room atmospherics it certainly is mind-melting. It has a flavor of IDM, but with an aggressive face.
Considering the pretty dense journey prior, you will be able to grab some closing solace in finale “Unite,” by Xeen. Melancholic progressions that drift gently through a saturated artillery leaves us with chances to reflect whilst absorbing some intricate forays.
A fantastic release that has highlighted to me the importance of exploring unfamiliar territories as you may just never know what you are missing out on.
Sounds from the Iranian Ultraverse is available on Shaytoon. [Bandcamp]
