V/A-Persian Funk

The latest release from Secret Stash contains more pre-Ayatollah Khomeini madness from Iran. Although there are a few repeats from the excellent Finder’s Keepers release, Pomegranates as well as the Rak Rak Rak compilation, Persian Funk focuses on rare soul and Disco cuts and less on the psychedelic rock. The Middle Eastern Percussion and string arrangement separate itself from the pack of eastern groups doing western influenced dance music, in fact, on can argue that western artists were trying to get that Middle Eastern sound in Disco but couldn’t nail it, but that’s another argument for another time. Nevertheless, drop some of these tracks at your next party and watch everyone on the dance floor go, “Ruh?”

LP release only

Jokers-S/T

Speaking of Iran, this gem of Iranian psychedelic blues comes from a 1972 recording with just a few mics and no overdubs. Originally, no one wanted to touch this sludge feast so it’s only now that this album is seeing the light of day. The four songs that make the Jokers album are heavy; in fact, calling this release “heavy” is not doing it justice. Only 500 LPs were made and on most websites they are out of stock, but we have a few left. For fans of Blue Cheer, MC5, Stooges and Jimi Hendrix. Also available on CD

V/A-Thai Dai: The Heavier Side Of The Luk Thung Underground

Again, we have another dose of World Psyche heaviness, this time from 1970’s Thailand. Tai Dai features artists in the Luk Thung (song of the countryside) scene, a mixture of Thai folk music and western music heard in the clubs of Bangkok. The result was Thai musicians mixing the sounds of Black Sabbath, Santana and Chicago and making it their own. These aren’t covers as much taking some of those aforementioned rock groups’ classic riffs and making it into their own, much like Hip-Hop and modern R&B does today. Most of these tracks comes from 45’s released in Thailand, most being the forgotten b-side tracks that makes western crate diggers today dance in a frenzy. Also available on CD.