One of my dear readers contacted me and asked me what “religious holiday” Equinox was that I greeted everyone in my Norooz post the other day! Well as you know there is a reason why we celebrate our new year on different dates and hours each year and that particular variation has to do with a natural phenomenon called Equinox! It also happens to be the title of my favorite Jean Michel Jarre album from 1978, it is actually through this very collection that a teenage me came to learn the term and its relation to our cultural event! Here is “Equinoxe IV” which is my favorite track form that collection:

Spandau Ballet have reunited and I’m sorry to hear that Sweden is not going to be a part of their European tour! Being a reader of my reviews and blog I’m sure that by now you know what the 80’s meant to me musically and culturally, in particular the New Romantic movement with its revival of the 19th century’s romantic art and ideals. Not to forget the awesome Art Deco fashion and hairs style that came with it. Here’s my favorite (Duran Duran inspired) video of theirs which basically samples all the things about them and the genre, “Highly Strung“.

So exaggeratedly elegant and theatrical in attitude and appearance. It was a time of shoulder pads and hairspray! A lot of hairspray!lol Since not a single hair was to be out of place! This yearbook picture from my early teens ( I must have been 13 or 14) is a testimony to my passion and devotion for the new romantic perfection.

Miss Candy Dulfer today, looking just as saxy and sexy as she did 20 years ago! I remember the summer of 1989 and “Lilly Was Here”, the HIT-theme of the not so famous Dutch movie “De Kassière”. Eurythmics had just split up and Dave Stewart gone solo before Annie Lennox, if I recall correctly. In this instrumental duet he invited a young unknown saxophonist by the name of Candy Dulfer. Candy became an instant success much thanks to her being beautiful, her catchy Candy name and a sex appeal (her debut was titled “SAXuality”) to go with the unconventional instrument! She came to set a new trend for other female musicians with classic instruments and sex appeal to follow the same path, artists such as the Aussie all-female quartet BOND and the Swedish-Finish violinist Linda Lapenius (who took it one step further by playing in nothing but a bikini!). Today, 20 years after, I am still enjoying miss Dulfer’s sassy classy sax appeal!

The summer has officially kicked off! Sweden is experiencing perhaps its hottest summer ever by having the weather that Southern Europe is supposed to have (but equally strangely doesn’t!) this time of the year! Also my vacation starts the coming week and that means that I will be start reviewing again, after the pause last month due to my other deadlines (thank you all for your patience by the way!). This weekend I’m winding down to music and sun! And one of the songs that has for the last 20 years started the soundtrack of my summer is the one-hit-wonder Black’s good old “Wonderful Life”! Such a gentle song and soothing voice, not to mention a peaceful video! Tends to take me back on a nostalgic trip every time I hear it …

While in recent years the Iranian HIP HOP scene, mainstream and mainly underground, has been witnessing a mushrooming tendency and we even see rappers of Iranian decent trying to crossover to the Western industry it is important to mention the name of a pioneer who by now has been forgotten by many and never taught to the rest! This pioneer is none other than the Sweden-based Khosro aka RO-CEE who already back in 1995 had a huge HIT in Europe and mainly Sweden. He reached #1 with “Gettin’ All Da’ Babes”, becoming household name with WEST COAST/G-FUNK inspired songs like “Straight Out’a Persia” from his album “Da Persiadic Gee”. Kepp in mind that this was 13 years ago when Snoop and Dr. Dre were sources of emulation! RO-CEE suddenly dissapeared from the industry a decade ago but his album is still getting spin on DANCEFLOORS, especially in Japan of all places!

Back in the late 80’s when the SALSA fever had overwhelmed HOLLYWOOD, the O.S.T of a motion picture titled ”Salsa” became very popular, featuring a song called ”Margarita” by the Latin band Wilkins. The song became extremely popular among Iranians and not to mention one of my personal all-time favourites! More than half a decade ago Jamshid Alimorad preformed a Persian version on Margarita which came to be called ”Nazaninam”. The exact same song, slightly altered and renamed, was also preformed by Vahid Hajitabar as ”Khaab o Royaa”! Here comes the clip from the motion picture featuring the famous song:

Merry Christmas everybody! Hope you’ve been really bad, cuz the Bad Santa here only brings goodies to bad girls and boys (well only girls, but don’t tell the boys! hehe! )! I thought kill two birds with one stone and leave you with a flashback! Once again to the 80’s and -for me- the BEST Christmas song there is, namely WHAM and their “Last Christmas”, which is unlike most Christmas songs unconventionally sad and about a break-up! Especially if you’ve both fallen in love and broke up on Christmas like I have years ago, but it still cheers me up and many others out there! When you think of Sweden you think of snow, but with the global warming a white Christmas gets more unusual every year! Even in Sweden!! So this video is also to set the mood and scenery for how a Christmas should be!

For this flashback I’ve decided to take you back to 1988 and the first high budget music video that the Iranian industry ever witnessed! Before this anything close to music video produced in our industry was either the 70’s RANGARANG style with rendered background or BOLLYWOOD style by-the-nature singing. An ambitious young duo by the name of Andy and Kouros came together with a young visionary director by the name of Alireza Amirghassemi aka Allen G. and made history! They released something which by that time’s Western industry standards qualified as a music video! “Chi Mishe” represents a revolution in an industry in which we still cant take music videos for granted, not even after two decades! By the way, you can spot Amirghassemi in a cameo in this video, sitting behind Andy in the classroom!

Through the years no other music act has inspired and influenced me so profoundly as MODERN TALKING has! The German showbusiness entrepreneur and HIT manufacturer Dieter Bohlen couldn’t have discovered a better vocal prodigy for his songs than Thomas Anders’ angelic voice back in the 80’s. The legendary duo of POP music were despite their artistic compatibility and success a mismatched couple with constant private disputes! Something which led to their separation in 1988, at the peak of their career, and a second separation six years after the successful comeback in 1998. For me personally Modern Talking was no longer Modern Talking after the mere commercial reunion, even though attracting a new generation of fans the OLD-SCHOOL flavour was slowly but surely fading. And one could see these changes even on their album covers, going from amazing artworks to dull close-up images. Therefore I have picked a video that takes me back to the glamorous 80’s and the timeless creations of the duo. The video for the ÜBER-HIT “Cheri Cheri Lady” is also significant in the grand scheme of the era, portraying the transition from NEW WAVE to NEW ROMANTIC in terms of style and fashion!

If I say Michael Cretu you’d probably say WHO?!!! But if I say ENIGMA you’d say aaah yeah!!! However before ENIGMA was even thought out as a project for this Romanian-born producer he went by his birth name and made HITS either for himself or for his later-to-be-wife Sandra in Germany. His main HIT back in the 80’s was “Samurai” which climbed chart after chart in Europe before Cretu decided to go in hiding in Ibiza and release albums under his alias ENIGMA! Another nostalgic element in this clip which is taken from a Swedish TV performance in 1985 is the belly-SYNTH in his hands! Sorry about the quality of this VHS ripped video by the way, there simply wasn’t any better available!

With the mainstream music-televisions being commercially devoted to the trends of time and disposable videos of the day one cant help but to praise youtube for its capacity as a forum to allow veteran music fans making nostalgic videos accessible for each other’s viewing pleasure. Henceforth a new series by the name of “FlashBack” will be presented in this blog, wherein I intend to revive old nostalgic videos courtesy of youtube. A series mainly for those who do remember them and secondly for those who never got a chance to know them! First off is the video of one of my all-time favourite songs, perhaps one of the best songs EVER made! I present you the one-hit-wonders of CUTTING CREW and their timeless “(I just) Died in Your Arms”!

The gem was a recipe on how a song can be extremely romantic in title and chorus yet not a single bit cheesy or banal! All its takes is that little twist which this song enjoys in its performance!! I still get Goosebumps hearing it! Btw by now you all have heard Mika’s recent HIT “Relax”, listen to the opening and guess which 80’s song its derived from!

The German SYNTH/Electro-POP group Alphaville is perhaps one the most influential bands in my life with their “Big in Japan”, an immortal song that still till this day gives me goosebumps when listening to it! Alphaville has perhaps not managed to stay “forever young” (the title of their biggest HIT which many have heard by few know the artist behind, played even on Napoleon Dynamite’s prom!lol) but they sure have managed to create a forever-song! That was Alphaville 23 years ago and now with only the singer Marian Gold left in the band, this is Alphaville today!