The ARIAN chose their most up-beat songs for performance in Kish Summer Festival and re-arranged all the ballads to faster pace for the event. They even invited the sensational bass-player Dara Darayi to boost things up on stage, something which was welcomed by the entire audience. Its interesting that these radical changes were made after Ali Pahlavan recent statement about his urge to record an adult contemporary album filled with slow and romantic ballads! Something which according to him wasn’t supported by the producer who didn’t saw a market for such music. Can it be yet another sign of a possible solo project for Ali Pahlavan in near future?

Here is the controversial interview which some have emailed me about. This little clip from VirtuPoint.Tv has in the past days steered up a lot of emotions among the fans of the brothers, who have apparently been offended by the fact that Kamran and Hooman chose to present themselves as Canadians rather than Iranians! Without the slightest reference to their Iranian origin, neither nationally nor musically!

The extravagant Australian-born fashionista Sam Sparro released his self-titled album last month and just like the Finish/Lebanese Mika his music too has been brought MAINSTREAM by the tremendous support of fans on internet! Sparro continues to build further on the old British Electro-POP style of the 80’s with the dark and melancholic tone that the Italians once brought to it through their Italo-DISCO. Some American FUNK and SOUL added to it and you get a flavour presented by the first HIT “Black and Gold”!

Mohsen Namjoo is said to be working on an old leaked album of his called “Jabre Joghraafiaa(Geographic Algebra”, to reproduce it with a JAZZ twist and release it on an Austrian label in Vienna.

You have enjoyed his marvellous music and mixes exclusively on Bia2 for the past couple of years, on 1st October its time for Babak’s debut album to be released after three years of hard work. Having set up his own record label Donya Records, Babak has landed a distribution deal with the international Universal Music Group UK as the first Iranian artist. The album entitled “Delhore va Aarezoohaa” will be available in all major UK music retailers such as HMV and Zavvi stores, not to forget the Bia2 music store and iTunes.

In a press-conference, reflected by Mirase Farhangi News Agency, Shahram Nazeri stated that he regards the ever-growing tradition of imitation and emulation in the Iranian music today as the worst and most worrying cultural plague of the last 120 years!

Mohsen Rajabpour, the manager of the ARIAN, said in a press-release that all the concerts of the band during the summer are moved to be preformed in Kish. The reason according to him is the organised discrimination of Tehran’s event- and concert halls against the POP establishment and the ARIAN band in particular! No one is willing to provide us with locations so we have moved all out shows to the island.

Mohsen Yeganeh whose legal debut has in this past couple of weeks become top-selling, fulfilled his second dream last week by opening the 11th annual summer festival of Kish with a sold out concert!

thanks to Mansour J.

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer so far, God knows that I’m enjoying mine! As you might have noticed the blog is going through some technical update, please bear with us! thanks!

Siavash Ghomayshi is back with a brand new album called “Ragbaar”, three years in the making. With a cover obviously inspired by Miller’s Sin City!

http://www.eworldrecords.com/ragbaar.html

The former THE BOYZ member Rojeh is back with his own band and a brand new album, performing a multi-cultural ROCK music in three languages, Persian, English and Spanish. I’m not sure whether THE BOYZ have split up or just taking a break through solo projects, as Kia released his solo album already last year. Listen to three different versions of the album on the website, notice the “Gole Yakh” remake in English!

http://www.rojehband.com/

According to Keyvan Saket, a member of the board of Khaaneye Moosighi (House of Music), only few of the registered members of the House of Music have showed interest in participating in the different activities of the cultural foundation, even the participation in the annual election has been underwhelming!

If you are a comic book fan then you are probably aware that there are more to the world of comics than the action-hero type of comic books that come from USA! In fact Europe and Belgium to be exactly have in more than a century been leading in the more cartoonish type of comic books. Ever since I was a child the vivid and dynamic European comics have captured me by characters such as TinTin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, the Smurfs and many many more! But since then many new artists and characters have walked this path and among the youngest European artists continuing in the old masters’ artistic and narrative styles is Pierre Alary whose colourful style appeals much to both the child and artist within me (blog http://pierrealary.blogspot.com/). His latest opus was just released and its the first volume in a comic book series about the good old Sinbad of the seven seas! Here are the first ten pages for your enjoyment. By the way, this like most European comic books are in French and unfortunately get seldom translated to English, nonetheless its premium art and a narrative that transcends lingual expression.

Rumour has that Mahshar, mistakenly known as DJ Maryam, whose leaked songs a few years back caused sensation is now once again back in Iran! While she, in an interview with BBC Persian a couple of years ago stated that she had fled the country due to restrictions imposed on her and there was even an album released by her in LA!

Rumour has that Mohsen Yeganeh has finally received a release permit from Ershaad for his legal debut after years of underground activities! A cover has surfaced on the net which indicates a release on Avaye Nakisa.

thanks to Mansour J.

Update: It’s been confirmed, the album has in fact been released!

In case you have missed the big news, Bia2.com has branched out as music store! We have always done our best to promote the struggling Iranian music and encourage fans to support the survival of the music they love by buying it. At our store we will be providing you with some exclusive and selected music for a rather reasonable price. The first album to be available for download is Mehrshad’s brand new “Cheshmak”, check it out:

 http://www.bia2.com/store/album.php?aid=1

The review on Rastin’s debut album was published yesterday. I brought to attention that Rastin sings “gorbe” while the lyrics printed in the booklet say “gerye”, something noted by many other listeners. And here comes Rastin’s response and explanation. Since I never alter a written review the updates are published in my blog and there is no exception in this case! First comes my text, along with a scan of the page from the booklet featuring the lyrics, followed by Rastin’s unedited response.

My comment:

“Now comes a song which is the Achilles’ heel of the entire project! God knows how many listeners and fans have contacted me to bring this flaw to my attention and express their disappointment! There is a lyrical blooper in “Hesaadat” wherein Rastin sings about how he envies the cats of his subject of affection while the lyrics state “tears”! In other words “gerye” and not “gorbe”!! And the amount of added feeling and emotions to the performance doesn’t really help the case either, unfortunately!”

the page from the booklet:

Rastin’s response:

“Hi Pourya

someone send the link to your review page to me yesterday and I’m actually

disappointed on how you as a writer could just go with what people say or

their emails. First of all the *hesadat* song is Mr shahyar ghanbari’s

lyrics and if he sees what you wrote about that , he will contact you and

believe me when he approves something that means its done. second I think *

you* as a writer should have listened to that song twice and its meaning

before start writing. it says :

delshoorehaye sedaye paye to hatta hesadat be *gorbehaye* to

*hesadat be geryehaye to??!! * *dose not have a meaning

*so please take that out from your page before the big boys see it.*

*”

There you go my friends, all statements and facts are present for your independent judgement. I must say that I personally find the last sentence interesting!

The Swedish CLUB MUSIC boywonder BASSHUNTER is releasing his first English-speaking album this week. The album will be featuring upgraded versions of his older HITS in English as well as BONUS Swedish tracks. Here is the latest video for “All I Ever Wanted” which is a follow up to the previous video featuring once again Aylar! The song is English version of his song “Dota” which is actually a music remake of Daddy DJ’s old HIT!

Original Daddy DJ:

Those who find my passion for collectibles insane should check this baby out! This is my good friend Jura and his newly arrived friend, a 1:1 Endoskeleton (Terminator)! The shiny giant cost him $10.000 and a good while waiting for it to be built for him!

RESPECT!!!

“Hasta la vista, Juraaa!!!”

Peyman Soltani, the Kapellmeister of the Nations’ Orchestra, explains the lack of consistent and successful Iranian bands by claiming that Iranians are more individualists than community members! Who favour their own preferences and interests rather than the collective’s. He argues that the lack of will to compromisation has led to the lack of collaboration which has become a tradition in our culture!