A review
on TAMO (
Nassir Mashkouri
March/ 2004
www.interconnect-iranian.com
"I
am certain that in the future, anyone interested in the history of our popular
music can look back and notice a drastic shift around this time, that will
reflect the influence of UMC and tamo,
which opened so many doors to so many young talents."
I truly
wonder how many others out there are as thrilled about the Tehran Avenue Music Competition (tamo) as
I am these days? And of those people how many have
actually realized what a giant step these innovative pioneers from Tehran Avenue took last year with their first installment of the series, UMC
(Underground Music Competition)? Well, let's just say that as a result of their
initial undertaking all sorts of new sounds and music have been crawling from
the underground (in and out of Iran) up to the surface over the past year or
so, and only future will tell what influence, if any, will tamo
have on the music created by Iranian artists all around the world.
In this
article however, my focus is on the present day tamo.
And my overall goal here is to break the big picture apart into different categories
that have helped me put things in perspective. As of this writing, the
competition is just about reaching its' final days of accepting votes. There
are 42 bands taking part in the competition, with almost as many different
musical styles. These are the works of Iranians from all over the world, with
the majority of them being the works of bands out of
So to
simplify things for myself prior to casting my vote, I decided to divide the tamo tracks into four different categories, yet I have to
admit that they are still quite comprehensive.
1- I assigned one category to the
underground music that comes directly out of
A couple of
the bands here immediately caught my attention with their unusual lyrics. One
was Distorter with their track called Divane, and the other was Mud with their track called Vogh Vogh-e
Sag. As I listen to
these two tracks, which in a society like Iran can best be described as
avant-garde, I can honestly say that it seems like that music has finally
become a medium through which young generation of Iranians are expressing their
angers, fears, and desires.
Mud for one, has definitely tapped into
writing Persian lyrics in a way that is adaptable to rock music in an
avant-garde and original way. With its symbolic and sarcastic style and hidden
political/ social massage, Vogh Vogh-e
Sage to me is quite a find from one of the more interesting bands in the
competition.
Divaneh
by Distorter is a prime example of music that is the voice of its' public.
It is no mystery these days that heavy metal seems to be the preferred music of
choice among the Iranian youth. And on this track, through provocative words
and aggressive music, Distorter portrays a state of anarchy and a path of
self-destruction of a young man with no future and no will to stand up and
fight for his rights. The message here is not exactly uplifting, and in some
points it borderlines on suicidal, which in other words makes it a genuine
Iranian Heavy Metal Song!
2- In this category, I put together works from bands and artists that in
comparison to the rest had an obvious edge in their professionalism, both
technically and musically. Some of them are experimental, and their vision
seems to be creating a link between Western music styles and Iranian music. In
my view, the only thing lacking in their path to success, is a daring record
company that would be willing to sign them up. The artists in this category
each have their own original style, and they seem to have all the necessary ingredients
in becoming very popular. Fanoos, Khak, Kuarash,
NABZ, and Namjoo are some of the
more obvious examples in this category, a number of which have been covered on
the pages of I-I in our previous issues.
On a
personal note however, I am disappointed at the judgment of the members of Khak in their selection of the submitted track of Sabzi-Foroosh, which is not exactly one of their better
songs. My guess is that their intention was to participate with a track that
would satisfy the masses (after all, the controversial winner of last year's UMC competition was Pasheh by Fara, but that is a whole other story). The same can
somewhat be said of NABZ as well in their selection
of the track, Naghaushi. Although the message
delivered in Naghaushi by NABZ
is quite universal and beautifully intriguing, I think they also could have
participated with a much stronger song, than this soft and comfy selection.
These so-called safe selections by these two bands may actually end up serving
as a blessing for some of the other bands in the competition, and I hope I'm
wrong, but the results will soon speak for themselves.
3- And then there is this category in
which I put together works with non-Farsi lyrics. In my view, none of these
works really fit in this competition, which is not exactly fair to some of them
that have submitted brilliant works. For example under other circumstances, I
could find Motogen with their track of the same name,
or Tribeca with their track Old Man, really
interesting. But in this context, I have much more interest in hearing bands
that have managed to create a successful marriage of some sort between Persian
language and Western music, and have attempted to blur the distinction between
the two worlds. The other disadvantage of these bands is that one automatically
compares their sound with that of the very competitive commercially available
foreign music, and that would not be fair to them either. Cause while in this
competition, their sound may stand out, they will have a hard time competing in
the cutthroat commercial world of music outside of
I believe
that only by making cultural crossovers, can we breathe life into a new and
living culture that is able to express the concerns of its' generation through
art and music. And that is why I had to pass on this category.
4- And the final category is dedicated
to the bands that really had not much to offer, and there were actually quite a
few of them. I won't name any names here out of respect for tamo,
and I will let you figure that out on your own, as it doesn't take a genius to
figure out which ones immediately stand out at best as a joke, and I think a
lot of them know who they are. There is nothing wrong with being an amateur,
but some of these works were just prime examples of pure musical ignorance and
lack of talent, period. I'm hoping that next time around, the directors of the
competition will be a little bit stricter about accepting entries that lack
quality in all aspects of their work.
But in the
end I'd like to say that I am simply grateful for the chance of experiencing
this great event during my lifetime. I am certain that in the future, anyone
interested in the history of our popular music can look back and notice a
drastic shift around this time, that will reflect the influence of UMC and tamo, which opened so
many doors to so many young talents. Thank you
استفاده از
این اثر با
ذکر منبع
بلامانع است.
تمام
حقوق این سایت
متعلق به نویسنده
است