Strength in Upfullness!
A must for these times.
Limited to 500 copies / NO RE-PRESS!
Printed Black sleeves
Art by MYSTERYFORMS
FOR WHOLESALE / DISTRIBUTION: tad@japanblues.com
As part of the release of Saint Abdullah’s Ta Tash on Boomarm Nation, we decided to do away with a press release and instead keep things real by simply having a conversation.
I sent Saint Abdullah three questions about the sounds, visuals, and stories behind the project that I was curious to learn more about. The following pages capture our very candid conversation.
Thank you for your support, Jesse
Boomarm016 In conversation, Saint Abdullah x Boomarm Nation
Q1: Peace brothers, I’m listening to Vivid Persian Dreams, the A side of the new 12”, my back door is open here at Boomarm HQ and the sun is shining in from the garden. These sounds are consuming me, as if I am sitting in another place entirely; its warm, like a landscape, its bright and the air is hot. The energy in these sounds, the pulse and howls of distant voices, these hand claps, so shrill and with purpose, like a parade of protest passing by, the colors are twinkling in my ears like a precious stone in the sun.
Yet I hear a heaviness, a longing that keeps pulling at my heart. These sounds. Man, So heavy, the build from a gentle cascade, to a thundering storm, its warm, energizing and mysterious, yet totally visceral and familiar, in the way it all coalesces around the warm drip of the drum. Can you tell me about the sounds I’m hearing?
A1: Greetings, from the corner of Broadway and Madison, tucked in between the neighborhoods of Bedstuy and Bushwick, here in Brooklyn, NY. This sun isn’t shining, nor do I have my back door open. I don’t have a back door – just one door, and it’s at the side of the apartment. It’s definitely closed, although unlocked; A Canadian compromise.
We certainly couldn’t describe them with such detail. These are the moments where the ESL card comes in handy. Nevertheless, let’s give it a try— These sounds are accidents. There was intent only in so far as a simple idea, which is really around bringing together factions and forces in Iranian, Islamic culture, under one roof, to have them play nice together, to co-exist, float as one and to complete each other, in order to tell a story called Ta Tash, which is Farsi for To The End. More on that later.
When you live in the diaspora, you can have lofty dreams and ideals about how your homeland should show up. It’s a curse and a blessing. A blessing because you can dream without the weight of day-to-day reality only presenting you with impossibility. A curse because, well, you’re not in the wrestling ring, making things happen. Just another outsider, another hopeless romantic who dares to dream, but with no capacity to impact the result.
These sounds are accidents. You press record and let it go for a few hours. And you keep messing around, day and night, you toil away with the buttons, with the EQ’ing, you create, introduce sounds and samples in a hundred different ways, and who knows, maybe by chance, you create something that sticks…that hits you.
This is our attempt at that. We’re just humbled you listened. These sounds are repetitive.
We don’t know what it is with repetition that is so attractive. Not any one thing. But maybe an attempt to slow things down. At a time when it feels like we’re moving too fast, and everywhere you look, everyone’s solving for efficiency, getting stuck on four bars, or eight bars, or one bar, and just sitting the fuck back for a minute and taking it in, maybe that’s satisfying.
A largely futile attempt at controlling the uncontrollable. Making music that more accurately matches the rhythm, emotions, and ideals of your reality. Not necessarily the easiest to listen to. That’s okay.
Saint Abdullah‘s stunning new release Ta Tash is now available for pre-order! Vinyl Edition (Limited to 300 copies!) / Printed Postacrds (Limited Edition of 20!) / Unlimited Digital! RELEASES WORLDWIDE June, 15, 2018. Visuals by Ghalamdar, video edit by Roi Rocky Assayag.
Following up the 2017 Boomarm debut “The Sounds of Evil Vol. 1” and their acclaimed 2018 release “The Stars Have Eyes” for NYC label PTP, Saint Abdullah bring forward Ta Tash, a stunning audio visual collection of hypnotic, thundering sounds.
“Ta Tash translates as ‘To the End’ in English. It captures the essence of a sentiment during the brutal 8-year war between Iran-Iraq. To protect Iran’s borders, to defend the Shia faith, the Persian civilization, at all costs. It is also quite a greedy aspiration. Where defense and offense and blind faith muddy the prospect for rational thinking, strategy, and humanity. But at the same time, perhaps this is the kind of shit that’s helped Iran survive for 5000 years. Who knows.”- Saint Abdullah, in conversation with Boomarm Nation (May 2018)
Long form improvised jams, full of Saharan psychedelic guitar journeys, hypnotic rhythm and dub possibilities.
Big thanks to Sahel Sounds for making this cosmic link up a possibility.
Mdou Moctar is on US tour this spring, GO check him and his band in a city near you!!
Limited edition vinyl (300 copies) ships worldwide April, 03, 2018.
Order here – https://boomarmnation.bandcamp.com/album/seremunia-ep
Video by: Roi Rocky Assayag
FREE DWNLD via BANDCAMP: 20 tracks from our crew to yours.
Tracks by, Silvio Astier, Titus 12, Muquata’a, Alter Echo & E3, XJ, SKRS & GULLS, Lokal Affair, Saint Abdullah, Strategy, Mdou Moctar & Elite Beat, and MORE!!!
Artwork by: Bird of Nothing
RELEASED IN 2018:
Vinyl / Digital
Artwork by: Birdofnothing
3 tracks of deep percussive jams, inspired by life in the Sahara desert, evening fire rituals, and ecstatic drumming styles from across the globe. These are lush mid-tempo spiritual sounds for your sound system! Lokal Affair AKA Malek Midouni is a Tunisian born musician currently living in Lyon, France.
PLUS, as a bonus we have commissioned an incredible thundering remix of the percussion heavy tune “Goumari” from good brother Alter Echo!
“Lokal Affair’s debut EP, Seremunia, contains the soothing everythingness of daytime city noise, and the echoes of the blacklight nighttime stars blotted out by the rising sun during the walk home from the club. He talks about chakras and is inspired by life in the desert (something I know absolutely nothing about), and he channels this into his mesmerizing flurry of beats, shakes, shivers, tablas, voices, and quakes. ”
The debut release from Iranian brothers Saint Abdullah is out now WORLDWIDE.
Saint Abdullah – The Sounds of Evil Vol. 1 / BOOMARM14
Direct copies can be purchased via our BANDCAMP shop.
Distributed copies available from:
UK: Unearthed Sounds
France: Toolbox Records
Saint Abdullah is a project by two Iranian brothers based in Brooklyn and Tehran, who create sounds largely inspired by the religious, political, and cultural history of Iran.
With The Sounds of Evil, Saint Abdullah passionately and unapologetically revisit the roots of their childhood in war-torn post-Islamic revolution Iran. These are family stories—of martyrdom, of loss, and of the tragedies of war, pieced together through aggressive sound collage, cultural sample archeology, and rhythmic structure.
Driven by spliced samples of the thundering sound of see-ne za-ni (ritualistic self flagellation or chest beating), the cry of Shia orators, distorted howls, vintage news clips, and a molten and pummeling pulse, Saint Abdullah twist and renew a sense of time and space. At once channeling and challenging these times that we live in.
This is political music, this is sacred music, and for most of us in the west, this is new music.
Raised in a conservative Shia Muslim family between Iran, Canada, and the UK, Saint Abdullah’s most prominent exposure to music came from family visits to the mosque. Particularly during the holy month of Muharram, where Shia orators would lead mass ceremonies commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE.
For the two Iranian brothers, there’s no question that Saint Abdullah formed out of a deep frustration with the way the West perceives—and treats Muslims and the Islamic faith. Their hope is that through music, they can help inform a larger inter-cultural dialogue—to build compassion in the way humans deal with issues surrounding race, religion, culture.
Thanks to Radio Gwendolyn & Italian radio DJ Silvia Malnati for putting this Boomarm Nation feature together. We hope to see you one day soon Italy! Below is an excerpt from our interview..
Q: “what is your “technique” in finding talents in the most faraway places of the world?”
A: “Actually there is no technique. I believe that we have all linked through the power of music. All of the connections have been very natural and organic releationships that have developed over time. We don’t do a lot of hype promotion. So things move slow and organic. There is a spiritual connection that happens with sound and music and I believe that that is what has brought the Boomarm crew together. That and hard work and good communication and being willing to take risks for something you believe in. It’s really beyond words.”