Armenian Pop Music

With its bright arpeggios, funky synth basslines, and four-to-the-floor rhythms, “Armenian Pop Music” is about as disco pop as it gets. But add to that its eastern melodies, big orchestral arrangements, and almost operatic vocals, and you have an exquisite hybrid of Armenian folk, disco, and 1970s Iranian pop, seamlessly entwined to create long, psyched out tunes with a solid dance backbone. Hamlet Minassian was born in Tabriz, a city in North Western Iran close to Armenia,  and studied and worked in Tehran, Europe, and the US, composing music for theater and TV. This record, produced only a few months before the 1979 revolution, offers a snapshot of a moment in Iranian history that is too often forgotten.