V/A: Raks Raks Raks: Garage Psych Nuggets from the Iranian 60s Scene [SURVIVAL RESEARCH]

Why you'll love it

This Survival Research LP brings back a compilation first assembled by Raks Discos in 2009. Persian vocals meet heavy-reverb lead guitar and beat-group energy across both sides.

About the album

In 1960s Iran a generation of young bands heard the Shadows, the Ventures, the Beatles and the Stones and decided Persian could rock just as hard as English. They turned the reverb on their lead guitars right up, sang in their own language and built a psychedelic beat and garage scene that flourished in the years before the revolution.

The Littles kick things off with "Fatemah Sultan" and turn up twice more, Moha Jamin delivers three tracks including the title cut "Raks Raks Raks," and the Golden Ring, the Flowers and the Rebels all pitch in. The Littles' "4x8 Jadeed" and "Mehtaab" show off their twangy, Shadows-inspired side, and the Golden Ring return with "Shekar Dar Kohestan." Kourosh brings "Akhm Nakon," a young Googoosh, later Iran's biggest pop star, takes on "Respect," and Shabah close the set with "I Need Somebody to Love."

Raks means dance, and this is party music first and foremost, recorded with plenty of fuzz and not much fuss. Seventeen tracks that refuse to let anyone sit still, which is hard on those of us trying to do the inventory.

Also at Kops: more Raks Raks Raks on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Survival Research (cat# SVVRCH056), a reissue of the 2009 compilation.