"All over Los Angeles, Zachary Asdourian hunted for the music of an Iran that could have been. The co-founder of the L.A. record label Discotchari scoured for dust-caked Persian pop records at Jordan Market in Woodland Hills; scanned the fliers for shows at Cabaret Tehran in Encino, and combed shops in Glendale looking for Farsi-language tapes cut in L.A. studios in the '70s and '80s."
"Most of the songs he and his label partner, Anaïs Gyulbudaghyan, sought were long-forgotten dance tracks, culturally-specific twists to the era's disco boom. They're poignant reminders of a time in L.A.'s Westwood "Tehrangeles" neighborhood when, in the years just after the 1979 Iranian revolution, immigrants here made music while their homeland roiled with ascendant theocracy. Discotchari's new crate-digger compilation "Tehrangeles Vice" collects some of the best of them."
Zachary Asdourian and Discotchari co-founder Anaïs Gyulbudaghyan searched Los Angeles for forgotten Persian pop and Farsi-language tapes produced in L.A. during the 1970s and 1980s. The recovered tracks are largely dance-oriented, blending disco-era influences with culturally specific twists that circulated within the Iranian diaspora. A 12-track compilation titled "Tehrangeles Vice" gathers these recordings, many of which were smuggled back into Iran on dubbed tapes and satellite broadcasts. The songs functioned as both party music in L.A.'s Tehrangeles neighborhood and as sources of hope and solace during the Islamic revolution, the Iraq war and related crises.
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