Piltan

It’s becoming too much of a cliché: an electronic dance beat, repetitious and supposedly ecstatic – occasionally labelled as mystical – superimposed by a heavily filtered vocal line, nurtured by ready-to-make melodies from across Iran, meant to market the exotic ‘oriental’ tag on the cover for the European target audience. What else? Hardly anything. If replaced by a non-Iranian melody, how does the electronic layer get affected? It does not. Piltan is described as a ‘unique blend of traditional Iranian sounds and contemporary electronic music,’ essentially a techno-style rhythmic background, similar versions of which are found in Iranian pop albums. It is unfortunate that neither the publisher nor the composers seem aware of at least half a century of these ‘unique’ efforts within or outside Iran. Even more concerning, the presences of a renowned southern Iranian percussionist and a once-creative, well-known vocalist have not elevated the record’s sophistication, except perhaps in ‘Piltan (Ironman)’ and a few sparks here and there.