Synthesizing the Silk Roads

The title and subheading (Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock and Crimean Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia) say it all, except that, as the extensive and informative liner notes state, this double vinyl and digital album tells ‘The stories the Soviets never told.’ It will be a revelation to anybody who thinks of Uzbek music as boring Soviet estrada and either refined or raucous instrumental and vocal traditions. Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, was home to the massive Gramplastinok factory, established in 1945, which turned out millions of Melodiya LPs but, since profits were never an aim, also hoovered up local studio recordings, and the tracks here come from the low-volume latter catalogue. Uzbekistan has long been a meeting point on the Silk Roads, but in 1937 it was where Stalin forcibly moved 170,000 Koreans from eastern Siberia, and one of the places where, in 1941, according to the liner notes, he sent doctors, scientists and artists to keep them safe from invading Nazis. Uyghurs, Afghans and Tatars all joined the mix with local Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazakhs and the Jews of Bukhara. Being a musician, though, was always dangerous. The Tatar Enver Mustafayev, founder of Minarets of Nessef (whose ‘Instrumental’ features on the compilation) was framed by the KGB, and died three days after his release from a seven-year prison sentence; the Uzbek Davron Gaipov, founder of the band Original was sent for five years hard labour to Siberia, and on his release in 1983 created the two timeless dance tracks included here (‘Bu Nima Bu (What’s This) (Live/Janto Koité Edit)’ and ‘Sen Qaidan Bilasan (How Do You Know)’). Nothing Korean is left in Ariran’s ‘Pomni Menya (Remember Me)’ and politics is sidelined in lyrical Uzbek and Tajik love songs, Khurmo Shirinova’s ‘Paidot Kardam (Found a Sweetheart)’ and Ismail Jalilov’s ‘Guzal (Beautiful)’ and in the Uzbek star singer Natalia Nurumkhamedova’s ‘Nashi Ssori (Our Quarrels)’. But disco and dance, whether underground or permitted, is never far away in Synthesizing the Silk Roads.