Ramesh: Ramesh

Ramesh
Ramesh
Pharaway Sounds
2013-04-09

This is the best way to listen to Ramesh I think, in a large handpicked block, not in singles one by one, though that was the way the songs were originally released. That stern and lamenting voice is better when it continues for an hour, rearing over you while the instruments change, Persian-pop orchestra strings in “Afsoos”, creepy spy keyboard in “Asmaar Asmaar”, wikka-wakka guitar in “Ghroobaa Ghashangan”, bossy percussion for “Nago Na”, etc, etc, and that deep-mascara’d almost-drag voice snaking along as it pleases. She disappeared during the Iranian revolution in 1979. No one knows where she went. Dead? Fled? Killed by the new regime because she was a lesbian, says one rumour, but nobody’s proving it. Rode away on that motorbike in that amazing costume, I say, looking at a photograph near the back of the booklet. Lives up a volcano. Practices yoga.

RATING 7 / 10