Pouya Mahmoodi

Mehr

Faryaad *****

In post-revolutionary Tehran, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin sounded insurrectionary. Pouya Mahmoodi, an Iranian guitarist, fell in love with the 1970s through his father's illicit record collection; now, on Mehr , he brings it all back home. The album fuses Rumi with progressive rock, lyrical piano passages meld into Iranian violins, underscored with complex polyrhythms derived from East African zaar rituals. Billy Cobham of the Mahavishnu Orchestra drums on a couple of tracks, including the wonderful "Si Pareh".

-- by David Honigmann