Artwork by Shayan Khosravi.
Combining high-gravity techno, acidic atmospherics, and experimental electronics informed by Iranian underground dance music, Shaytoon Records debuts with 5-tracks of mystical sonic sorcery from label boss Sepehr. With a bedrock of releases in his small portfolio, Sepehr’s offerings to the global electro scene are spellbinding, with each more entrancing than the last.
Building his rapport in the Bay Area performing as a DJ, producer, and live act, Sepehr’s sets range from wide-eyed witching hour raves to hypnotic soundscapes. With releases on Klakson and Dark Entries, including his debut LP, Sepehr’s intoxicating sounds have wrapped their essence around the worldwide dance music circuit. Through his new project Shaytoon Records, a unique collective of middle eastern artists will help Sepehr to dig up audible secrets for the dance floor. The tracks on the Crown Jewel EP are the first whispers of Shaytoon’s freaky musical wisdom.
From the onset, the mystifying Cloak of Flames is a thermal spiral into an earthen fissure, adding heated pressure as the track plunges into deep atmospherics. As we’re guided into this chasm of sound, Crown Jewel blinks and winks like a subterranean mirrorball as audible light is reflected by monolithic gems working their way past us to the surface. While these facets further protrude from the depths on Head to the Sky, Sepehr finds power in his name, and charges the air with a thunderous electromagnetism, reverberating static into the aether. The resulting shockwave opens a pulsating vacuum, stretching time on Night is Young into a physical resonance. These otherwise intangible frequencies seemingly made tactile as they pass through the ears. The final track, Riposte, is the utterance of the Crown Jewel EPs closing ceremony. Sepehr’s rebuttal to the conversation of what is possible through music. That through Shaytoon, we will be transported.
Stream Crown Jewel below, and support Sepehr and Shaytoon Records by purchasing a digital or vinyl copy of the record here.