If Hagop Tchaparian seems familiar, it’s for good reason. He’s been active behind the scenes of acts like Hot Chip as both producer and manager, quietly contributed to underground compilations, and even flirted with fame as the guitarist of punk rock band Symposium. Lately, he’s fostered a creative relationship with a kindred spirit, one Kieran Hebden AKA Four Tet. So while the British Armenian producer is new to the scene in name, he’s skated around the block a few times. It’s why his debut album, Bolts, feels so accomplished. Released on Hebden’s Text Records, Bolts is an amalgamation of Tchaparian’s journey thus far, quite literally melding field recordings from his travels over the past two decades with beats informed by the British club circuit. The result is a sonic tapestry of culturally rich folk sounds, diary-like recordings of daily life, and razor-edged techno that somehow manage to fit together without sounding at odds with each other.
Download and stream Bolts here
Tchaprian’s sonic journal is really the heart and soul of Bolts. There’s the mystique of the hazy, field recorded guitar-plucks on Timelapse, essentially a short and sweet loop that plunges down to abyss level bass as it casts its spell. Ldz turns the sound of a crowd enjoying fireworks into skeletal dubstep. At times, these references are thrillingly obscure. Amidst clanging dhol drums and buzzing sub-bass, a sound that resembles bagpipes on acid pierces through. The Turkish zurna, a wood instrument, is matched by Tchaprian on Right To Riot with drone synths and all manners of computer sounds pulled from UK rave, chopped into a looped refrain that takes a folk instrument and turns it into trance inducing techno. On GL, it rings out like a call to arms at the track’s start, siren-like and commanding, as Tchaparian drops you into earth-shaking techno, then pivots toward slick two-step. It’s a different sort of ritualism, one that understands the common denominators between the ancient and futurist ideas Tchaparian plays with. On Flame, the dhol appears again as the rhythmic backbone, given pause with passages of oscillating, looped ambient pads. It unwinds itself carefully, shifting in tone for a hypnotic finale that feels entirely transportive. Between the sledgehammering beats, Tchaprian also creates moments of immense, and strange, beauty. Raining, a trip-hop and bass informed track, gurns through layers of industrial synths, a simple three kick rhythm underpinning the desperate urgency of its refrain. Iceberg demonstrates his ability to conjure vivid and visceral emotion, even when working in minimalism.
Round, perhaps, is most indicative of Hebden’s influence. A decay-washed intelligent techno ballad, Round layers its sounds and passages in a similar fashion to Four Tet, building momentum by bringing its drums in slowly and carefully beneath a melancholic, writhing refrain. It’s easy to see how Tchaparian and Hebden might relate to each other in moments like these; both have the uncanny ability to synthesise sounds in ways that seemingly defy logic, but make preternatural sense. Yet while they share similar approaches, Tchaparian is unquestionably unique. By weaving together the threads of nearly two decades of experience, he’s managed to craft one of the most inspired techno releases of the year, emerging as a powerful new voice with a distinct point of view. His handling of this sort of style, a convergence of cultural and contemporary identity, is unparalleled. It’s fitting that the title of his debut relates back to the phrase ‘landing bolts,’ a skating term used to describe a perfectly landed trick. On Bolts, Tchaparian nails his flips every time.
Listen to Right To Riot from Bolts below.
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