A bit late to write on this album. It was released in late 2007 in a bedroom somewhere in Tehran, Iran by a talented DIY soul i.e. Bijan Moosavi. Categorizing himself under a misinterpreted moniker like Persian Underground Movement, In My Headphones sounds much more promising and well-crafted in the genre’s weak and hopeless history. To be brutally frank, comparing this seven track long play to what’s going on in Iran’s musical helter-skelter is an understatement. I never believed in the existence of such phenomenon, it was merely some disturbed souls digging in a shallow puddle craving for what’s buried underneath metal or hip-hop ashes. Therefore it unfortunately fails to be considered a genre. Bijan is apparently an exception to this rule.
In a very four-track-wise sense of saying, In My Headphones is a bedroom recording sung completely in Persian. Although it’s been labeled an experimental album (and how it can makes sense in an overall comparison to its inland rivals), Bijan Moosavi acts intensely careful in what he’s doing. What we hear is an alternative rock amalgam of mid-90s inspirations divulged with Bijan’s hushing voice behind the pseudo-megaphone releasing its fantasies under a break-the-Persian-cliché approach of songwriting. On the opener “The Earth” he reveals his sense of internationalism and longing for a past that could just be better but somehow never was and that's pretty much why Bijan is reluctant towards any sense of patriotism, now that's someting noble in mind. “Dark City” is undoubtedly one of his best works as he gives himself away around the city he’s inhabited for almost three decades, only from a different and more straightforward perspective. Most of what he utters out, the words, the sounds and the gloomy/psychedelic atmosphere are quite realistic and therefore satisfying. The LP stretches on with two more personal tracks “Guess My Mind’s Gone Wrong” and “Must Get Out Of My Mind”, neatly composed and vigorously performed. In My Headphones then takes a different direction with two hypothetical fantasy songs “Uncle Mustache” and “Mister Fox” can turn the audience on if they thought the album to be too dreary and melancholic. The closing “Wind” sounds soothing and environmental and sums up the whole thing the way it should.
Bijan has also had his own experimental performances in Berlin recently which can be viewed through his official site. We’re just looking forward to hearing more of these kinds of headphones, anyway. The album is available for free out there so make sure you get it.
