Welcome to the 14th edition of my mail-outs, all of which have been archived here. Please find an overview of my recent articles and radio features as well as some assorted/unsorted recommendations—this time with a special focus on Iran and its diaspora—below. Again I specifically point it out if a piece is available in an official or my own English translation.

It’s been a rough and busy month.

+++++ Stuff That I Wrote (or Said on the Radio)

— I usually don’t do predictions because I am not a Substack writer, and only those are legally obliged to constantly predict things. However, for der Freitag (archived) I did speculate a little about what we can expect this year after the first deals have been struck between some of the big music companies and genAI slopificators like Suno and Udio. All in all, I think the latter might serve a different purpose in the future, also because there is not enough demand for what they supply (fun fact: Suno, with its $ 2.5 billion valuation, reportedly has only 1 million paying subscribers). And yes, that’s despite new artificial artists like Sienna Rose and Jacub topping the Spotify charts. Over at WDR’s Cosmo (not archived) and Deutschlandfunk’s Corso (archived here), I spoke about how I do not think that this means that AI slop is being normalised and accepted. I instead suspect that most of the slop is primarily doing numbers in Spotify’s personalised/anonymous playlisting ecosystem, that we have reason to believe that even those stats were juked through streaming manipulation (bots streaming bot music, dead internet theory, etc.), and that the mere fact that they rack up numbers or a very shady survey by Morgan »all in on AI« Stanley lets us know that people from 18 to 44 listen to up to three hours of AI music per week doesn’t mean anyone actually likes slop now. Case in point: Deezer reportd this Thursday that AI music gets only 1 to 3 % of overall plays on its platform, and that 85 % of these streams are fraudulent. So while there are some real humans who seek out music on there—slop is taken out of the playlist ecosystem—there is still a huge chance that they are just curious about these artificial artists that everyone talks about. So yeah, there’s a Stromae cover version in Spotify’s global viral charts because it has attracted a lot of streams. What we don’t know, however, is how and why exactly it got there, or why it stays there. We should at the very least be sceptical about such stories. I’ll talk about this in more depth in an article soon.

— Speaking of things that aren’t as popular as they would like to be, do you know how Mixcloud made some changes that weren’t quite well-received and now sends out batshit crazy e-mails with subject lines like »💸 Side hustle ideas for DJs?« This prompted me to do some research into the platform’s history for a DJ LAB piece (the magazine has since been rebranded as, erm, Loop Rituals) to find out why it apparently needs 💸 so badly. I was quite surprised by some of my findings.

— Speaking of even more unpopular things, for MDR Kultur I produced a short radio feature which provided an overview of Spotify’s various cultural Ls and economic Ws in 2025. (I’d like to extend my gratitude to Nikta Vahid-Moghtada, Hagen Terschüren and Björn Kress-Koenitz for lending me their voices for this piece on short notice.) It wasn’t archived, but by now you should be able to guess what I said, no!? I would rather spend my time talking about alternative streaming models anyhow, and the EU-wide launch of Cantilever, recent changes at Qobuz and my curiosity about the status quo of Rokk after almost a year on the market resulted in a radio feature for WDR 3’s Resonanzen (and WDR 5’s Westart) as well as an article which will be out soon and in which I further explained how these companies aim low in terms of audience development, incentivise a more conscious approach to listening, and thus pay out significantly more to rightsholders than the usual all-you-can-eat buffets.

— Speaking of putting too much in your mouth, like for example a foot, Elon Musk and Twitter (formerly known as X) are suing a variety of US-American music publishers—essentially all the big ones—because they are being sued by them. Are you confused yet? Over at DLF Kultur’s Kompressor, I tried to unpack the whole story, talked about how thin the ice is on which this counter-lawsuit walks, and what the whole ordeal might tell us about Twitter’s financials. Bottom line: I don’t think Musk will win either case, and this doesn’t bode well for the platform he »saved« by allowing users to—checks notes—generate child pornography for $ 8 per month. 

— Speaking of … actual music, made by sane people for a change: In the eighth edition of my Found Sounds column for field notes (German/English), I ruminated about real music’s role in the slop era. I also wrote a sort-of response to an essay of mine for Die ZEIT from a few years back in which I talked about the then-current wave of »post-punk« bands—Dry Cleaning, Yard Act, Idles, you name ‘em—and how little they actually had to do with post-punk. Ever since I have been wondering how the attitude and methods of the post-punk situation could be translated to the present day. I think I found an answer for myself, and discussed it in a piece for HHV-Mag (German/English). A less far-out-there thing I postulated in the same magazine is that the debut album by the Klinck Trio is pretty good (German/English). Over at Musikexpress, I wrote some words about Pullman’s surprising return with »III.« Also Hallow Ground has announced new albums by Thomas Peter and Jérôme Bouve & Delphine Dora for which I have written the blurbs. 

— Some very real festivals will take place very soon as well. If you happen to be in Zurich between the 20th of February and the 1st of March, I recommend visiting the Sonic Matter festival. I edited/proofread this year’s programme, and the line-up is superb. I also did a lot of translation work for MaerzMusik, taking place between the 20th and 29th of Maerz in Berlin. There’s programmes dedicated to Else Marie Pade, Meredith Monk, Éliane Radigue, Okkyung Lee and I suppose two or three dudes will also play. It will be absolutely fantastic. 

— And if any Berliners here feel like exposing themselves to some non-sonic art, the Tirailleurs. Trials and Tribulations exhibition at Haus der Kulturen der Welt opens on March 21st and, from what I gathered from my translation work for the project, should be very interesting.

+++++ Some Unsorted Recommendations

Due to some personal connections to Iran and its diaspora, I have been following the news very closely while I also heard a lot of personal accounts. I also found myself absolutely appalled by the ignorance and arrogance with which many, unfortunately including a growing amount of self-declared leftists, have been talking about the country, its people, and culture. Hence, I’d like to dedicate this section on music and movies made by Iranians—most of whom live and work elsewhere for all the wrong reasons. I believe engaging with their work will deepen your understanding of what is going on in Iran.

The biggest star in Iranian history is Googoosh, her significance equals that of Umm Kulthum for the Egyptians or Fairouz for the Lebanese. You have probably heard 1977’s »Tallagh« on a dancefloor and if you haven’t, you’ve been going to the wrong parties. The documentary Made of Fire tells the story of this singer who was silenced by the regime, and it has to tell it before the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Another important figure whose work is somewhat known in the West is Kourosh Yaghmaei. In 2013 Now-Again put out a retrospective called Back from the Brink—occasionally funky, sometimes Pink Floydian or even Dire Straitsy rock that stood the test of time.

A lesser known artist who was active before the theocratic regime was installed is Touraj. In 2022, Staatsakt’s Fun in the Church sublabel published a compilation with some of his material, Me without you, the spring without you, a wonderful collection of soulful, funky, folky, torchy rock songs. If you’d like to dig a little further into the awkwardly named »Pre-Revolutionary Persian Pop« music, I recommend checking out this mix by DJ Booty Carrell. You will also find a few semi-official or bootleg compilations and reissues if you look hard enough or … Just google »iran psych rock compilation« or something to that effect. 

While these musicians were—at least in part—still active within the country, compilations like last year’s Tehrangeles Vice (Iranian Diaspora Pop 1983-1993) amply prove that much of the cultural production since 1979 had to take place in the diaspora. There are a few labels that serve as platforms for primarily Iranian musicians today that operate elsewhere. I’ve mentioned—and indeed worked with—composer Ehsan Saboohi’s Post-Orientalism Music, an ever-growing and a veritable treasure trove of a catalogue if you’re looking for conceptually-minded contemporary and electronic music that is constantly in dialogue with Iranian music history.

Noise à Noise, sometimes just aNoise, is run by Soheil Soheili and primarily based in Berlin. I’ve loved recent releases such as Idin Samimi Mofakham’s electro-acoustic experiments with traditional notational systems on Abjad Dream (Piano and Electronics) as well as Hesam Kardan’s dark ambient/drone album Harvest, but my favourite will probably always be TEMBER Ensemble’s Moers Journey with its evocative improvised suites that combine the sounds of instruments like the santur with electronic processing. It is a journey indeed, and an especially fantastic soundtrack for car or train rides.

Also based in Berlin is Tehran Contemporary Sounds, which is both a promoter/festival and a label, though its catalogue so far is quite slim. I do recommend giving both TCS-Various Artists and TCS​-​Various Artists-2 a spin, you’re in for some treats—expect everything from moody drone/noise pieces to slamming electro bangers. The roster of 30M, run by Matthias Koch from Hamburg, is similarly diverse. Besides two albums by kamancheh virtuoso and ambient artist Saba Alizadeh, who will return to Berlin’s Karlrecords with a new one very soon, the catalogue also offers the folk-inspired techno/house of Esfand and the EBM/synth-pop group Stereotype. 

Nesa Azadikhah is a name that has popped up around those two aforementioned labels. The Deep House Tehran founder also co-runs Apranik together with AIDA and is involved in or at least connected to Stockholm’s Peeleh. Musically, Azadikhah is all over the place in the best way possible, having a slew of house and techno releases under her belt as well as making electro-acoustic and ambient music and producing hip-hop/rap records on the side. Her discography is remarkably vast and full of gems, while compilations like Apranik’s WOMAN, LIFE, FREEDOM show that she and her label partner are also curators with a very broad taste to match.

And let us not forget about SOTE, who—miracuously—managed to come to Berlin for a CTM Festival appearance last Friday to present a new work. He has released a bunch of records on Britain’s Opal Tapes, whose Zabte Sote sub-label he curates and which has released an early album by Rojin Sharafi, whose music is worth checking out if you like it weird and abrasive. Speaking of which, one of my favourite SOTE albums in recent times was Majestic Noise Made in Beautiful Rotten Iran, which of course is exactly what it says on the tin. I would also recommend Sacred Horror in Design on Opal.

Speaking of abrasive stuff, Iran has somewhat of a covert metal scene—though it is dangerous to make this music, of course. اکوان (Akvan), a one-man-project, should be especially careful—he blends traditional Persian music with (mostly) blistering microtonal black metal. He has cheekily dubbed his music »Aryan Black Metal,« which is a hilarious reference to and inversion of black metal lore. He sometimes picks up on Zoroastrian mythology, mirroring Norwegian black metal’s obsession with Norse mythology as a counterweight to Christian (or in this case, Islamic) usurpation. Start with Forgotten Glory.

Now, besides the classics, this was all rather fringey stuff. If you’d like to check out popular Iranian music, there is no way around Toomaj—arguably the voice of Iranian dissent, a rapper so popular, he cannot be killed despite being imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death. The sentiment is that if he dies, Iran will go up in flames. His music is rather straightforward, and his lyrics are razor-sharp. My favourite of his is without a doubt his track with regular collaborator Justina, who lives in exile: »Shallagh« (»Whip«), a song that essentially heralded the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.  

Faravaz had to flee Iran for the crime of being a woman who sings. She has become more defiant now that she lives in Berlin. Songs such as »Mullah« make it impossible for her to return to the country while the regime is still in charge. Another (queer-)feminist diasporic voice is that of Dornika, based in L.A. And let’s not forget that one of Germany’s most influential rappers in recent times, the late Xatar, was an Iranian-born Kurd. His »Mama war der Mann im Haus« (»Mum Was the Man in the House«) single coincided with the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the slogan being originally a Kurdish one: jin, jiyan, azadî. 

Speaking of which, Iran is a geographically vast and demographically highly diverse country, so these recommendations should reflect that. So let’s talk in the very least about Kurdish people—themselves being slaughtered en masse in Syria, or, well, Syrian Kurdistan, while the world watches. Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian’s Noor-e Vojood was easily in my top 10 release of 2025, a tanbur-led album that seriously rocks. Heydarian is the kind of virtuoso who doesn’t need or maybe want to put too much of his ego in his songs. They are beautifully meandering, but also very modest.

And I cannot possibly talk about assigned-Iranian-at-birth Kurdish artists without mentioning Hani Mojtahedi. She is a star in the Kurdish world, and infinitely flexible as an artist. Her work ranges from traditional tunes to the electronic experimental music she makes with Mouse On Mars’ Andi Thoma under the name HJirok. Disclaimer, I worked with the two and their label Altin Village & Mine on the release of their almost-self-titled debut Hjirok (don’t ask me why it is important to not capitalise the J in there), but I also seriously love what they do. Also make sure to check out their latest track, »Passaporte,« and its video.

Speaking of which, I also wanted to recommend some movies. I’ll start with the obvious and most-discussed one: Jafar Panahi, whose It Was Just an Accident is currently/was recently in a cinema near you. It is a haunting, but also occasionally funny movie reflecting on what we could, would, or should do with the perpetrators—on an ethical level, I preferred it to the heavy-handed »oh so you’ve read Eichmann in Jerusalem, huh« way that Zone of Interest handled a similar issue, though it was not without both its lengths and comedic highlights. Plus, the last 20 minutes offer some of the most harrowing stuff I’ve seen on screen.

Panahi’s filmography has more good stuff to offer, check Taxi if you feel like watching something more wholesome and quotidian, though it needs to be said that no Iranian movie that focuses on a woman for more than two minutes or reflects upon filmmaking—something that can and will land you in jail in this country—is unpolitical, especially if it has been only more or less legally been filmed there like this one. The same is true for 3 Faces, possibly his most obvious tribute to Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, a film about rural life in Iran—and how that is for women especially.

Besides depictions of bucolic life, the Iranian countryside doesn’t get as much attention as it should, though it is—again—important to understand just how vast this country is and thus how multi-faceted its society is. Cutting Through Rocks is a documentary following a woman who becomes a city council member and also wants to build a park—so yes, this is Parks and Recreation in Iranian Azerbaijan, and sometimes it is just as funny, though … Well, this is a movie about patriarchy, gender norms, and oppression, too, you know? The personal is very much political here even when our protagonist isn’t on the clock.

The same is true about Ali Soozandeh’s Tehran Taboo and Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, two of the more recent fiction films—though of course both are heavily rooted in reality and actual history because just making things up is a luxury—that I would recommend alongside the more phantastical A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by Ana Lily Amipour, »the first Iranian vampire Western,« which … Well, is certainly true, I guess!? And lastly, I also quite liked A Hero by Asghar Farhadi because it asks important questions about how to live a right life in the wrong one and does not provide easy answers.

I also wanted to let you dance music folks know that Raving Iran is up on YouTube now. When it comes to documentaries, I also wanted to point out Son of the Mullah about journalist Roholla Zam and his life in exile and under constant threat. They got him, broke him, killed him. It is a tough watch, but all Iranian documentaries are. That should give you an idea of how it is for diasporic Iranians to constantly have to look on from afar while their people are suffering. Fragments of a Revolution is about exactly this, and so moved me that I wrote my first actual Letterboxd review about it.

It is also my belief that you will benefit from familiarising yourselves with Iranian cuisine. It is very meat-heavy and my diet is not, so the following linked recipes are all veganised versions of classic dishes—if you want to taste the quote-unquote original, it shouldn’t take you longer than two minutes to find a plethora of recipes. If you can find dried limes in your area, I highly recommend you try cooking some khoresh gheymeh. If you like it sweet and a little sour, try fesenjoon with its mix of walnuts and pomegranate syrup; if red beans and ten thousand kilograms of herbs sound good to you, there’s no way around ghormeh sabzi. 

I also cannot recommend this pistachio soup and borani kadoo enough. Get some more inspiration here, here, and here.

Thank you for your attention and until next time.