Zvezda Irad (EP)
Zvezda Irad (Russian and Iradi, "Star of Irad") is an extended play by the Iradi electronic duo tüntolk, released in 2002. It contains "Cut the Stars in the Night", the duo's best-known song outside Irad, and marks their move from the cassette underground of Nurzhan to the club circuit of Almaty and Tashkent.[1]
Background and recording
After Jolchu (1999) tüntolk began playing club nights in Nurzhan and then in Almaty, where the promoter and engineer Yerlan Abenov offered them time in his small studio, Dala Sound. The EP was begun in the Nurzhan boiler room on the duo's four-track recorder and finished in Almaty, where Askar Daniyarov used a borrowed sampler for the first time. Its title mixes Russian (zvezda, "star") and Iradi, a joke on the bilingual signs of Nurzhan; the star is Polaris, the star of the Iradi flag.[1][2]
Music
The EP is faster and harder than Jolchu, built for dancing. "Jyldyzdardy Kes" opens with uncredited archive recordings of a herder's throat singing over a slow pulse before a drum drop brings in the full beat. "Jorgo" is built on the four-beat rhythm of an ambling horse. "Tündük", the longest track, returns to the slow drones of the first album. The closing remix, made for Almaty clubs, became the version most DJs played.[2]
Release and reception
"Jyldyzdardy Kes" came out first, on 1 March 2002, as a CD-R single handed to DJs at the duo's Almaty club nights. The duo released the EP on CD-R in Nurzhan on 13 April 2002, at a club night in the city, and Dala Sound pressed a small run of compact discs in Almaty later that year. Copies circulated among DJs in Moscow and Berlin, and "Jyldyzdardy Kes" was used in nightclub scenes in the films Party Monster (2003) and Head-On (2004). Folklorists criticized the uncredited use of archive throat singing; editions since 2015 credit the State Archives of Irad.[1][3]
Track listing
All music by Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova; all lyrics by Temirova.
| No. | Title | English translation | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Jyldyzdardy Kes" | "Cut the Stars" | 6:12 |
| 2. | "Zvezda Irad" | "Star of Irad" (Russian and Iradi) | 4:48 |
| 3. | "Jorgo" | "Ambler" | 5:20 |
| 4. | "Tündük" | "Crown Ring" | 7:01 |
| 5. | "Jyldyzdardy Kes (Almaty Night Mix)" | 8:30 | |
| Total length: | 31:51 |
Personnel
- Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics
- Askar Daniyarov – synthesizers, sampler, drum machine, production
- Yerlan Abenov – mixing (1, 5)
References
- ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 59–77.
- ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
- ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.