Bleep

Back in the late 90s, British-Armenian producer Hagop Tchaparian played guitar in a post-grunge punk band called Symposium. It might seem like a major contrast to the globetrotting techno he’s making nowadays, but follow his journey across a myriad of clubs and cultures and you’ll see exactly how he got to releasing his debut solo album on Four Tet’s Text Records, with Bolts documenting two decades of Hagop’s experiences

Having collected sonic snapshots of everyday life through field recordings for many years, Hagop colours in beat sketches with audio environments and ancestral folk instruments. Even without the context of an Armenian fire jumping wedding tradition and a Lebanese village refuge, the themes of travel, family, and community come through with a nostalgic intensity. It’s incredibly fitting, therefore, that this patchwork of sounds is filtered through a techno lens, itself being a genre of communal force, of bodies gathered ‘round a sound system, all sweating on the dancefloor together.

The descending plucks and drum loop of the opening ‘Timelapse’ kindle the fire, stoked by the headbanging rhythms of ‘GL’ with a chanting zurna flying through the notes. The pneumatic ‘Flame’ weaves icily measured interludes in between combustive percussion, doused by watery claps and heavy downward drums in ‘Raining’. ‘Right to Riot’ is one of the album’s most explosive tracks, driven by uproarious zurna playing and a brutal beat tearing through, while ‘Ldz’ makes for one of the most candid moments, constructing an ephemeral rhythm from crackling fireworks and celebratory whistles and cheers.

Hagop Tchaparian curates a scrapbook of cultural sounds and invigorating techno rhythms on his debut album Bolts.