Yes, seriously, Armenia.

You know how I feel about World Music and it’s terrible associations with fuckwits from the 80s trying to show how intellectual they were, so you, as I, might be somewhat surprised to see this album getting a mention on Song, by Toad.

Most folk music is, to some degree, either storytelling or dance music but this is neither really. I had to look up the location of Armenia on a world map, I have to confess, and given that it sits in a little cluster of states North of the far Eastern end of Turkey and bordered by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran I suppose the nature of the music starts to make sense.

There’s none of the raucousness often associated with folk music, and precious few lyrics either, but the style is clearly a mixture of Eastern European and Middle Eastern. It’s ghostly – slightly scary in that sense – and opts for the mystical drift over the stomping rhythm. I find myself vaguely imagining solitary mountain goatherds, huddled in their blankets, shrouded in mist and smoking a pipe with the stillness of the neighbouring rock formations. Funnily enough, I imagined this before I discovered that Armenia is indeed covered by the the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, so there must be something inherently mountainous about the music itself, although don’t ask me what that is.

I don’t want to say too much because I have neither the historical nor cultural knowledge to make meaningful comments really, but have a listen. This is not your Mr. Sensitive Ponytail Afro-beat Wankstain Toss-fest that generally springs to mind when World Music is mentioned around these parts.

Apricot Tree – Can’t Breathe in This Life Anymore
Apricot Tree – Karabakh Ploughman
Apricot Tree – Dle Yaman

The only places I can find to buy this are here and here, but they both look like distinctly dubious Russian download sites to me, so I’d be very careful before handing over credit card details if I were you.