NEWS FIRST: Sirusho’s new album of folk music was released this week. Produced by Hayko, I’ll be reviewing it shortly. I bought it despite the fact I vowed to no longer support this artist.

-Theres a concert outside the opera house on the 1st September - to celebrate a year of the long haired trendy male VJ’s and Pamela Anderson wannabe women at Dar 21 “Armenian Music Television”. A bad channel in my view ( barely Armenian Music Television ). Artists appearing include : Hay Tghek , Hasmik Karapetian, Karine Movsisyan. I urge you to go if you can to see Hay Tghek. They always perform live.

Now to the picture. What you’re looking at above are four CD’s that I ordered from www.disc.am last week, and much to my surprise they arrived within 6 days, perfectly packaged, and it only cost me 7 dollars shipping! If you’re wondering I did this, its because I live in the United Kingdom!

They have absolutely everything on the website, and although many of the western products are pirated, the Armenian stuff is all genuine where possible. They have also started selling books, and DVD’s. I completely put my faith in the Haypost system, and it seems to have done the trick. The envelope came airmail marked, with 6 500dr stamps.

This is good news for Armenian music fans, including me, as there was always a delay in getting the latest Armenian music, and no chance at all if the artist hasn’t struck a deal with Glendale record companies who can distribute via the USA.

Hasmik Karapetians new cd: A great selection of her own ballads, and a couple of dancey tracks. As I suspected, Hayko didn’t produce the album, and I can’t help thinking it would have been a bit better if he had. The music needs that extra “push” - which is sadly lacking. Nevertheless, being a fan, I absolutely love it.
It really lacks in design quality. The inlay is empty of any text, apart from thank you’s. A bit dissappointing considering its a genuine copy and it’s been 4 years in the making - Hasmik’s last album was released in 2001.

Armenchik: If you’re a fan of his style ( not quite rabiz ) then you’re 99% likely to enjoy this CD. I did. I am impressed by the number of live instruments used in this recording. Particularly a funky guitar all the way through, a good choice. There’s a song featuring Glendale - Armenian rapper Mihran - who introduces the song as a collaboration between “The hottest artist on the Armenian pop scene ( Armen ) - and a new sensation(Mihran)” - I’m not sure but I think thats slightly inaccurate. Again, a disappointing cover, but Armenchik is well known for his tacky covers, this one is done in the style of a film cover.

What I noticed about both CD’s is not ONE lettter of Armenian script. Everything was in latin script. A huge annoyance of mine, and I do think that something needs to be done to solve this syndrome of writing Armenian in Latin letters. I fail to see the point of singing Armenian, producing “Armenian” music, and writing in English through the inlay covers - absolutely ridiculous to the point that it’d be funny if it wasn’t killing the Armenian language.

Incidentally, the only CD I bought that featured a fully Armenian cover was ARAZ, pure rabiz/turkish affair.Hm.

On that note, I’ll see you all in 2 weeks