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Thread: RIP Houschäng Nejadépour?

  1. #1

    RIP Houschäng Nejadépour?

    Found this on the Krautrock FB page:

    "Dear fellows. Ufo Walter wrote me today that Houschäng Nejadépour of ex-Kraftwerk,ex-Eiliff and mastermind behind Guru Gurus "Dance of the Flames" died two years ago on Mallorca. So,RIP Houschäng. I really liked your freaky looks."

    So, sadly, Houschang is no long with us.

    Here's a great article about him (in German).
    https://the-duesseldorfer.de/stadtge...ch-houschaeng/
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  2. #2
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    He played great in Eiliff and "Dance Of The Flames".

    I didn't know he was ex-Kraftwerk.

    He sure disappeared after Guru Guru....
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  3. #3
    Evidently he taught sitar in Duesseldorf for a while... but it's funny about Kraftwerk because evidently in his younger day (late 60s) he was known as "the" Jimi Hendrix disciple in Duesseldorf, which while leading to the admiration of Michael Rother, was completely incompatible with Kraftwerk!

    Some fusion tracks here on bandcamp with post Guru Guru band Welcome
    https://soundcloud.com/martinwieschermann/welcome
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  4. #4
    Dance of the Flames was the first Guru Guru-album I got hold of, after reading about them in the impressively comprehensible (Danish) Politikens Rock Lexikon, which is still a fantastic and impressively written register of international names. First edition in mid-80s, and I believe even bigger ones later. What was incredible about PRL was that it basically covered global names and with an almost academic attention to detail - while still opening for rather subjective ops on the given artists, their work and reputation. Already in 1985 they gave as much space to Henry Cow as to Camel, and in hindsight this is quite an accomplishment. They had a whole fucking page of these -TINY- letters (with footnotes!) on Magma, btw. Zeuhlmate would know all about it!

    Anyway, in that book Guru Guru were toted as "the first German acid-rock group", which I dived right into at 19 yo. I'd just commenced on digging into the historical phenomenon of "krautrock", which was beginning to see a resurgence in relation to the rise of the British 'Madchester' sound. This being in 1991 there was obviously little chance of obtaining a vinyl copy (or a CD for that matter) of a Guru Guru record, but on getting DotF (with a torn cover) in a wornout, temporary second hand sellout bin, I paid about 3 dollars for the thing and brought it home. It had ludicrous songs (like "Samba das Rosas", which became a hit on freaky student drinkouts at our dorm), some fine jazzrock and these lengthy guitar workouts ("The Girl From Hirschhorn" and "Uncle Dagobert" especially). And I really loved the sound of Nejadépour; not only could he improvise creatively over (somewhat) limited harmonical backing (which both Hendrix and Zappa had set new standards for, as in "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" or "Willie the Pimp"), but he utilized that brilliant effect of pushing the wah-wah to half open, keep the foot and barely reverbing accents of frequency with tone. The way I heard it, only the greatest did this; Duane Allman, John Cipollina, Glenn Phillips.

    When I later heard Nejadépour in more challenging contexts, as with the fabulous debut Eiliff release, I was completely sold on his playing. I'm sad to see him leave, but hey - some of the best ones finished off in Spain... Like Ollie Halsall.

    Anyway, here's a cheer to Nejadépour:

    Last edited by Scrotum Scissor; 10-12-2018 at 12:32 PM.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    Dance of the Flames was the first Guru Guru-album I got hold of, after reading about them in the impressively comprehensible (Danish) Politikens Rock Lexikon, which is still a fantastic and impressively written register of international names. First edition in mid-80s, and I believe even bigger ones later. What was incredible about PRL was that it basically covered global names and with an almost academic attention to detail - while still opening for rather subjective ops on the given artists, their work and reputation. Already in 1985 they gave as much space to Henry Cow as to Camel, and in hindsight this is quite an accomplishment. They had a whole fucking page of these -TINY- letters (with footnotes!) on Magma, btw. Zeuhlmate would know all about it!
    Nice. Was it in other languages? (I could handle German, mostly)

    I too found Eiliff much later, but man, what a great band!

    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  6. #6
    ^ No. It was always written in Danish and with musicologist/journalist Jan Sneum as editor (and main author). There are several editions of it. I really wish Zeuhlmate would chime in, as he'd probably know all about it. Politiken is a newspaper and (used to be) a large Publishing house in Denmark.

    By far the greatest rock encyclopaedia I've ever read.

    They also had a specific one on Danish rock, by which knowledge on the history of Danish musikal subculture was very elaboarately communicated.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  7. #7
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Jan Sneum was / is the man.
    I met him on a bus between Tana and Lakselv in 1986.
    I was visting my mothers hometown Honningsvåg, and checking out her hood.
    For many years he had a DAB channel on www.DR.dk which was one of the last oasis on prog in the Danish (state) radio.
    Today, if you are lucky, there are classical and very little jazz in the radio. In the old days the music journalist had the idea that we should hear new music, and get inspired. Today they have the idea that we should hear what they consider popular allready, figured out by some algorithm done by an american computer.

    What was the question?
    I have 2 editions of the Rock encyclopedia from Politiken and Magma and Henry Cow is in it.
    Strangely enough the danish music scene today is very conservative. Not much breathtaking stuff, as in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

  8. #8
    First exposure to Guru Guru was from the Generich period...initially thought, what a drag that he's not on this new one, (Dance of the Flames). Nejadepour wiped that away pretty fast. Amazing Mahavishnu level player without being a slavish imitator. For sure one of the lesser known greats.

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