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New Compilation Presents Rare Disco, Funk, Jazz & More From 1980s Soviet Central Asia
'Synthesizing the Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Crimean Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia' is out now.
The 15-track compilation is forged primarily of vinyl discovered at this plant, with groups from all over Soviet Central Asia — Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, the Crimean Peninsula and beyond — traveling to Tashkent to record music. “Recognizing the futility of banning disco clubs outright,” the liner notes explain, “the authorities, ever mindful of ideological control, opened dance spaces exclusively through Komsomols (state youth leagues), requiring partygoers to sit through a one-hour lecture on the Soviet worldview before the music dropped” Meanwhile, a so-called “ disco mafia” emerged in many Soviet cities including Tashkent, with these entities controlling “a lucrative business model with multiple revenue streams.
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