Text reprinted from npr music: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112829658

Written by EGON (SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 11:18 AM ET)

A few months ago, the record dealer who sold me the majority of his Iranian collection told me that his recent finds in Tehran — including Mehr Pooya‘s solitary LP of fuzz-guitar-soaked sitar funk — were going to a well-heeled international collector. He’d already sold the heavy psych pieces and the Iranian presses of Led Zeppelin albums and The Beatles’ Abba Road [sic] for stacks of euros before I got to dig through his collection.

I couldn’t help feeling disappointed, but how could I be upset with him? This man, who insists on remaining nameless (though I’d like to showcase the determination with which he canvasses the streets of his city and brings home never-before-heard ’60s garage rock and ’70s psych-folk fusion) had provided me with some of my favorite records of recent years. Those albums and 45s, many of which he bought as new releases in the early ’70s, gave me endless hours of enjoyment.

Here’s some of the most beautiful music from my past purchases. On a recent trip to Texas, I ran into a cab driver in Austin who told me that he’d owned a copy of the Mehr Pooya album back when he lived in Tehran in the ’70s. If I had a dime for every Iranian cab driver whose number I’ve stored in my cell phone on the hunt for records… well, I’d have had enough to buy that Mehr Pooya album in the first place.

Online information on Iranian recordings of the 1970s is limited, but some good resources are available. Try the Progressive Homestead page dedicated to Persian Fusion or Dario Margeli’s online catalog….Continue reading here.

(Egon is the general manager of the Stones Throw label. He also founded Now-Again Records, which reissues American funk and soul albums, as well as the Soul-Cal imprint with Peanut Butter Wolf. He DJs funk and psychedelia sets at venues all around the world.)

How about this?