Hagop Tchaparian
Bolts
Album · Electronic · 2022
Bolts is divided into roughly two kinds of tracks: big, stomping house (“GL”, “Right to Riot”, “Flame”) and grainy, reflective ambient (“Timelapse”, “Iceberg”). The connective tissue is in the British Armenian producer’s field recordings of Turkish and Armenian folk music, which not only give his debut album its parchmentlike texture, but also serve as a reminder that house and techno are basically expressions of the same communal spirit. And like his label head, Four Tet, Tchaparian seems adrift just enough in the trends and conventions of contemporary dance music to make Bolts sound like its own trip, or at least one that plugs into a wider, less obvious history.