New Song of the Day #30: Anish Kumar & Hagop Tchaparian "Kino (Part I & II)"

"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" as 2025 techno, w/ a Four Tet co-sign.

I don’t go clubbing much these days, and can’t afford indulging in Detroit techno 12”s like I once did. But a great DJ track can still shake me to my core. And dancing, even at your desk or in your living room, can help keep us sane in these trying times.

“Kino” is that kind of jam. Hand drum samples give it a human feel. The bass-bin snarl is dark blue and grimey. Samba-ish snares punctuate the flow dramatically, and there’s a brilliant, slo-mo, faintly melancholy breakdown around 2:30. Just an altogether wicked track.

The b-side continues similarily, with the delicious drone of what I understand is a tulum, the animal-skin bagpipe native to Anatolia and other regions, adding a sort of martial call-to-dancefloor-prayer vibe. It made me think of My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, the 1981 Brian Eno-David Byrne LP that built unusual dance tracks out of a variety of multicultural samples.

This record is also a duo collaboration, between Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian. They connected online, finally met in Brixton at a stop on the recent Four Tet, Skrillex & Fred Again barnstorm tour, then swapped ideas for months. I hadn’t been familiar with Kumar, but I’ve been feeling his Feel My Bicep mixtape from last year. Tchaparian is a British-Armenian producer who hit my radar a couple years ago with “Right to Riot,” a monster track which also uses a tulum to similarly potent effect. The track is a standout on his debut LP, Bolts, released on Kieran Hebden’s Text Records label.

Anyway, Kumar and Tchaparian make an excellent team. Here’s hoping there’s more where “Kino” came from.

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