fishin' out the meaningful from the absurd.

Osama’s dead. Cricket is mostly fixed. Noori’s back.

2011-05-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

Noori's Reuniting concert at PACC Auditorium Karachi on 6th May 2011

Text & Photographs by: Insiya Syed

What is it about words that conjure all kinds of images? Really take you someplace other? And leave you there with nothing but a strange-shaped hole in your heart and scratches all over your soul. That is the power of a song. That is the power of he/she, who made that song. ‘Goray Rung Ka Zamana’; “Neend Aati Nahi”; “Tere Ishq Main Jo Bhi”; “Puraani Jeans”; “Aap Jaisa Koi”; “Mera Pyaar”; “Pal Do Pal” could possibly trace the glorious journey of popular music in Pakistan without even needing to specify who sang those words.

Music, more than movies or images or any other form of art is probably the one that really tug at your heartstrings with this familiarity of sorts. With different songs meaning different emotions that it had once managed to arouse in the listener. Sometimes even more to the listener than to the artist that recorded it. Everyone and their grandmother have memories attached to the hundreds of tracks that they grew up listening to. That just about everyone has an “our” song; the song that’s the OST of that first breakup which hurt the most; the song that remind you of the girl that dumped you; the track you sang-along to with your siblings in the car or your friends at a karaoke bar and so on. That while listening to some of the top-rated most-played songs on my iTunes, I often think if a performer ever gets tired of performing whereas the listener could listen to a record on repeat for days and weeks and sometimes even years (Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon released in 1973; Thriller by Michael Jackson released in 1982; Self titled Vital Signs 1 released in 1989 et al) – in a very sticky-humid auditorium, I think I may have found my answer. At least a few clues if nothing else.

Clue no. 1: Never perform in a hot and humid venue, it makes you sweat and unless you’re as hot as Federer, no body cares about your sweat.

Clue no. 2: Do not stay up all night long, the night before your show browsing facebook, blogging or worse: tweeting.

Clue no. 3: Do not tell the hundred people who showed up at your show and paid 800 bucks (seriously!) and I quote “The problem with this concert is that I am really tired because I have been up all night!”

Clue no. 4: That you don’t want to throw a party at your house – for the FIRST time in SEVEN years – and invite a diverse crowd with only one thing in common: you – because 30 minutes into the get together, you’d have to be mind-blowingly entertaining in order to keep the crowd, well… entertained and not leave them hot and sweaty. They’re not Federer either.

Clue no. 5: When you make a comeback, make a comeback.

Clue no. 5(a): When you title anything – a book, a picture, a song, a movie – think twice.

Clue no. 5(b): In case you end up calling it “a gig not to be missed” – make it a gig that shouldn’t have been missed instead of could’ve been missed.

Osama’s dead. Cricket is mostly fixed. And Noori’s back. And please don’t get me wrong because if push comes to shove – they’re the only band I’d cheerlead for. That the hundred of fans who have followed the news of the ‘surprise’ the Noori-brothers spoke of for days, are nothing less then ecstatic at the return of the original-four line-up from the "Suno Ke Main Hun Jawan" days of year-2003. That despite the sea of emotions that one could visibly feel between the four – Ali Hamza on Vocals and Rhythm Guitars, Ali Jafri on Bass, Ali Noor on Guitars and Vocals, Gumby on Drums – the whining and cribbing of being tired and emotional and just being tired got to one. That, in a nutshell: this was a great show that had a feel of a jam session – we’ve seen better though by Munchkins, several times, at the same venue even – but not worthy of a show that came seven years too late.

In the end, the best versions are the simplest ones. Sung with conviction, such as “Aarzoo”; “Bol”; “Aik Alif” – the songs nagging melodies shone bright that night and heart-rending lyrics were harrowing enough. Somehow on tracks such as a mash-up of “Tonight’s Gonna Be A Good Night & Gana No. 1” the buzz of enthusiasm was missing as did the confidence of coming together and the combined-potential of four of some of the bestest and in Gumby’s case, greatest musicians on the circuit. The possibility of taking the experience of having done so much even during the long hiatus – Coke Studio, Uth Records etc – and taking everything to a new level and leaving everyone breathless, and translating the emotions the band felt into the crowd that remained loyal, all these years – was missed with an absolute lack of excitement.

The band had moments – Noor asking Jafri how he feels, “Aap ko kaisa lug raha hai?” and Jafri repeating the same to him; of Noor trying effortlessly to bring the otherwise backbencher Gumby to say a few words in front of an audience that screamed his name throughout chanting for the infamous drum-solo; or “Manwa Re” dedicated to a very emotional - Mandana, almost if not entirely the fifth band member. The thought on my mind when I left the venue was hunger for more (and food!) and not that adrenaline rush after having witnessed something so amazing, considering I was at the bands very first ‘sponsored’ performance, their debut in Karachi – many years back and have almost religiously followed their journey since the sold-out M-Live ‘weeks’.

They’re lucky though, what with positive memories of their formative years and nothing very extraordinary happening in the music scene as such – save from a new season of Coke Studio launching on May 22nd (Still can’t get over the mega-disappointing comeback of Entity Paradigm on the last season! Another sign of a bleak music industry!).

In Hamza’s words, “There’s a Murphy’s Law and then there is a Noori Law. If something is supposed to go wrong. It does with Noori.” It certainly did and one can’t really pinpoint why exactly. It’s almost like one cannot really explain that awkward-silence. It’s just… awkward and the only saving grace could be someone saving the day. The performance will soon slide into a past tense with a new record that’s probably in the making – apparently they have some classic ‘Noori’ songs that have already been penned and close-few await the release of those, that will supposedly change the face of the industry in general and the four in particular.

Boys, we were saddened by the departure, let us fall off the couch with the arrival. You’ve done it before.

Raw Magnetic Fields

2011-03-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Text & Photographs by Insiya Syed

Lately, the only pickup line that would work on me is: let’s go take photographs! I’d press ‘attending’ at the drop of a hat on the facebook-invite; charge my batteries and start marking ‘X’ on the table-calendar.

And there’s any number of reasons for the excitement: looking forward to anything that involves getting out of routine; the opportunity to document a space; meeting ‘locals’; making conversation; and, of course, building my own personal relationship with the space and those that inhabit it.

Sometimes its simply because of the thrill of marking a ‘pin’ on the map of Pakistan/Karachi: the cost effectiveness of the whole deal, as well as living the experience, after being at-it as a photographer (cant wait when I can call myself a photojournalist – my parents think I am not sober or mature enough to label myself that, yet!) – taking photographs is so charming and
still works on me after all these years. Throw in the fact that what really turns on my camera is when I am prohibited to take a photograph or just simply not allowed to click one.

A photographer’s haven – with subjects that vary from scraps of hazardous material to a 7-year old girl who refused to let me shoot her portrait, and a meager 50km away from Karachi, Gadani was once described as the world’s largest ship-breaking yard. Fast forward the reel to now: it’s nothing less or more than a final resting ground for grandeur, that was – or a backyard with ships thrown around like toys that were once advertised for all things exotic.

Although the remote town has got little to boast now, unceremoniously overlooking an ugly dump of static rusty iron – it still has a beautiful landscape with a resounding OST of the gushing Arabian sea.

First Published in The Friday Times - March 18-24, 2011 - Vol. XXIII, No. 05

The Awards Have Spoken (unedited)

2006-07-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

By: Insiya Syed

Yes, it's that time of year again.

Time for the various award shows to clutter up our Television sets. And time again for us to ask the infamous question: Who judges these awards, and why weren't they fired last year? This year the award season began with the 3rd Indus Music Awards and was followed soon by the 13th PTV Awards. Both the shows aired on the respective channels on the same night. Ironically, that very night- The Musik Awards [TMA] 2006 were being staged in Karachi. Post-awards observation includes: too many awards and not enough stars; we have to remember that the Grammy's and Oscars are decided by not a jury but by music and film professionals numbering in the thousands; in our part of the world: the respective channel's jury and owners do the do. Which anyone with a sane mind would find absurd. As the famous saying goes, "Out of 5 billion, twelve decide I am guilty and they call that justice". The last laugh: we have no more than a hundred "legal" releases in the year and have more award ceremonies than England!

Having sat, earlier, through the very first ceremony that ARY networks had organized, all three hours of it showed from the beginning that TMA 2006 would be a very different awards show. Umar Amanullah [Creative Director / Head of Events] was responsible for the entire look and feel and the perception of the Awards - starting from the name TMA & the Award/Trophy Design to the whole theme, the set, the flow - it looked classy and spoke volumes about the amount of effort put into it since April.

TMA showed the difference. In the main, this was a rather tasteful, restrained affair. A bit long as it started a full four 4 hours past its scheduled time; a bit disorganized as the VIPs seated in the front were without a projector screen; a bit lost as it missed out on some major categories as that of the best singer/vocalist and best music journalist; a bit racist by offering the fashion brigade business class tickets while musicians flew economy class; a bit sad that some major contestants were missed out such as Mekaal Hasan from the best producer and Fahad Khan and Salman Albert from the best drummer categories. Despite all these shortcomings it accomplished its mission — showing off the best in contemporary popular music, with several touching tributes to the music that was.

While never being able to achieve its over-the-top, younger, and hipper feel- the definitely crasser rival, Indus Music [now MTV Pakistan in the making] has suffered in recent years with an identity crisis. It always tried to juggle its role as the "official" arbiter of authentically good music while being so "fashionable" at its music award ceremonies that it misses out handing the right awards to the right people. At most levels- TMA was everything that Indus Music Awards wished to be.

The process was simple and fuss free. The categories were decided by the channel and all the applicable list of nominees were sent to the Jury. This contained an average of 10 to 12 possible nominees per category. The Jury gave points to all the nominees and out of these, 5 top scoring nominations per category was short listed by the auditors and hence they became the final 5 nominees.

The Jury decided the winners for 14 of the Jury Awards Categories, while the viewers of The Musik decided the winners of the 7 Most Wanted Viewers Choice Categories via SMS, website polls and IVR. These sealed results for all categories whether Jury or Viewers Choice, were delivered in sealed envelopes to the Auditors which were then compiled, sealed and sent to ARY directly before the Awards began. So no one except the Auditors knew who had won! That makes TMA the first awards in Pakistan to be audited. The channel did what it's supposed to do: merely facilitate the awards as the actual winners are determined by the Jury and the viewers.

What also made TMA the most credible music awards this season was its jury that boasted of names such as: Pakistan's top music composer Arshad Mahmud, former Vital Sign Shehzad 'Shahi' Hasan, Nayyara Noor, the very versatile Anwar Maqsood, style guru Tariq Amin, music journalist Nadeem Farooq Paracha, and ace director Asad-ul-Haq.

You can also tell a lot about an awards show by judging its hosts. I certainly was looking forward to watching some new faces taking on the stage at the TMA. And even though there were no major surprises the three duos - Hassan Shehryar Yasin aka HSY with Meesha Shafi, Aijaz Aslam & Sonya Khan and the young and hip VJs Faraz with Natasha - did a rather good job at introducing the categories and calling on the presenters.

An exhilarating opening performance by Ali Azmat ("Main Chala") accompanied by 10 models and a few clowns on-stage was more than just a perfect beginning to any music show.

Ali Azmat fans are not the brooding lot who like to analyze performance or set list. Azmat fans don't filter their Azmat experience through anything. That would just dilute it, stupid. Keep it simple: "brilliant", "great", "awesome", "whoo!" is about as polysyllabic as it gets. Little did anyone predict that a few hours later these few hundred people would be walking out of the venue with the exact same words coming out of their mouth just thousand times more intense!

Whereas in Pakistan, award ceremonies are mainly to socialize, world-over they are held to recognize the efforts of on-screen and behind the scene people who brought about a change or simply provided entertainment. The 'Best Pop Song' 'Pyaar To Hona Hee Hay' by Suroor pulled the biggest upset, nudging out the most popular songs 'Zinda' by Strings and 'Saali' by Shehzad Roy. The next award went to Shiraz Uppal's 'Saiyan Wai' for the 'Best Bhangra Song' and although his lovely track 'Jhuki Jhuki' was a hit earlier this year, the award should have rightfully been given to Raheem Shah's 'Ishq' which was by far a more rocking tune. Noori's slight chances of winning an award that night died when Ali Azmat walked away with the 'Best Rock Song' for 'Na Re Na'. By the end of the show Ali had bagged the 'Best Lyricist' for the same song [co-written with Sabir Zafar], 'Best Music Producer' and 'Best Album' of the night. 'Na Re Na' was also one song too lucky and got Saquib Malik his 'Most Wanted Video' award!

The more obvious winners of the night were Gumby for 'Best Drummer', Sajjad Ali for 'Best Live Act - Artist', The Mekaal Hasan Band for the 'Best Live Act - Band', Atif Aslam and Annie for the 'Best Male' and 'Best Female' of 2006 respectively. However, the category for the 'Best Guitarist' seemed slightly flawed to me that night. The nominees included Aamir Zaki who has not released an album in over a decade and his last commercial work is the song 'Iss Baar Milo' by Hadiqa Kiyani where he's been featured as a bass player and not a lead guitarist. A more sensible nomination should have been that of 'Sufi' Salman Ahmed who released his debut solo effort 'Infinity' earlier this year. The award was thankfully accepted by Shallum Xavier who literally ran to receive it from the gorgeous Amena Haq and Ammar Belal.

Further on, a few felt that Abbas Ali Khan should have received the award for 'Best Ballad' for his beautiful track 'Sun Re' instead of the actual recipient CALL for 'Sab Bhula Ke'. It was also most shocking to see CALL win the 'Most Wanted Band' category whereas the other nominees included the most deserving bands such as Noori, Strings, Fuzon and The Mekaal Hasan Band. The least said about this particular result- the better. The Awards also acknowledged the next generation of superstars and honored Kaavish with the 'Best Rising Star' award. Here's hoping that they'd now stick around for at least one album. Having already received the Pride of Performance more than once, Arshad Mahmud was given the TMA for 'Outstanding Contribution to Music' in recognition of his distinguished services to music and the music business.

The most surprising nomination of the evening was that of Ali Noor as the 'Best Producer' for his second album that was actually produced by Mekaal Hasan at the Digital Fidelity Studios. When asked how he felt about it Mekaal said, "I was nominated! Only my name was Ali Noor!". He thinks he'd never be able to own the record for the simple reason that Noor didn't give him credit for it. Some of the surprising winners included Sameer Ahmed for 'Best Bassist' instead of the more applaudable Khalid Khan; Imran Momina aka Immu losing out to the extremely under-rated Shuja Haider for the 'Best Keyboardist'; 'Leeway' by Corduroy winning the 'Most Wanted English Track' instead of the very celebrated 'Free Style Dive' by the Sajid & Zeeshan duo; and 'Mahiya' winning the 'Most Wanted Song' 2006. The most under-rated song of the evening happened to be the most classic song to have come out of the music industry in terms of melody, arrangement, production, lyrics and so on- 'Zinda' by Strings. And when this song lost to 'Mahiya' by Annie- that's not even bubblegum pop, this writer felt like sulking in a corner somewhere. The audience was however treated to a live rendition of the song by Strings straight after winning the Motorola Icon Award of the night.

TMA was a good, solid show. The producers just pushed the music. The awards almost seemed to be an afterthought to showing performers. With a performance each by Ali Azmat [Main Chala], Annie [Mahiya], Haroon Rashid [Jiya Jaey], Strings [Zinda], AaroH [Raag Neela], Shazia Manzoor, and The Mekaal Hasan Band [Jhok Ranjhan]. Thus it was almost a lengthy concert with an award presentation and acceptance slipped in here and there. Generally speaking, that worked.

The second last performance of the night was one of the two reasons that the audience didn't realize the amount of time they spent waiting for the awards to begin and walked out as happily as they had walked in!

The rather humongous stage was ready to rock to the TMA Band comprising Shallum Xavier on lead guitars, Gumby on drums, and Immu on keyboards and Khalid on bass guitar. Together these four performers had created a unique blend of sound composed by Shallum. The theme of the awards that was running all through the nominees and the show was being staged for the very first time. The true musicianship of these 4 over-the-top musicians came forward as the band played how every act should play at every show: live and with a passion that would translate itself to the audience with no words required. After a small break the band was to come back on for the grand finale!

Though first, it was now time to honor a lifetime of classic contributions to the field of music- the recipient of TMA's Lifetime Achievement Award was a man who infused new blood in the music of mid-70s. At a time when people thought that after Ahmed Rushdie, Akhlaque Ahmed, Runa Laila and the likes they will breathe in a world without music - Alamgir dawned a new hope at just that point in time. Alamgir's teary-eyed speech was one of the night's more touching moments. After the standing ovation the TMA band came on stage again and for the first time in 15 years, Alamgir was set to belt out a few of his classic songs with four of the most rocking musicians on the scene today.

Where Ali Azmat's audience was rapturously seduced by the monosyllabic simplicity of it all, Alamgir took his audience to places greater than great, more awesome than awesome and whoo-er than whoo with a rakish ruffle of his tousled head and a few off beat clicks of his fingers. His performance was a wake-up call in Ali Azmat's face that he hadn't performed on stage in 15 years, that he was old now and looked it but that he was still the King of Pop! As all such shows are guaranteed to have at least one incredibly strange moment each year - the kind of moment that is talked about for years – Alamgir's performance was that moment!

By the time the reverie starts to dissipate, he'll have left the stage, leaving hundreds of sated fans inexplicably humming 'Keh Dai Na' at the exit, 'Albela Rahi' on their way to the after-party and 'Daikha Na Tha' for the next thousand years. Ladies and gentlemen, the awards have spoken. And Alamgir has landed.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, July 31, 2006.

Everything I do

2006-02-05T00:51:00.000-08:00

Post-interview: myself alongside Bryan Adams.

By: Insiya Syed

Obviously excited at the thought of getting to meet Bryan Adams for a one-to-one for the very first time, my RJ friends from CityFM89 and I waited outside the diplomat room at the hotel where the interviews were being conducted. We realized that we’d probably be the last to talk to him as everyone from the foreign press to the local TV channels were getting a maximum of five minutes with him. Eventually, we were the only ones to have gotten a full 13-minute long session. To put it simply, it was our shining moment.

Bryan Adams was in Pakistan on the invitation of Shehzad Roy and his Zindagi Trust to perform at a charity concert, Rock for a Cause, the proceeds of which are to go towards the building and/or rebuilding of 20 schools in the quake-ravaged northern areas of Pakistan.

The steep price of the tickets did little to deter his local fans and the concert that followed later in the day was an event attended by a 15,000-strong audience, most of them young men and women who had come all the way to the far-off venue to hear their favourite singer belt out one hit after another.

The first question I put forth to Bryan Adams was when he started songwriting and what were his inspirations. “I started writing when I was about 16 and I got my first songs together properly when I was about 18,” said Adams. Talking about his inspirations further, he continued, “They were a mixture of heavy rock and included singers and songwriters. There was everyone from Jackson Brown and Paul Simon to Led Zeppelin.”

According to Bryan Adams whose solo career began in 1978 when he began writing songs with former Prism member Jim Vallance, a typical Adams song is likely to be about “some twisted relationship”, and that’s not due to his good songwriting ability but because as he modestly called himself “a good observer.” This led us to my next question about his love for photography which is another means for him to observe. “The process of songwriting or any other creative process is interesting to me because it’s really about creating something from nothing. And I find that very interesting.”

Intrigued and wanting to know about his favourite photograph or someone he’d like to capture, the humorous side of his personality surfaced as he wittily said: “Besides you? I don’t know.” His efforts to raise funds for breast cancer patients by selling his photographs are known to all and sundry and have touched many a heartstrings. He once took a picture of the Queen of England which was used on a Canadian postage stamp.

Bryan says he’d love to play Let’s Make it a Night to Remember when asked to name a song he’d like to dedicate to Queen Elizabeth on the radio. And if he ever gets a chance to be reborn as a woman, he’d chose Uma Thurman in two seconds flat.

There are many international celebrities who share Bryan’s nationality such as Keanu Reeves, Pamela Anderson, Celine Dion, Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain, to name a few. So what is the one thing that sets Adams apart from the others? “I didn’t drink enough water as a child. I don’t know. I don’t think we can ever say that two people are the same. They are all unique and different and I guess the only thing that would separate me from them would be my extensive tours.”

Given the chance, “as an advocator to non-violence” Adams feels that he’d not be able to beat any pop star in a fight. When asked about his guilty-pleasure in music and that one band he’d never admit listening to, Bryan didn’t have an answer. As an extra effort the Backstreet Boys, NSync and Spice Girls are mentioned but to no avail.

Bryan is usually found listening to blues at home. Talking about good taste in music, the most incredible Pink Floyd album Wall was brought to Germany in 1990 where Bryan Adams played with an all-star cast under the supervision of Roger Waters. He’s considered to be one of the bigger fans of Pink Floyd and had a bit to say about the record and the band itself. “There isn’t really a favourite track of that album because it’s the whole body of work that makes it interesting. I did it because Waters phoned me personally and asked me to do it. And be a part of the concert at a time when the wall had come down in Berlin made sense. It was a very fascinating evening.”

He also spoke about his debut all-time classic disco single from 1978, Let Me Take You Dancing on which he sounds like Michael Jackson. As the producer decided to speed up the track, word has it that Adams is embarrassed to put the track on any compilation.

With our time up and everyone running late for the concert, we walked out together. People were ready to take pictures with him and as we made our way to the exit, I saw girls running after Bryan Adams to get just one more autograph.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, February 05, 2006.

Press matters

2006-02-05T00:43:00.000-08:00

By: Insiya Syed

January 29, 2006. The press is waiting patiently. Photographers are making sure that back-up batteries are in place. Two young girls are waiting with bouquets in their hands. The father of one tells me excitedly: “She was only 30 days old when she first attended a Bryan Adams concert.”

The crowd packed inside the hall at a local hotel for the press conference is abuzz with the anticipation of witnessing a special moment in music history. Also seated in the front row was Mariola, the lady who had made it all possible. Soon after, dressed in a crisp white shirt, dark shades in place, and two steps ahead of Shehzad Roy, Bryan Adams arrives to loud cheers from a crowd that had been waiting patiently for well over an hour to catch a glimpse of the Canadian rocker.

It was a scene that hadn’t been witnessed in a while as photographers, cameramen, the local and foreign press went wild taking pictures and odd shout-outs like “What’s up?” filled the room with laughter and smiles all around.

With an audience consisting of fans and journalists, and sporting buttons screaming ‘I Rock for a Cause’, the mood was upbeat. The question-and-answer session began right after a few speeches from the sponsors as Adams chose not to make a speech. Instantly, it became obvious that most of the people were there just to get an autograph, a picture or to be able to look at an internationally acclaimed rock star this up-close and personal.

Although by the end of the conference as well as the concert it became obvious that this was definitely not a once in a lifetime opportunity and that more bands and musicians would follow in Adams’ footsteps soon.

To the question put forth by a young lady representing a children’s weekly if he would have come to Pakistan to play had there been no calamity, Adams was most spontaneous when he replied with a smile, “Of course.”

Bryan was here to play a benefit concert for Shehzad Roy’s Zindagi Trust in an effort to raise funds for schools in Pakistan’s earthquake-affected areas. And it was only natural for someone to ask if he was charging the organizers for the performance. “Aren’t we already clear on this being a charity concert,” cross-questioned Bryan, taking a diplomatic route.

As he left the press conference, the audience said goodbye to the man they were to see perform the same night, the man that many among the audience had grown up listening to.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, February 05, 2006.

A revival of aesthetics

2006-01-29T13:13:00.000-08:00

The All Pakistan Music Conference is my constant 'high-factor' every year since 2004. This year the review published in Images had Abbu's name in it. I am a proud daughter! Another reason for blogging this article is due to my inability to write a review of the event myself. I feel very strongly that I'd never be able to do justice to the conference. It's beautiful and that's all I know. Thank you to the organizers and a big round of applause for making it all possible. - Insiya.

By: Sumera S. Naqvi

The third annual festival of the All Pakistan Music Conference-Karachi (APMC) ended on a jubilant note last week. It was heartening to note that the arts and the aesthetics of our culture are beckoning (or should one say reawakening) to the call of enlightened moderation.

One shouldn’t mince words in stating that the APMC takes the credit of doing the needful in this regard. For one thing, this writer witnessed the young people in the audience observing the etiquettes listed at the flap of the invitation card quite amicably, like not to clap or talk during a performance, etc, especially on Saturday when they waited in large numbers for the Mekaal Hasan Band.

For them listening to the classical performances lined up before the band must have been an alien experience. Though classical is enjoyed by a select few who have a taste for it, it is regrettable that the arts have been behind censors for a long time. “We have tried to revive the culture of classical music,” says Jamil Syed, the APMC chairman, “and judging by the number of people attending the event this year, I think we have been successful.” A tradition that one hopes will grow still further.

Acknowledging the effort made to pay due respect to the treasure trove of singers and instrumentalists who have kept the classical tradition alive,the APMC has brought us maestros like Ustad Hamid Ali, Ustad Zafar Ali Khan, Niaz Ahmed (Pride of Performance award recipient), Akhlaq Hussain (sitar nawaz), Mehnaz Begum, Nafees Ahmad Khan (sitar nawaz), Ustad Salamat Ali, Ustad Naseeruddin Saami, Ashraf Sharif Khan (sitar nawaz) and Ustad Abdul Sattar Tari (tabla nawaz).

Accompanied by the impeccable Ustad Abdul Sattar Tari, Ustad Hamid Ali performed the most delightful of renditions and the finale item on the first day, Pyar nahin hae sur se jiss ko, with heavenly control over his voice. Although the latter acknowledged that he was performing with Ustad Tari after a long time, the duo seemed to gel quite well while presenting a memorable performance. Ustad Tari played the tabla with bewitching charm, making it enliven the rendition sung by Ustad Hamid Ali. Now living in the US from where he flew in, Ustad Tari is the student of the Mian Shaukat Hussain and one of the most gifted tabla players today. His solo performance the following night was one of the most enthralling experiences as some people in the audience were seen wiping away tears as Ustad Tari played the tabla with his magical fingers.

It was also a pleasure to listen to Ustad Raza Ali Khan from India, and Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan from Lahore on the third and last day of the festival, both illustrious classical performers that the subcontinent has produced. On the first day, Ashraf Sharif Khan (sitar nawaz), who came from Germany, was another delight to hear. With Ustad Tari on the tabla, he presented raag Jai Jaiwanti, playing from a gradual enthral and working up to an elation that could also be noticed by the expression on the performer’s face as he reached an inexplicable state of euphoria. But then so did all in the audience when they heard Ikhlaq Hussain (sitar nawaz), inspired by Ravi Shankar, playing in Poorya Kalyan on the second day.

Amir Khusro’s Chhaap tilak sab chheen reminds one of Mehnaz Begum. Though it seemed she wasn’t putting up the best of performance, Gham-i-dil sunane ko ji chahata hai was an instant hit and also provided a refreshing break from the heavy classical performances on the night of Jan 20.

On all the three days of the festival held at the Hindu Gymkhana this year, the APMC constantly made a laudable effort to encourage the younger and budding lot of singers and instrument players by having them perform at the beginning of each day’s performance. The winners of the ISEO competition performed beautifully and showed tremendous potential and commitment to becoming great singers. Bazicha-i-atfal in raag Jonpuri was nice, though we seem to be hooked on Jagjit Singh’s version of the same.

The Karachi Chapter of the APMC has made a place for itself in the hearts of classical and serious music connoisseurs as the number of people attending the performances for the past two years has been growing constantly. A friend from Lahore recalled how people would bring things to eat from home and sit casually on the grass to listen to the performers. This year, however, it was quite encouraging to see people sitting through the night to listen to the singers and instrumentalists, though many believe that the audience in Karachi appears elitist and unlike the one in Lahore. “Music is instinctive,” says Jamil Syed, “I wouldn’t categorize it as elitist.”
Classical music culture has certainly evolved and as people attend the APMC festivals, the elitist tag will hopefully wash away with time.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, January 29, 2006.

For the chocolate crazy and coffee mad

2006-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

Lattétude has become the new buzz word with coffee lovers who also have a sweet tooth for deep dark chocolate...

By: Insiya Syed

It had to happen. After years of watching coffee bars proliferate elsewhere and having no shops locally devoted solely to this brew you may now take a sigh of relief. And take a walk down Zamzama Boulevard to see the streets sprinkled with coffee joints cum restaurants almost exactly alternating between each other. There's Dunkin', Roasters, Chatter-Box, and Espresso etcetera.

While stopping for a Limca or ice cream are still popular in their own ways, the new coffee bars have expanded on these concepts: these coffeehouses are the new hangouts. They're the perfect places to see or be seen, to strike up friendly conversations with strangers, or, conversely, to lose oneself in writing, reading or watching the world go by. They have also added to Karachi's evening scene by becoming showcases for local talent with regular open-mic sessions at Caffeine and small irregular gigs at Dunkin'.

Costa Coffee, the trendy British cafe chain, and Lattétude are located within blocks of one another and dare I say they are geographically the closest competition! Being an international chain Costa managed a hi-fi launch with foreign guests' et al. However, having visited Costa a few times I can safely say: a) its very expensive, b) offers the finest 'Frescato' money can buy, c) the prawn sandwich made me sick and lastly the 'no-smoking zone' depresses me! Chances are you'd not see me there anytime soon.

It was time to move further down the lane... Lattétude is probably the closest to the "coffee house" image. They have an edge over the existing and upcoming coffee houses in the city as they certainly strike it big with a perfect balance of almost everything that one should look for in a coffee house. It's the perfect size that's large enough to accommodate a decent number of people without seeming overcrowded and just small enough to maintain an inviting, cozy and relaxed ambiance. Lattétude offers quite the opposite of conveying a feeling of shabbiness with couches that lend a sense of "home" to the joint. And the wooden interior and the red cushioned wall behind our table played into the shop's hip-ness. There were four of us and we were hungry. And the two hours proved that we had gone to the right place.

The menu, though not extensive, was comforting. In addition to mouth watering starters, sandwiches, deserts, it offered a decent selection ranging from smoothies and energy drinks to lattés and iced drinks. Keeping the nation's growing fondness for espresso-based drinks in mind, Lattétude offers two separate varieties: Hot Coffees (available from 90 rupees for a regular Espresso to 135 rupees for a Mochaccino) and Cold Coffees (starting from 135 rupees for an Iced Latte to 165 rupees for a Traditional Cold Coffee). Oh and if you prefer your coffee hot, do yourself a favor and stop reading the menu beyond the Hazelnut Cappuccino. For those who are chilled out the Frappucino is a must have, an exciting combination of ice blended coffee with whipped cream, this will become your returning factor.

Among the starters they offer the tried, tested and loved French Fries (75 rupees for a plate), the mouth-watering Lemon & Herb Calamari, Onion Rings, Mozzarella Sticks, the divine and scrumptious Jacket Potato etcetera. I've tried a few and frankly endorse them all equally.

I also seem to have learnt that it pays to get a recommendation from the people behind the counter. Usually, the chances of you enjoying the meal are better if you choose something that at least one other person in the world enjoys! As I ordered my Beef with Dijon Mustard Sandwich I was unintentionally hoping to get a sandwich as yummy as the one I had at Espresso. It wasn't as good and surely the recipe could be worked upon but it wasn't precisely bad either. Served with generous portion of French Fries, and Greek Salad (or Potato Wedges) the garnish of all the three sandwiches that we ordered was the exact same. And though it isn't a major put off, it just comes across as a negative on the chef's part. I take my garnish very seriously!

Those with a sweet tooth must inhale the Waffle, Chocolate Mint Cake & Chocolate Orange Cake. As Lattétude 'exclusives', both the cakes are bound to be immensely favored by the chocolate crazy crowds. The deserts are sanely priced with 175 rupees for a reasonably large slice of Rich Chocolate Fudge Cake to 225 rupees for Chocolate Mint Cake.

The first time I ever heard about the café was through an email flyer that I received from my sister who lives in USA! All hail the power of the World Wide Web! The good folks at Lattétude don't seem to rely on advertising, promotions, or other marketing strategies. Instead, the company is counting on word-of-mouth and their main advertising medium seems to be the cafe itself.

At most days from 12 noon till late into the night, it's not at all uncommon to see folks stuffing down food at one table, reading a newspaper while nursing a mug of hot chocolate at the next, and sitting in front of a laptop dead to the world at the next.

Similar to other young industries that grow rapidly, the gourmet coffee business is going through a shakeout. But stronger operators will survive and thrive after the shakeout runs its course. And it seems that along with Espresso and Roasters, Lattetude will win the race of time too.

Lattétude
6th Commercial Lane
Zamzama Boulevard
DHA Phase V, Karachi

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 15 January 2006, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Social Circus - the review.

2005-11-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

Artist: Ali Azmat
Album: Social Circus
Reviewed by: Insiya Syed

Ali was always the star power of Junoon no matter how hard Salman tried - everything from ripping off Hendrix, lending his tired vocals to getting into documentary making. That it was Ali who attracted countless teenage girls to their shows was no handicap either. Also, the fact that they got through for this long and stuck together during controversies of the dirtiest kind is nothing short of a miracle for close friends and foes.

Well, finally the year 2005 finds Ali Azmat trying to bail out of Junoon and seeking his fortune elsewhere. Social Circus has launched Ali Azmat who still happens to be ‘one’ of the, if not ‘the’ hottest bachelors at 35. This record is a key indicator of Ali’s future life, and an affirmation that Junoon will only last for as long as they can mange to cash in on their past glorious years till Parvaaz (2000), that is.

In what was to become a typically informal, rambling approach and a statement-of-sort – Social Circus revealed that if the concept was somewhat shaky, the music was rock solid at most places. Initial reviews were mixed though and Ali didn’t exceed all expectations and the overall sound is stating the obvious that Junoon was primarily Ali in more ways than one.

First things first – Ali Azmat and Ziyyad Gulzar (Rushk) get on like a house on fire. Another remarkable aspect of Social Circus is the transformation it prompted in Ali’s music. His songs are forcefully sung, flawlessly phrased and with a precise diction that foreshadowed his later theatrically.

The music had its force but at odd places it seems more restrained and strategic, although that may be due to a long recording process. Issues always seem to pop-up with the final product when musicians don’t have a focused recording style. Going back and forth works for some but not always and keeping an album with you for too long also means going back into studio and making unnecessary changes. Eventually albums do get leaked on the Internet, which ultimately kill the album sales and the initial hype before and after the release. Case in point: Noori’s ‘Suno Kay Main Hoon Jawan’ and ‘Social Circus’ itself.

The first single off of Social Circus, Deewana, was issued in April, it was sad to notice that it barely entered the charts. Some blamed the chic classic visuals of the video directed by Jami whereas some thought Ali isn’t over the top in this one. It’s on tracks such as ‘Main Challa’ that synthesizers have taken over to an extent that the live sound has virtually disappeared which would definitely affect the live performance because Ali Azmat is no Radiohead. Overall, where arrangement and production met was in the albums unprecedented use of dynamics, and canny deployment of the different personae of the various musicians featured on the album – including gems such as Ziyyad Gulzar, Allan Smith, Sameer Ahmed and newbie Murtaza (KV). The result is a testament to Ali’s musicianship and production skills but the sort that’ll take time to grow on people and for them to be able to appreciate it.

All concerned hit a personal best in ‘Na Re Na,’ in many ways the most admirable song Ali wrote, in which one individual’s conflicted inner world is laid bare in a manner so selfless that it becomes a universe statement of the human condition. Never has Ali Azmat’s mastery of dynamics – from guitars to the soaring harmonies – been put to better use, or Ali’s bare fisted fearlessness sounded more appropriate.

The record, though ambitious, needed every one of its 61 minutes to flesh out the amorphous storyline. It was reviled by some and adored by others, but the albums success must be measured by the quality of the 11 songs it contained. Social Circus included at least five classics. Deewana, Mungagan, Na Re Na, Mein, and Teri Perchaian can all stand alone without context. Whether it’s the best record Ali Azmat ever made is debatable.

End note: there’s one very important thing that’s got to be settled. The group as a whole has got to realize that Junoon can not be the same group as they used to be. They never ever will be. Junoon’s great sin would not be breaking up. It would be that they didn’t stop sooner and return earlier. They needed the break. We didn’t need the disappointment.

Ali’s album is everything a debut solo album or even Junoon albums should be like. And surely that’s a bargain.

First published in Fashion Avenue Quarterly (FAQ). Issue 2. Summer 2005.

'I don't care'

2005-10-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

By: IS

The earthquake that shook the entire country extinguished many a budding life

Have you ever fallen in love with someone whom you hadn’t even met? Have you ever desired to meet a character from your favourite book because it meant the world to you? Has a face on TV managed to give you a new life? Did you ever wish to meet an actor in a film who changed your life for good? Has someone you didn’t meet in person inspired you?

Raheela Gul was one of all those people that I mentioned above for her friends, family and myself. A person who was looked with great respect — Raheela Gul was a box full of love, adventure, intelligence, ideas, beauty, dreams, excitement, creativity, mystery, and so many other things that her friends, fans and family were still discovering.

On October 12, three days after the earthquake, I got an email from a dear friend. It read:

Dear All,

I am sure all of you are as devastated as I am. My colleague/acquaintance Raheela Gul was on the 3rd floor of Margalla Towers in Islamabad, Pakistan when it collapsed on the 8th of October 2005. She hasn’t been found since then and feared dead. I spent some quality time with her for she was an international travel consultant and a professional trekker and a very courageous woman following her dreams. Though her body hasn’t been found yet but she has been declared dead in the rubble. I haven’t lost hope yet, in case she is alive than I am hoping that I may get to know about her through forwarding this email to people all around the country.

Thanking you,

M

And just a day later her dead body was found in the debris. I was shocked beyond words. How can someone I loved so much just leave us? Thoughts such as ‘she was strong and can’t just die’ rushed through my already stressed-out brain. She was brave. Much braver than a lot of ‘boys’ I know. She climbed the tallest of mountains. And the idea of her lying beneath mountains of rubble just seemed so unimaginable. The irony is that she was not a resident of the Margalla Towers and was actually visiting her friend who also passed away. Friends and people who knew Raheela well are surprised that even though she had a flight at 9am, she was still in the building. She was a very punctual person and was never late for anything. I guess God had other plans in store for her that are higher — much higher than any mountains she ever climbed or deserts she ever crossed.

Raheela Gul took immense pride in the fact that she was the only person in the world who successfully crossed part of the Great Indian Desert (The Thar, Nara, and Cholistan desert). That’s a long 450 kilometres of trek through one of the harshest terrains in the world. She had earlier on failed to cross the same terrain but she returned since giving-up was not her idea of living. The travelogue was sponsored and documented by a private TV channel in March 2005. The show hasn’t gone on air as yet.

Raheela Gul had recently moved back to Pakistan after many years in Norway, where she became known in the sports world for mastering extreme conditions from the North Pole to Arabian deserts. Her dreams included visiting the Kalahari Desert in Africa, the great Sahara Desert, Golden Peak, Gasherbrum II and K2. The misfortune is that she was visiting Islamabad trying to get funds and sponsorship for one of her dream trip to the Amazon and she was almost about to live her dream. I guess someone else would have to take over. Although I am sure that heroes like Raheela are born one in a million.

With shaking hands and a breaking voice I finally managed to call M who was a close friend of Raheela’s and a part of the TV channel team. “I still can’t believe this has happened. We had a joke between us,” said M with an obvious depressed voice. “Both of us have crazy curly hair that looked alike. So, we made a deal that our hair is a statement. And the statement was ‘I don’t care,’ And that was Raheela.”

Raheela’s eternal goal in life was to promote Pakistan. But it’s tremendously sad to know that women like her are still not projected enough in our media. Raheela was the ideal example of today’s Pakistani modern woman who had no boundaries and didn’t wear a hijab while trying to climb rocks. Her father didn’t disown her and her mother didn’t try to find the perfect son-in-law for her. Raheela was single at the age of 35. On the other hand, I was touched immensely when I searched her name on Google and was surprised to find reports and personal messages for her on foreign websites. For instance, “She’s an experienced mountain climber and expedition leader,” Norwegian Ambassador Janis Bjxrn Kanavin told newspaper Aftenposten. “If anyone can survive in the ruins, it must be her.” Or on a music website (http://www.frydmusic.com/), “In loving memory of our friend mountaineer and adventurer Raheela Gul who could not be saved from the rubbles.”

On her website (www.raheela.com) — “For each phase of life, there’s an adventure to be had. From toddler to octogenarian and from a swinging single to the honeymooner. Your entire life should be an adventure, full of all the surprises, new experiences and unpredictability. But you can’t just wait for the excitement to come to you. You need to go after it, do some planning and even schedule your spontaneity. As paradoxical as it may seem, the best things happen when you put yourself at the right places at the right time with the right people.” Raheela Gul was a graduate in music and journalism. And that’s a combination that I am personally trying to achieve since long and it was Raheela who made it seem possible. Raheela Gul is one of the thousands of people who couldn’t survive this catastrophe. However, she gave many people across Pakistan a reason to be proud of their country. Raheela Gul you’d always remain alive in our thoughts and our dreams and on those mountains where you carved your name. May Allah give you the highest peak in heaven (Amen).

Picture courtesy: Raheela.com

First Published in DAWN, Magazine - Sunday, October 30, 2005.

Shooting stars

2005-09-18T02:41:00.000-07:00

By: Insiya Syed

When a new band starts making waves, many critics and fans alike anticipate success for their debut album. The debut sets the stage for a band to define its style, genre, and direction. Sometimes debuts fail to match the anticipation that precedes their release, even if the record is worthy of praise. Timing, however, is everything.

In the matter of the last couple of years we have been graced with powerful debuts by bands such as Entity Paradigm, Jal, Mekaal Hassan Band, Noori, Aaroh, Mizraab, and Fuzon. In the grand scheme of things, none of the bands faded into the background of musical debuts in comparison to their older, more established colleagues. They were all over the place and for once, after a long while, the local pop scenario had shown obvious signs of growth.

This year, since the piracy crackdown was softened (yet again) we have only managed to see the release of Shehzad Roy’s Buri Baat Hai, until Saturday September 10, which saw the release of Peeli Patti Aur Raja Jani Ki Gol Dunya, Noori’s anticipated second effort. All of the releases in the next few months will (or might be) worthy of critical acclaim, but the question that remains is: will these albums be able to meet and exceed the expectations they have set, given the timing and competition with other album releases?

The album launch/concert in collaboration with The Musik channel took place at the FTC auditorium on a day when Karachi witnessed the first monsoon rain (flood?). The invites clearly specified the start of the show at 7:30pm, but like the usual non-standard Pakistan time for such events it wasn’t before 10 that there was any sign of the new record. The band’s musical and visual independence was clearly the dominant factor at the launch. The stage was rather small but was used to its fullest, paying attention to the most minute details such as the spotlight on the ceiling. The gorgeous lights made one forget the delayed start for about two-and-a-half minutes.

The show kicked-off by launching the second video from the album of the song called Nishaan, directed by Mandana Zaidi and Umar Amanullah. The raw feel of the video/song set a rocking pace for a few shocked teen fans and the rest of the audience for the rest of the night.

As soon as the band launched into the first oddly-titled track, Kuttay, I looked here and there to see if anyone else had noticed the all-live performance being backed up by backing tracks and was sadly disappointed. By mid-song the word had spread like wildfire and most were hugely saddened. As any musician will tell you, performances can be stressful. In fact, they are stressful. It is impossible ever to be certain that they will go well or of the reaction of the audience. The drawbacks were that not only was the band relying on backup but also that the audience wasn’t aware or prepared for the dominant hard and raw sound in all the tracks compared to the debut album.

As I stepped out for a breath of fresh air I bumped into a few notable musicians and veejays discussing the monotonous sound of the record and how disappointed they are. Ali Noor explained: “The back-up tracks are vital for TV recordings. It’s a different album and the music has a lot of layers. The performance wasn’t entirely DAT but in fact a new test was carried out by playing around 40 per cent of the music live, whereas Gumby’s drums were completely live. This is a new concept and it will take some time for people to understand it, but it will really improve the overall live sound of the band. The only flaw that I can point out in my performance was my vocal levels, which did go out of control.”

Songs that were previously released online against the band’s will have been re-worked and therefore Khalla, Ooncha and Sari Raat Jaaga come off as the most developed and mature sounding tracks, especially in their combination of tempos and lyrics.

Driven by excitement and ambition, the band teamed up with Mekaal Hassan at Digital Fidelity Studio in Lahore to create a mature and fresh record, whose stunningly powerful production by Ali Noor can compete with a raging thunderstorm.

After only an hour-and-a-half long show without any calls for an encore I can safely say that the album is unique because it takes on many forms. It can be catchy and upbeat, but at the same time takes on an angry tone with intense, passionate force. As I heard the album the next day I was happily surprised by the overall magnificent sound quality of the album lyrically and otherwise. Even though I am sure that the beginning 45 seconds of Meray Log, that sound exactly like Jana Tha and Where the Streets Have no Name (combined) to me is a matter of co-incidence.

The funkily titled Peeli Patti Aur Raja Jani Ki Gol Dunya might indeed make Noori the band of the year for 2005 if they play their cards right.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, September 18, 2005.

Music journalism in Pakistan

2005-09-04T01:14:00.000-07:00

Music critic takes a close look at music journalism and relishes the fact how musicians are always unhappy about honest journalism

By: Nadeem Farooq Paracha

Shampoo

It's funny how for more than a decade now I have heard almost all musicians crib and whine about critics. A natural and universal happening this, but the problem is each one of them say exactly the same damn thing (and that too over and over again, no matter what kind of music they are making). Not an iota of originality (or for that matter anything a bit intellectually challenging) taints their whining. And what is even funnier is the defensive ways most of my younger critic contemporaries react these foaming musicians.

One thing you can always, always hear from a disgruntled musician in this country is this: "Critics don't know about the technicalities of music." Really? I wonder how many musicians know about the "technicalities" of music journalism? Or for that matter, journalism? Period. None!

While I too am not such a massive fan of music journalism in this country (I sometimes find it to be a bit too defensive), but over the years I have come to like quite a few young writers in this area ever since people like myself, Farrukh Moriani, Farjad Nabi and M Ali Tim first started to scribble sweet lil' anythings in this regard some fifteen years ago.

And I can personally vouch for each one of them by suggesting that they know enough about the music they are writing about than a musician would know about journalism.

People like MAQ, QAM, Saba and Huma Imtiaz and Insiya Syeed (spelling: Insiya Syed) come to mind and I think they are all fair game and pretty competent. I've silently seen each one of them grow into terrific writers and break away from that shy, defensive streak a Pakistani (or perhaps any?) music critic is usually struck with when he or she starts his or her career and/or sidekick profession, as a music journalist.

In other words, today they are standing out in this field simply because they did not allow themselves to turn into groupies or over-enthusiastic spokespersons of pop acts of their liking.

Because there are still a lot of so-called music critics out there who sound more like groupies than critics, and I have also seen many extremely talented and bold critics suddenly turn into mush and vanish. Well, that's beside the point. Because the point is, again, that right before a musician utters that typically, cliched and redundant line suggesting that critics only have a half-baked knowledge about music, they should now prepare to first answer this question: How much do you know about music journalism?

And don't even dare trying answering this. Because I know you'll sound out of it. And the next time I hear you say this I'll request Fasi Zaka to sit on you! And he relishes doing that in more ways than one.

Gorayaan noon paraan kero ...

Recently while corresponding with former Bandbaja editor, Omar Tariq, he told me how sad he was when he noticed the way Junoon have put all these foreign reviews of the band on their website. I'm not surprised. Because Salman Ahmed has always been quite like that typical posh-class right-wing Pakistani who (like, say, Imran Khan), when in Pakistan will sound so chauvinisticly patriotic, but they are really the main sufferers of that more-gora-than-the-gora complex! This is exactly why their actions usually end up making them seem and sound so contradictory and confused all the time.

And this leads me to the way Aamir Zaki and Mekaal Hassan go on and on about so and so western music journalists. The truth is those music journalists that these fine gentlemen are always mouthing about are there only as expert writers for expert magazines. So much so they could have (and perhaps already are), salesmen for expensive musical and recording instruments. The bottom line being they are not music journalists, you dimwits!

For a crash course in music journalism and/or cultural journalism, go Google the names Lester Bangs and Hunter S. Thomson. But I'm sure you don't know who they are. But hey, I know who Pat Methany or Jaco Pastorius are.

All that Jazz (zzzzzzzz...)

I've always been a great admirer of Aamir Zaki ever since he was a prodigious and moody teen in the '80s. And I also find Mekaal Hassan to be greatly talented as well. His debut album was quite wonderful, really. But the moment both of these open their mouths and start talking about jazz it is only then I can't help myself wanting to shove one of those Louis Armstrong's big bad saxophones down their throats!

I'm pretty sick of these two airing their high and mightiness by saying how deeply involved they are in jazz and jazz-fusion. What they most probably do not realize is that this jazz line has actually become a predictable spiel, which is heavily parodied by those mocking such artistic pretensions. And anyway, how come this jazz influence always fails to clearly come out in an interesting and dynamic manner the way it did in the progressive-rock of say, Yes, King Crimson or Frank Zappa? I mean talking about incorporating high ideals in this respect, there used to be more Floyd coming out in Vital Signs' otherwise pretty harmless pop than I see Methany or any other godforsaken jazz chap coming out in either Zaki's or Mekaal's music. Zaki's debut sounded no more than glossy lounge music and Mekaal's music can be slotted and pegged right alongside all that New Age stuff doing the rounds out there. Where is the excitement, the depth and the passion? Where's that edge that's more about the mind and the heart than about that special chord or knob?

Mani Quami Movement

Faisal Qureshi did Mani a favour by using him in his skit show, Ulta Seeda, giving him some much wanted credibility and sort of saving him from becoming a bone sandwiched between idiotic, jaali Amreekan VJ's and the equally idiotic sarak-chaap no-brainers. But unfortunately, I wonder why this guy is always trying to put forward his "street credibility," the sort that was first made famous among the non-Amreekan entertainers by Umar Sharif some twenty years ago! However, twenty years later it sounds as irritating and as jaali as any FM89 tongue twister.

Whatever happened to that middle ground, I wonder?

Ring worms

The news is Strings have got into a mega sponsorship deal with a local mobile phone service. First of all after their stints with Pepsi and others, it seems Strings are a couple of musicians who are always hanging out along with cheap T-shirts and vests at Zainab Market, always waiting to be picked up by a sponsor. These guys spend more time signing sponsorship contracts than they do playing music. So don't be surprised if the next Strings album is no better than a bunch of soothing ring tones. Such a shame. I thought Junoon, Jawad Ahmed, Abrar-ul-Haq and the Vital Signs were the worst examples of gluttonous corporate cynicism, but Strings take the cake. In this millenium, they are always on sale.

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 04 September 2005, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Nusrat still wows the world

2005-08-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

By: Insiya Syed

The debate of who really put Pakistan on an international level at such a massive scale really ends when Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is brought in. Junoon might have performed at the United Nations but Khan saheb was the only Pakistani to have earned a Grammy nomination in 1997 in the traditional folk album category for his record 'Intoxicated Spirit'

Ridiculous fashion statements, outlandish quotes, bad videos, and foolish behaviour have perennially come and gone, but the power of a great voice will forever remain undimmed. Hence, the nation as one might sing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Mast Mast until doomsday, while no one but the mentally impaired will ever ask their barber to replicate a rock star's hairdo.

The ability to craft such songs, and thereby enrich our lives, is a priceless commodity. And hands down, most will give Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan the nod over other homegrown artistes because of the 'global appeal' of his lyrical content - and it's unlikely that local heroes such as Junoon or Strings would have been able to pull it off with quite the same panache.

Eight years ago on Saturday, August 16, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away in London. That day people around the world were already commemorating the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. The impact of Khan saheb's death was just as great if not more. This Independence Day - two days prior to his death anniversary - it's time to reminisce over the memory of this true music genius and his enormous appeal to a worldwide music generation.

His songs encompass unity. And to millions his voice represents the ocean because it's only water that touches every continent without thinking about race or prejudice or religion. Eight years after his death he remains an icon, a legend whose songs still cast a magical spell over the listeners and a spell that can only be experienced.

It is said that the ultimate aim of qawwali is "the release of the soul into a sublime and ecstatic revelry." Those who have had the chance to watch Nusrat's international performances in Germany, France, or on television would know how strongly the audience felt his music and that too, with absolutely no connection with our culture, our music or even our Sufis. Living in a world where only music winds up boundaries - it was Ustad Nusrat who used his unrivalled talent to unify audiences from across the globe.

The debate of who really put Pakistan on an international level at such a massive scale, in this writer's opinion, really ends when Nusrat is brought in. Traditionally, the easiest route for freshly-baked bands to ascend the top of the international charts involves a cloying commercial song, with a lavishly expensive video to accompany it, and hanging out and becoming friends with the who's who of their target market. In short: the schmaltz is what one really requires. However, this was not the case with acts like Khan saheb. He is one of the true immortals of music. His achievements are by far the most incomparable to other bands and artistes who have tried to take over the world but haven't quite reached there as yet.

It was with Peter Gabriel that Nusrat made his debut on the world stage in 1987, when he performed at the UK's internationally acclaimed Womad (World of Music and Dance) festival. And later on the collaboration of Ustad Nusrat and Michael Brook produced Mast Mast and Night Song - released in 1990 - reached amazing heights and eventually got voted as one of the decade's top 100 albums by Alternative Press. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also worked with Peter Gabriel on the The Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack and with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack.

Junoon might have performed at the United Nations and Salman Ahmed might have made a documentary for VH1 (The Mullah and the Rock Star) but they can still not boast of a Grammy nomination. Whereas Khan saheb was the only Pakistani to have earned a Grammy nomination in 1997 in the traditional folk album category for his record Intoxicated Spirit.

An in-depth documentary about the life of the late qawwali legend was shot by Jerome De Missolz, who travelled to various locations to interview Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and individuals who knew him. Part of the documentary takes place in Queens, New York. It also includes an interview with Peter Gabriel, who explains his relationship with Nusrat Fateh Ali and an opportunity to see the maestro working with guitarist and producer Michael Brook.

Becoming famous is easy. Becoming a star is a little harder - you need considerable talent for that. Becoming an icon, however, is another thing entirely. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is an icon and remains a prodigious talent who had unique charisma and who eventually faced a tragic death at the age of 49. No one can make the art of qawwali look as huge and as passionate as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did. It wouldn't be wrong to say that he wows the world eight years after his death and will continue to do so for the next 80 years and even more.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, August 14, 2005.

Bombay body rock

2005-07-10T00:48:00.000-07:00

By: Insiya Syed

Bombay Rockers - comprising Navtej Singh Rehal and Thomas Sardord - have made waves worldwide in clubs, on the radio and even at weddings. Hailing from Denmark the group recently came to Pakistan to perform shows in Lahore and Karachi

For well over a decade sales of bhangra music have been rising well into the millions. People such as Bally Sagoo and Apache Indian became household names and it was only a matter of time before other Asian artistes would join them, and the Asian community would finally conquer the mainstream market in the West.

Well, that was back in 1993, when the bhangra revolution was beginning. Fast forward to 2005 and we have Bombay Rockers comprising Navtej Singh Rehal and Thomas Sardord. The duo have made waves worldwide in clubs, on the radio and even at weddings. Hailing from Denmark the group recently came to Pakistan to perform shows in Lahore and Karachi. Topping the charts in our part of the world with their song Teri To Teri Ta, which became an anthem of sorts in Pakistan.

During their short visit this writer got a few minutes to talk to the band about their music, origin and future plans after waiting patiently for several hours in the hotel’s lobby. The boys were out playing squash but on their return it was revealed that they could only manage a few ping-pong games that Navtej aced.

Navtej has been playing music since the tender age of 11 and later studied IT engineering, only to discard it and take up music as a career. Almost instantly he jumped into talking about the similarities between India and Pakistan.

"I was born and raised in Denmark. I always had this idea that people in India and Pakistan are the same. In fact we have a lot of friends in Denmark who are Pakistanis. And it’s obvious that we have the same culture and the same values. I mean I haven’t found any difference as yet. They dance and scream the same way and the music level of the people is also the same," explained Navtej. Whereas Thomas had a slightly different view: "I’ve been to India five times but I haven’t seen much of Pakistan as yet. Even when we played in Lahore we spent most of the time in the hotel. But the people are really kind and the crowd knows how to rock."

The band made it clear they follow the crossover style of hip-hop versus bhangra style of music (made popular by acts like Rishi Rich Project), but the desi element in their music is relatively higher than other bands, especially when it comes to Punjabi vocals. The only thing that sets them apart from the rest of the bands is Thomas whose father and grandfather were musicians and who was working as a producer even before the Bombay Rockers. He doesn’t know much about Punjabi as a language and Indian music and therefore he ends up treating the sound very differently. "There’s a different kind of vibe because I just took some flutes and dhol, etc, and mixed it up. We have no rules and that’s the reason why we end up with a lot of flavours on the album like hip-hop and R&B and the way I produce is also slightly different," he says.

Bhangra itself is a very exciting genre of music and the target audience is massive to say the least. And these musicians are mostly third generation immigrants who are as English as fish and chips but in many ways they’ve brought this wonderful musical culture and mixed it with what was there already. In the case of Bombay Rockers, Thomas is Danish whereas Navtej is Indian by origin but born and raised in Denmark. And hence it’s no wonder this band is making waves and even got featured at the number three slot on the Denmark top 20 countdown. Further on in the interview the band did accept that they aren’t as big in Denmark as they are in India or Pakistan. Their manager, however, wasn’t very excited about the dodgy manner in which Pakistani record labels work and how the bands that are being released don’t have any rights for royalty. He also felt that the Bombay Rockers would visit a lot more often if there is a system in place and albums are released legally.

It was the mass appeal of desi music that accidentally spawned the band’s name explains the twosome. "Well, when we came up with the name Bombay represented the music. In Europe or Denmark when you mention Bombay it instantly gets connected to India and rockers because we rock the party. Or if you want you can put it this way that Navtej is Bombay and Thomas is rocker. Plus, it’s simple and reflects well as to who we are as in a little Indian spicy sound that rocks the party."

On closer inspection to the earlier days, bands such as Bombay Vikings have also cashed in on the name and hence one wonders if there’s more to it then what appears. Not only did the band form its name without thinking too much about it, it also formed almost accidentally.

"I was working as a producer with my other producer Janus Bosen Barnewitz, when we heard a Panjabi MC track called Mundian and that is when some guys at the record label that we were working with ended up really digging that Indian sound and we decided to do something on those lines. One of the guy’s girlfriend at the record label knew Naf and so we met up in our studio and it just clicked," said Thomas. And although Thomas disagreed Navtej thinks that it was "love at first sight." Their honest approach came to the forefront instantly when they agreed that at times they find it hard to put up with each other but they always find similar grounds as far as music and sports are concerned.

Two years into making music together at the age of just 25 years and having released the album in over 35 countries, the two feel that they aren’t better than anyone else but they are making music from their heart and they think that their music speaks for itself. When a band that has only released one record with only three major hits says something as strong as "we have full control over our music and even though we listen to our record label the final decision lies with us," they must have solid plans in the pipeline.

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, July 10, 2005.

The dying concept of live entertainment

2005-06-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

By: Insiya Syed

I’ve been in line since morning

Now guess who’s going

I want to go to a rock show tonight

You’ve got fine and I’ve got crazy

Let’s go out and find things we can’t buy

Stand up front so we can’t hear

Sing along with words that aren’t right

I want to go to a rock show tonight

— Dragonfly, Rock Show

One Friday night, I fell asleep with my ears buzzing into my pillow like there was a dead radio hissing underneath the bed. The adrenaline from the preceding hours had dissolved and I drifted into sleep with the tiny bones in my skull responsible for translating air movement to sound still vibrating on and on. I have Munchkins to thank for that temporary deafness. Their show at a donut joint earlier that evening was powerful, intense and energetic, and I left that hang-out into the neon night, wide awake and wishing I could pick up a guitar myself. It was a show good enough to inspire. I should note that I am addicted to concerts. Live rock shows are 100 per cent genuine for me. I’m hooked for life.

As an art, as a profession, and as entertainment, music is often spoken of as a ‘universal language.’ But this was not always so. For the greater part of its history in the West, music was regarded as a secondary art form. But logically speaking, music can exist only in performance be it in a recording studio (some of our dear superstars don’t even play live in the recording studio anymore, relying heavily on software like Acid Pro or Fruity Loops) or on a stage in front of a live audience making it a theatrical art and not DAT (Digital Audio Tape) art.

When Goethe said, “in comparison with the eye, the ear is a dumb sense,” he was expressing the universal reliance on the visible as opposed to the audible, ‘hearsay,’ and echoing the generally accepted preference for ‘seeing is believing.’ As one result of the ear’s inferior rank and the mistrust of its perceptions of what are, after all, momentary phenomena, music has existed until today in the shadow of the visual arts.

To put it simply, a concert is a performance of music before an audience. The word concert originally meant a combination of performers rather than the performance itself, and the term did not acquire its present meaning until the 17th century. Around that time due to the development of opera, however, art music for the first time became a public institution. The earliest public concerts on record, supported by admission fees, were inaugurated in London around 1672, whereas the first rock music event was held 41 years ago in Cleveland, Ohio.

As far as the Pakistani pop music industry and playing live gigs is concerned, the times are changing fast and furiously for the worse. Selling image, music, albums, videos and getting featured on in-your-face-billboards is the new hot game that all musicians wish to play. The concept of performing in a small club or a grand stage with an audience consisting of no one else but the prizewinning fans is quickly fading out. Nearly all performances — on television or stage — are playing DAT with musicians ‘playing’ their un-plugged electric guitars. Sadly, bands would be often heard saying that this is a phenomenon that is prevalent even in the international concert arenas. Hence, this writer decided on acquiring an international point of view regarding live performances in other parts of the world from musician Pete Lockett.

One of the most respected drummers in the UK, Pete has recorded and/or toured with: (our own) Mekaal Hassan Band, Bjork, Robert Plant, Nitin Sawhney, the Pet Shop Boys, A.R. Rahman, Sinead O’Connor to name just a few. He says that, “Lip-sync internationally is most common when there are multiple acts playing a couple of tunes or a short set. This situation is for TV shows in particular where there is simply not enough time to sound check a lot of bands. But it is more in the pop area that you come across this miming and lip-sync scenario. The show Later with Jools is the example here. The playing is totally live, unlike Top of The Pops that has never been played live apart from selected groups. In terms of being broadcast live, the shows are often delayed relay or pre-recorded a few days before. People get on their high horse too much about lip sync/miming on TV. It is totally understandable (in some circumstances) for TV.”

Concerts have turned into an interesting puzzle for organizers and soda corporate giants for tickets to such events seem to be in excess demand almost always. What these organizers and musicians playing these shows fail to understand is that the audience adds an important input to the experience. A rock concert in a venue full of screaming and yelling fans allows the fanatics a first hand chance to sing along with their favourite bands, and maybe even gossip a bit with the like-minded. It’s only when music lovers are jam-packed in a room or a stadium sweating together that the tale of a song unfolds, the quiet lonesomeness of the music or the high energy gathers everyone into one of those moments of pure concentration you can almost touch.

So why did the concept of providing genuine music listeners with good solid live performances never really catch on in our country? The only reason is that it’s an administrative nightmare to set several instruments with microphones and the other vital requirements whereas it’s much simpler to handle software and press one button to produce pre-recorded music. Unless a live band really has control of their sound they can sound weaker in sonic impact, so many take the safe and cheap option of miming.

In the rest of the world an ideal concert experience depends on flash pots, lasers and fabulous costumes. We are still far behind in this department. Let alone the laser show, we can’t even manage to deliver no-frills, straight-ahead rock’n’roll played with good humour and passion. Our local bands don’t realize that one of the notable features in live performances is the opportunity to improvise. It allows them to experiment and get an immediate response — be it good or bad — from the audience. Fawad, who is 22 and attends concerts frequently, feels that “When there is too much backing then for me the situation becomes emotionally dead. There is a balance where you can use some pre-recorded material to support what you do live, even in the way of triggering samples etc.”

Another university student who is a part of an underground band and wishes to remain anonymous narrates an interesting story: “We had to play a gig and on the very day our bassist fell sick. We had two options; either we give the money back to the organizers or we take another friend and let him ‘pretend’ that he is playing bass since we were supposed to lip-sync. Not only did we get through it but not a soul realized that the bassist wasn’t even holding the guitar properly. That performance generated great reviews for us and the organizers were very pleased.”

There is an on-going debate of weather we can call our pop-rock music ‘community’ an industry, but little do we realize that we’ve got a long, long way to go. Let playing live music be the ‘rock concert movement number one’ and we can only be successful if biggies such as Junoon, Strings and Fuzon can say no to recorded music and yes to a much brighter future, musically speaking.

As an end note, Pete Lockett talks about the importance of live performance in general: “Live performance of any kind is about directly influencing the dynamics and emotion of the situation and environment. It is not a functional moment but one of communication and spirit. With that taken away, the equivalent would be like knowing Shakespeare by heart but not having any emotions of your own.”

First Published in DAWN, Images - Sunday, June 26, 2005.

Deewana - the inside story

2005-05-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Jami justifies the music video he did for Ali Azmat's 'Deewana' and lays the ghost of what it's all about to rest.

By: Insiya Syed

Making music videos tends to be more liberal than making television commercials and films; they provide the perfect environment for a director to experiment with all the latest film trickery. With an average four–minute length, music videos are longer than commercials and often adopt a storyline, rather like a short film. One of the most recent videos to have hit the local music networks is the video of 'Deewana' directed by Jami from Ali Azmat's solo album Social Circus. The video received a lukewarm response and was dubbed to be a copy of various Hollywood releases.

The reason for the video to not have done extremely well on the commercial side is probably because Jami was taking more chances visually, the editing was more aggressive and so were the special effects. What the audience also failed to understand is the fact that 'Deewana' is a futuristic song, so it required futuristic visuals and the story had to be told in about 5 minutes.

The interview happened at the office of Azad Film in the late hours of the night. After praising David Lynch for some 20 minutes Jami made a statement, "I am not asking you to pay me to watch the video. I don't care what they think and whether they understood it or not. It's my video and my vision. They don't have to see it and they can turn the channel." That statement forced me to fire the first question...

Is that why you make a video? And have people not like it to an extent that they'd switch the channel? Wouldn't you want people to stick around and watch it?

Jami: I would love to! But I can't change my video for their want. They might want some cheesy 'Chamma Chamma' – I can't do that. They can have it – all the videos coming from Lahore have that. There's a girl, a tree and they are revolving around it...

What we went for was the 'grunge look'. 90 percent of David Lynch movies are about that! The feel only comes out in that underground look. We never went for a 'classic look' and in fact it was about reality in a different way, 'gandi reality' – the whole song is about 'deewana' it's about psychosis or something. It's not a 'Lux type' video. It's not a 'Bonds Ad'. It's a very, very high–tech futuristic video. And when you talk of future I see darkness. What will remain in this world? Nothing except trash... at least that is what we felt and therefore it's dark. And when darkness is concerned your imagination works a lot better and you end up craving for more. At least the viewers are asking me, "What the video is?" Good! It's better than any other video because for a director it becomes more interactive if the audience puts forward questions! And I am not saying that I pre-planned this. To an extent we did plan that the story must be highly confusing like people would come up to me and inquire about the 'Tibet Powder' in there. It's beautiful when people ask questions. I am not saying it's a good video but I can feel that it's so confusing that people hate it sometimes! And I love that.

I watched this movie by Lynch called The Lost Highway and he himself said that he will tell people one day what the story was actually about! Tomorrow will writers who wrote the Odyssey stop writing? If you don't like it, don't read it. Only after reading the first page you'd figure that it's not your ordinary Mills & Boons. We never made videos with literal meaning of the songs be it 'Duur' or 'Anjaaney'.

Initially what was the concept of the video and what was your approach to executing it?

Jami: Sajid Hasan is Bill Gates. He owns everything but he wants death now. And if you have seen, Citizen Kane he is Rosebud and he wants his simplicity back. And for me Tibet Snow is the simplest thing. Once you are powerful you can't have it back and the only way possible is to die. He is craving for death and Ali Azmat gives it to him. From the first frame when Ali enters he looks down because he knows he is here. There are such symbolic shots there. He knows that someone is there to destroy him. And he's okay with that. It's about power. It's about what's going on in the world. I intentionally didn't write a line because my family and everyone asked me to take it out – its anti–power, anti–system – its anti–west. This is about Abu Gharaib prison. I took out the line by Faiz, 'Sab Takht Giraey Jain Gai' because either I would have been banned or Ali's video. So now people are calling it a 'Dupatta' type video. I knew that people are going to say that but this is sort of a political statement. Every power will come down one day. If someone has the conviction and faith that person can bring it all down.

He has to commit a murder which is actually a fake one. He used the murder's excuse to get inside the system to be able to destroy it. You can't destroy a system from the outside. It was a difficult task to make it look confusing but still retaining a structure. Everything from Tibet Powder to the gramophone have been paid attention to.

What's different if you compare the initial concept and the end product?

Jami: 95 percent was executed the way it was planned. At the end Tariq Amin wasn't supposed to die and he wasn't supposed to enter the building. The ending was very harsh, the entire city destroyed. And we thought 'no; we can't kill everyone' so only Sajid Hassan dies. If the king dies the system dies.

With so many characters in the video, don't you think expecting the viewer to understand their frame of mind is a bit much?

Jami: That's a really good question but honestly speaking through this video I was trying really hard to change the industry. This was intended to be an experimental video and believe me there were around 40 per cent people who understood exactly what I tried to portray in the video.

'Deewana' is a massive production -- what was the budget like?

Jami: 26 hundred thousand. What did I get out of it? Let's leave that.

At the end of the day director isn't making money out of a video. It's the commercials that bring the bucks...

Jami: I wouldn't get a client through this video. Who'd say, "Wow! What a video! Let's get him to do a skin cream ad for us!" It's too dark and doesn't have mass appeal. I am the bad guy in the ad industry because I am too artistic. I am not saying I am but 'they' think I am. I am just doing what I want to do.

How long did it take to put the video together from beginning to end? Perhaps a breakdown on time it took to film vs. the editing phase?

Jami: This was a massive production it took 7 months to complete. One month for concept, one month for pre–production (props, locations, etc), 7 days of shoot (4 days of double shifts), 3 months of editing, 5 months for graphics because work on graphics started along with the editing and plus I had a lot of other work like commercials coming in and then our own post–production company started in between.

The graphics are the first of their kind...

Jami: Amir Wasim (the brains behind the graphics of 'Ankhian' by Fuzon) wanted to do something different and less commercial. He asked me if we could give this concept a futuristic look so I asked him if he could do it. And that if it's even a little fake, we won't go with it so we tested it. He showed me a few things and I said okay. Though I still think that a few shots are 'okay' but then I have problems with Constantine shots that have a budget of 160 million dollars! Just like shoot, sound and lighting animations also have their own problems. There's a lot of animation in this video and the acting is really fast. The animation has been cut down because the purpose is to not show–off the animation. Just because you have made something that doesn't mean that you forget the actor and show the animated walls! Show the eyes and they'd tell the story. And then people come up and say that editing is too fast to hide things! We have spent 3 months and our own money has been invested. Every single shot is animated from Tariq's to the wall behind Angeline Malik and even the doctors have animation behind them. The reason for not showing off is also that the animation is out of focus because I wanted the depth, the feel and the reality to be obvious. Not just the graphics!

Do you have to like the music to be able to deliver a good video?

Jami: Oh absolutely. We invested our energy, money, time because it's a great song. And Ali's songs have a characteristic that either people love them or hate them completely. He isn't Ali Zafar. I am not saying Ali Zafar is bad but he is more commercial. Ali Azmat's sound is harsh. His album has been lying with me for the last 8 months and I think it's brilliant except for a few songs.

So you are saying that you loved all the songs of the videos that you have directed so far?

Jami: There's only one song I didn't like – 'Teray Bina' by Faakhir. I am very lucky that I always got nice songs.

Ali Azmat's second video is directed by Saqib Malik. What's your comment on that...

Jami: Saqib is one person that I have no problems with. It was due to Saqib that this video came alive. He gave a lot of equipment and he gave us big favors and I think the best video in the history of Pakistan has been made by Saqib – Khamaj. I mean I can't say anything bigger than this. All the other people are just concentrating on the crane shots! It's only Khamaj that stands out and I can't think of even one video of that standard. Not a single video.

The post production of the video happened at OutPost whereas all your other videos have been produced at Post-House. Why?

Jami: Wow! That's a politically charged question. There's only one reason why this happened which is that they don't have money. And the way I work – I'll destroy them in the process. And we shifted due to lots of other reasons. Lots of favors from Post House definitely and they really helped in my career. But the time came and the way I work I lose money. I'll always put more, shoot more and I improvise and I overshoot even for commercials and end up in a loss. We tried saving money but that didn't work out for us after a while. And that could have had a negative effect on our work as well as our relations. We can't pay much and I said I can't afford the market rates. So we thought lets make a crude post–production company first and keep refining it as we move on. And Ali's video was a good launching pad. I've got nothing against them and we still are on talking terms with Post House. I still owe them a lot. It's a big controversy but there's nothing to it.

Have you ever touched that point when creative stagnation sets in?

Jami: Oh big time! We used to make concepts so quick and now it takes month! Do you know how long 'Pal Do Pal' took to materialize? Half an hour! And I consider it the best video and it's because I was pure and I wasn't doing commercials. You start thinking in seconds and even in that half the time is for animation so the story aren't even bothered with. And every director goes through that.

How do you re–charge yourself creatively after a project?

Jami: I start exercising, I change my environment, I'd start driving, I got an I-Pod shuffle so I change the music, I start swimming and I start watching Chinese films again.

What's next and what do you want to progress into in the near future?

Jami: Film and not my film but cinema. If American cinema can come in I think the Indian cinema should be brought in as well. That's the problem with us that we are the biggest hypocrites on this earth. Every household has Indian films running and being watched in fact we pirate Indian movies! Why is the cinema closed? I have majored in feature films and now I am holding my head and saying please let us make a film! But the cinema is dead. Ask them to give you money and let them come in. Why won't they come in? If Lyari by–pass can be made where you had to spend money this can also be done because money will come in. Let the cinema come alive.

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 22 May 2005, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Arty entity...

2004-11-21T19:26:00.000-08:00

The music video medium has evolved slowly into something more than a marketing tool. Initially music videos were just another way to promote albums, but video makers quickly realized there was art to be made. There aren't many options available when it came to chalking out the best directors list; even now the scene is being ruled by Jami, Saquib Malik and Asim Reza bagging all the biggies. But the arrival of numerous wanna–be bands also meant an advent of a few more video makers on to the centre stage. Some are fine (Alf), some repetitive (Sohail Javed and Jawwad Bashir), some are unconventional (Babar Sheikh and Nasir Tehrani) and some are downright flops (far too many to mention).

In an effort to keep my spirits up, I'm always on the look out for signs that set each music video apart from the other. Naturally, I spend a lot of time searching, but that doesn't seem to be the case with most new directors working on the same tried and tested formulas. Umar Anwar is different. A software engineer by profession and a film-maker by night, Umar is only two videos old which come as quite a surprise. His ability to create mood and an overall experience went hand–in–hand with the originality that I saw in his debutant video 'Aadat' by Jal. After watching his follow-up effort in the video of 'Waqt' by Entity Paradigm I must admit that Umar's video should send a few 'old farts' back to the proverbial woodshed.

You directed Jal's 'Aadat' video. Soon after the video was aired the band split up. How did you react?

Umar Anwar: Fame doesn't suit everyone and therefore not everyone has the strength to deal with it. And this is exactly what happened to Jal – both of them got negatively affected by the hype. They thought that just because one song became a smash hit they've made it but sadly it's not as easy as they think.

How did the 'Waqt' video happen?

UA: Entity Paradigm's manager Khurram J. Khan contacted me suggested that I do one of EP's video. I bought the album and heard it at home then we kept talking for a few months. They decided on getting the video of 'Waqt' directed by me. Ahmed Ali Butt came to Karachi and we had a meeting together in which I told Ahmed about how things would work and told EP very bluntly that if I do the video then its going to be my way or else get it done by someone else.They wrote a concept which would have been very difficult to execute. And plus, what is in there for me if someone else is conceiving the visuals. So I gave them a concept and they approved of it and that is how things progressed.

Many dub the video of 'Waqt' as 'Aadat Part 2'. Are they right?

UA: 'Aadat' was my debut and since it was my baby it will always be special to me. Visually it was a very strong video as I was trying to express a few feelings in it, which touch and trigger the emotions of those who are watching the video. I don't think that I can ever make the video of 'Aadat' ever again. 'Waqt' was my second video so wherever I was lacking in 'Aadat' I tried to overcome and improve in 'Waqt'. Technically speaking, it is one of the best videos to have ever come out of Pakistan.It can not be called 'Aadat Part 2' because if I see any of Jami's video without the end credits I can tell it apart. I am very lucky that at least my signature style got defined in a span of only two videos and without even seeing the name viewers said that, "Umar has done the video."As far as the concept is concerned - what's the use of being a director if I can't show the viewers what I want them to see? If I can't show them my feelings or my thoughts then I have failed.

What is your take on videos like 'Khamaj' which are supposed to be a 5 minute ad to sell the album and not a 5 minute long movie?

UA: It's all about the production. If I have this much money or the band then even we would love to invest it in a good video. 'Khamaj' is a mega–production and it's a brilliant video. But it's incomparable with the kind of work we are doing because obviously if your production cost is higher then the video would have to be good. If the budget is good you can have more props, you can make a set, you can hire better actor's etcetera.As far as how these big budget videos help they give the band an image. For instance if you are going to another country for a record deal and you have an option of either giving them the video of 'Khamaj" or 'Sagar' – which one would you chose? And it's this image that helps a band in the long run.

Videos like 'Anarkali' are heavily sponsored. Would you do a sponsored video? And do you think you'd be able to execute it the way Shoaib Mansoor or Asad–ul–Haq do?

UA: Not the way Tulsi videos have been sponsored! I think it depends... if you wish to make money than go for a sponsored video. Shoaib Mansoor and Asad are gurus and these five or six directors ruling the industry are doing a great job. But the deal is that no agency would ever want to give a chance to a new director. They won't risk their money but they should. It’s not rocket science and even I can make a good video if they give me a budget of eight million. But it's all about the credibility and therefore directors who do get sponsored videos are those who have established themselves really well.

In a recent interview Jami labeled you as the next best thing and rated your work very highly.

UA: He said that? (smiles). His videos are very inspiring for everyone. And if there are two people in Pakistan who have done something extraordinary in music videos – it's Ahsan (Rahim) and Jami. On one hand there is Ahsan's style that no one can match and on the other hand there is Jami's class that is incomparable.I really admire the way Jami thinks. Like for instance most people did not get the concept of 'Chaey Chaey' but I love that video because the way he has made a short film and complimented the song – it's brilliant. His videos are different because he has very well defined characters.

Both your videos have a tension between something childlike and innocent, and an expression of darker fears that are somehow very grown–up and evolved. Was this intentional?

UA: This is where I get to talk about my inspirations. I still remember that in 1985 a movie called Nightmare on Elm Street came out. There was a little girl in it who recited a poem while rope skipping. That girl was very cute but at the same time she had a very diabolical nature. All little girls have this characteristic – one of their sides is very innocent and the other side is extremely dark. In 'Aadat' the girl signifies the human conscience and how it haunts us. Whereas there are certain times when we hope and wish for things that exist in a parallel universe.The little girl in the video of 'Waqt' plays a character of someone who lives in that universe and for whom time doesn't exist. Ahmed Ali Butt is also playing the same character for which there is no concept of time.

What difficulties did you face in the industry and what did you learn in the process?

UA: I have done only two videos and I still need to achieve a lot since I am on the learning curve. The plus point with me was that I never compromised on anything. All the people that I have seen working, all the things I have heard and all the books I have read – they have all taught me one thing that production is the most important aspect of film making.I look at all the established directors and see their working style and then I try to adapt all the good things – my homework for both the videos was very strong. The level of my difficulties came down by a fifty percent for this very reason. I still face a lot of difficulties being the new guy but I try and not make an issue out of it.

After the video of 'Waqt' was released there was tension like that around the 'Gana No.1' video of Noori by Babar Sheikh. The audience complained about not being able to understand the concept of the video.

UA: A video is a like a band's baby. One does not disrespect his or her baby and no matter what you always talk well of something that is so directly related with you. Everything was decided from the start and each and everything has been done according to the storyboard. If a band feels that it's this simple to make and edit the video then how many of these bands will re–edit a song if the director feels that the song could have been better? A director's job is to direct the visuals and a musician's job is to make a song. They must not mix together.

The audience the bands have started taking very seriously happens to be little kids browsing the forums...

UA: Do these young minds know how much effort and hard work of more than a dozen people results in something you watch on the screen? There isn't a magic wand that a director sweeps to make a video. There is tons of work prior and after the shoot but the pity is that these kids can only afford to comment. I hope they choose this line of work and make us all proud and at the same time teach us a few things. I remember a quote: "Its knowledge to know that tomato is a fruit but one needs wisdom to not put it in a fruit cocktail!" and sadly wisdom is not on sale on eBay. It's available in the non virtual world where one has to get in the ring and prove things and not just talk.

Did the entire band react to the visuals negatively because a few members did get a large share of shots in the video?

UA: The band decided to get a non–EP entity to direct their video and I can say with confidence that I didn't disappoint. A video is a medium that helps a band become commercial and the video did exactly that. Prior to 'Waqt' the band didn't have the image that they can boast of now.

As far as the disapproval is concerned – that comes as a surprise to me because in black and white they did approve. I would seriously suggest that the band should sit down together and sort things out. And a word of advice: there is a world outside Lahore and please grow up to see the practical aspects of situations. As I said before – it's hard to deal with fame.

How tough is it for a new director to make space available for himself?

UA: For me the situation is like diving into the Pacific without knowing how to swim. Like all other professions you must know the tricks of the trade. Numerous people discouraged me in the beginning. No one digested that a new guy in town did a video which critics rated as one of the best. We desperately need institutions and encouragement. It all revolves around the money but creativity and art can't go hand in hand with that. When money comes first then greed enters and greed is malice and it can never give birth to something positive.

By: Insiya Syed

First Published: Instep, News on – Sunday 21 November 2004, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Sampooran by Mekaal Hassan Band

2004-03-12T01:22:00.000-08:00

No band has embraced the grass-roots of jazz and fused it with the classical sound and introduced it 'full throttle' to a legion of new fans as much as The Mekaal Hasan Band has. As many of you know, once the Mekaal Hasan Band (MHB) bug has sunk its fangs deep into your musical soul there is little turning back. Given Mekaal's lifetime passion for jazz and music in general, it was probably inevitable that he would seek an outlet to become just like his jazz-minded heroes.

Jazz is one of America's only home grown art forms. It's also largely neglected by American audiences and virtually no current musicians have widespread recognition. Jazz, in popular imagination, is still defined by the horn giants of yesteryear, icons like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Our very own Mekaal Hasan and Co may soon change all that for us at least. They are at once aggressively adventurous and easily accessible, working within jazz while borrowing classical ingredients from our own culture and helping to make jazz vibrant and cool again. It's high time for the boundaries between 'our own music' and progressive jazz to break down. And Mekaal Hasan Band, located at the nexus of harmony, melody and rhythm, have jumped into the void.

There's no magic answer to what makes a Mekaal Hasan Band song special to the listeners. It could be the majestic power of their songs, or maybe you were turned on in their early days enslaved by their cult status. As often happens in bands with such celebrated lead guitarist, egos do not battle in the case of Mekaal Hasan Band. "Onstage the struggle is not to overplay, but to compliment each other and to create an environment where the band is presented as a union of 7 people rather than a shouting match between 7 individuals. It's unlikely you will find anyone grandstanding in the band's live shows or on the records. The idea is to achieve balance, not disharmony," explains Mekaal. The band has quickly established them as the band of the moment. Nobody but nobody is making music as soul wrenching or as classic as Mekaal's crew.

In their debut as well as the finest studio outing that totals the playing time at 54:28 minutes, one thing has remained constant and that is the intensity of Mekaal Hasan. Mekaal's contribution to Mekaal Hasan Band go way beyond his duties as a guitarist and front-man of the best 'classical jazz' band Pakistan has ever seen. If all that weren't enough, as the only composer and the producer in the band Mekaal has also taken on the mantle of Mekaal Hasan Band 's keeper of the flame, for it is he alone who puts his compositions (along with his second half – Javed Akhtar) and music arrangements for thousands to hear and judge.

The debut album has been titled "Sampooran" for all the right reasons. Mekaal was in London rehearsing for the 'Square One' tour when Pete Lockett found out that Billy Cobham (In Mekaal's words, "he is the pioneer of Jazz and Jimi Hendrix of drums!") will also be playing with Mekaal Hasan Band. Being a huge fan of Billy, Pete got in touch with Mekaal. And it was only later that Mekaal found out about Pete's interest in eastern classical. What transpired was anything but fanaticism for Billy as Pete and Mekaal ended up collaborating in a series of concerts countrywide in March of 2001. It was during this tour that the title song - initially called 'Seven' - was written. As mentioned in the enhanced CD the term Sampooran is used to describe any seven note scale in eastern classical music and was suggested by the 'ShoMan' - Shoaib Mansoor. What's ironic is that the initial tour that started off this album had seven musicians, the song itself was written the same number of times, and even now there are 7 members on stage when Mekaal Hasan Band is performing live! With "Sampooran" we can punch the air in time to Gumby's and Pete Lockett's beats and rake the air alongside Mekaal's vicious riffs amalgamated with Javed Bashir's soothing vocals making it all seem surreal.

It isn't only the local audience who has taken the record so positively. Michael Mondesir who has provided the bass on the album is proud of the record too and believes that everyone should have a copy. He has toured Pakistan that happens to be one of his favourite places and feels that the work he has recorded for "Sampooran" isn't really different from the other albums he has worked on. "I treat every recording as a separate and new experience that I endeavour to put as much positive energy into the music as possible," Mike told via email. On being asked if has anything to say about Mekaal Hasan Band one felt proud of our very own musician as he had great things to say about Mekaal; "Mekaal is a world class guitarist and composer. He is the best recording engineer I've ever worked with, bar none and I've been recording for over twenty years. He has a great musical sense but also the technical skills to produce the best result. I believe he will be recognised on a global level as well as in Pakistan," concluded Mike with a passion.

And for Mekaal it's the greatest feeling to play music their way and have people react in such a positive manner, "I particularly feel happy because the reaction we get from people proves something I had long believed which was that honest music and integrity cuts through and there is always appreciation for music which comes from the heart and is made without selling out and catering to the lowest common denominator. This record and band should prove that there is a huge base of people who love music for its own sake and that not everyone accepts the trash, which many sponsors have had us believe, was the best music around."

Sajan

Sajan is an acoustic based song and happens to be one of the two Kaafis written by Shah Hussain. It set the scene nicely, allowing the subtleness of the flute and the soothing feeling to come slicing in and tear the listener's skin from their ears in a calm manner. The result: jazz meets folk that's true to the spirit of the music as an ever evolving art form, never in stasis, drawing on both its own traditions and the currents of popular culture.

Waris Shah

When fans sing the words to "Waris Shah" all but the real hardcore will be unaware that it is a song written about partition. It is based on an extract from the writings of the 'great poetess' - Amrita Pretum - who has been paid a loving tribute by a unique rendition of Waris Shah as Mekaal thinks very highly of her. This was really a way of saying thank you to her for her contributions to the cultural heritage of the subcontinent. This is the freshest-sounding song of the year, with breathtaking group improvisations. It may not have been a conscious attempt, but the sounds unleashed on this song have surely changed the face of great music for generations to come.

Raba

Raba is the other Kaafi written by Shah Hussain but unlike Sajan this one was given more of a wall of sound treatment. Both songs are very intimate, yet in differing ways in terms of the aural sensations they evoke. If you listen to the soul-fuelled music on Raba, or gaze at the awesome visuals complementing this song, you are suddenly at ease - almost in a hypnotic trance. The music and the vocals complement each other making you forget about the world without making you thumb your nose at it.

Sanwal

As one critic dubbed Sanwal to be the 'weakest link' my jaw dropped wide open. The sheer fury of the guitars as they stabbed and chopped their way through Javed's singing sounded unlike anything that has made its way out of Pakistan.

Sampooran

Sampooran that has been written in Raag Aiman gives each band member the perfect opportunity to launch into a solo of their instrument one by one. This one is an exultant title song that vaingloriously announces MHB to be remarkably purposeful in their defiance of the hook - a particularly neat trick considering the current clamour for Pedi-pop and alternative-rock that has been done to death in the past.

Darbari

Raag Darbari is most closely associated with Ustad Amir Ali Khan Sahib of Indore. Javed Bshir is blessed not only with a wonderful voice, but also the rare ability to use it with style and intelligence. The band concentrates hard on their strengths, and the outcome: a performance of superb timing and improvisational flair. Darbari is immediately likeable and sneakily addictive. Compositionally, the influences are very much from classic Weather Report (if anyone cares to, please do buy these 2 amazing classics from Weather Report, "Black Market" and "Heavy Weather"), in terms of the way the tunes are arranged so that the players get to be heard at their best without sacrificing the strength of the melodies and the tunes.

Ya Ali

Ya Ali is a classical Raag associated with Ustad Salamat Ali Khan and has been composed for the most part in Raag Verag Todi. If the goal of 'true-fusion' movement was to create the most extreme yet still listenable record, then its game over - Mekaal Hasan Band has won. It becomes obvious that for Mekaal Hasan Band speed is a means to an end - an easy way to give an adrenaline shot to catchy, but hardly original, riffs and sounds. Thanks to this track as now Mekaal Hasan Band's lyrics and arrangements have clearly eclipsed those of any band in the current music scene.

Late Moon

Late Moon is a re-vamped version of Sanwal and delivers a quasi-industrial mood to the instrumental and it features Raag Charokashi on it. The sheer balls on display in Mekaal's camp, where time changes and brazen riffs are casually thrown the listener's way as if there was an inexhaustible well of such hooks upon which they could draw.

The enhanced CD also offers the live version of 'Dreamscape' and 'Ya Ali' and the footage of the band jamming to a Steve Vai song namely the 'Attitude Song.' This video itself gives enough reason for us to get up and blow out our hips to keep up with the funky jam.

The idea behind this whole record was to work with traditional classical elements and introduce the beauty of both classical melody and jazz harmony to people in a manner which allows them to absorb both without feeling overly suppressed by the complexities of both these great art forms. There is so much we all need to be aware of and hopefully after listening to this record, people and particularly young people will walk away feeling connected to a tradition that too often is forgotten and looked over as something that is archaic. "There is a ton in the tunes which I am sure musicians will get off on, but none of it is at the expense of the song or the accessibility of the tunes," feels Mekaal.

I certainly didn't expect "Sampooran" to be as successful as it is. Timing has something to do with everything that goes on. Mekaal Hasan and his crew put out their debut album and suddenly they are surrounded by the mainstream. Bands such as Dusk, Mizraab and Mekaal Hasan Band are certainly not the last to be judged harshly under the heavily politicised eye of the modern media as more shall take up the path and become the part of the booming music industry. As Mekaal Hasan Band saw it, if success was heading their way then it was heading their way on their own terms.

Review By: Insiya Syed

First published: www.pakistanirock.com

Sawaal by Aaroh

2003-09-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

Giving the listener something new and different is one way to make an impression in the market. Yet barring a few notable exceptions, most bands that attempt to market what they think to be original styles are often deluded. For one thing, most four bar patterns thought to be original have already been written and done to death in the past. And even if one is newly introducing an Angraizi style in Urdu, doing the same thing 10 times on one album amounts to getting stuck in a rut and does not make a good or even tolerable album.

Hailing from Karachi, Aaroh comprising Farooq Ahmed (Lead Vocals), Nabeel Nihal Chishty (Lead and Rhythm Guitars), Khalid Khan (Bass Guitars) and Kamran Khan (Keyboards) seem to have missed this point with their debut album. This is a band whose ingenuity, talent and originality at the Battle of the Bands – or as it now appears in hindsight, the lack thereof – had given them amazing popularity along with the number one position in the Battle of the Bands. They had, I expected after viewing their various live performances, an ability to jam, write catchy songs, and intertwine many different musical genres. I was wrong to think that.

The artwork of the CD fails to impress me. The cover is the dullest thing I've seen in years and the 'cut and pasted' parts of the full pictures that are spread around the booklet give it a very amateur look. For all I care the band that offered me frustration would have looked far better covered in the oil that is available in excess on the coastline. The back-inlay behind the transparent tray is even worse. Or maybe the band chose this sleeve in memoriam to what has happened since the aftermath of the Tasmanian Spirit. I am deeply touched.

"Sawaal", the debut effort by Aaroh, is simply the same song being re-done time and again. Generally, most music has some bright spots, but it will be a struggle for any rock fan to distinguish the good notes on each song here. Every one of the CD's 12 songs sounds identical and if any hard rock fan stops paying attention to what is going on in the album following the third track, he or she cannot be blamed. Some credit can be given to lead vocalist Farooq for providing the vocal duties fairly well. Yet add loud guitars and the same dang pounding of sequenced drums and you have a recipe for disaster. If I were paid a ridiculous sum of money, I too could whine into a microphone about how much life sucks and how I adore the cute boy next door and I wouldn't be writing music reviews.

And this is not just a question of first adverse impressions. I have listened to this album for some time now and the sad factor is that this album fails to improve over time. Ability to play often overshadows ability to write exciting music and Aaroh fall headlong into the Mekaal Hassan / Fuzon trap. A listener in the aforementioned situation gets nothing except a lack of variety. And we demand to get our money's worth down to the last penny. Capitalism has turned music into a product. It's something we fans of music have grown to accept. Similar to the boasts of car commercials, new releases are often paraded as "album of the year" and other clichés are tossed around with increasingly predictive frequency.

One should always remain sceptical when bands use this line to sell albums because there may be a reason they're trying to make such an aggressive push for it.

The album starts off with "Sawaal". And that is precisely what you'd be left with by the end of the album. A few questions: Did the band win The Battle of the Bands because it was playing on home-ground? Did they really deserve to win? Was Entity Paradigm a lot better? Were the judges already briefed prior to the final who are supposed to be in the battle and who is supposed to be eliminated? Were the bands from Karachi given more importance? Were bands from Lahore 'not supposed' to be victorious? Did Aaroh win because they covered a Vital Signs song (guess who was in the jury?)?

It's quite distressing. I loved Aaroh since day first and fought/discussed the band with fellow critics/friends/listeners. Now with the album in hand I do not know what to say to the anti-Aaroh brigade. Alright, the title song is great, but then what does one say of the rest of the album.

One could of course have argued that since all songs on "Sawaal" sound similar you'll either love them completely or hate them for being so monotonous. To quote the band "tujh ko chaahaa hai / buss yeh gunaah hai" My ears as yet fortunately or unfortunately are not as fanatical.

"Aik Din" is 'the' weakest song on the album. Whiny vocals, same music; and the lyrics suck. "Woh sehar aik din aayay gee / Aur tu meri ho jaayay gee" being repeated over 'n' over again don't seem to make things easier but all the more irritating! Go home, Farooq (you're the one singing this crap), and cry to your mama - because I don't care about your whining and neither does anyone else.

If one were inclined to be kind to them, one could say "Dunya" is one of the best tracks the band has to offer. This is because people are actually singing and not whining as much as they are otherwise, and the track sounds completely different from the rest of the album. The acoustic guitars and the guitar solo are superb. But there is little respite or variation in the rest of the album.

"Jalan" sounds really good when it is performed live probably because the crowd is all hyped up and couldn't care less about the words sung as long as they are having fun. But when listening on one's own, the lyrics are retch-inducing. A word to the band: STOP crying dudes! The girl[s] do[es]n't want you. Maybe you disappointed her as much as you disappointed me. And stop threatening her too! ("Ya toh meri yaadon main aao naa / Ya phir meri baahon main aao naa"). Come to think of it, even the video dampens my spirit. Where did all the originality and creativity go when the band was in the process of making this album? Is the idea of Romeo/Juliet being filmed in a forest, running away from the zalim samaaj on a heavy-bike and then eventually dying ground-breaking? C'mon! Even Shehzad Roy, never a beacon of originality, has trampled this ground and been more creative and effective in doing so.

First things first: Who is this girl they can't seem to get over with? Is she good enough to waste a 'debut album' on? That's precisely what the band has done by making yet another song, "Aankhein" by getting Nabeel to do the lyrics. And who said guitarists are multi-talented? They are not! Nabeel you are good at making music, stick to it! You are not as good (not even close) as Aamir Zaki who writes fairly well. (Next thing you know Nabeel will be providing vocal duties like 'Sal the Man' did! And the listeners will be left banging their heads on a "Deewar"!)

The next song "Dil Kee Baaton Ko" proves that the weakest aspect of the entire album is the songwriting. Silly pop melody for the chorus, redundant pop/rock riffing, and not much else. The song churns out yet another mid-tempo clunky number with boring, underwritten directionless riffs and nothing even remotely resembling a good vocal line.

Be prepared to have your intelligence insulted with the two instrumentals (fillers?) available on the record. The pretentious, ridiculous strings on "Hoor" and "Zarb" do little more than to make me giggle at this crap-fest in its full-blown glory. For hilarity, visit the aaroh.com message board and watch the sheep run to say "Hoor" is a classical insturmental (notice the spelling) track which touches your soul" and "The album closes off with another insturmental (again?) track Zarb an amazing number…"

From this point on, "Aaroh" becomes an act that for me have spiralled into creative oblivion. "Sawaal" might be an important step for the band, particularly for their sponsors, but it has certainly alienated me. Admittedly this isn't the most horrible thing ever written, but it sure isn't very interesting either, and quite honestly, why would I listen to this when there is music three hundred times better out there?

Review By: Insiya Syed

First published: www.pakistanirock.com

On the rocky Karavan trail

2003-09-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

With an energy unmatched by the super-bands, Karavan set Karachi a fire.

I was introduced to and fell in love with Karavan's music with the release of "Rakh Aas" in 1997, but never got a chance to see them live. "Safar" followed in 2000 and I still somehow missed them live. Their latest, the staggering "Gardish" (2002) drove me even deeper in love with the band and their front man, Tanseer Daar. So it was with huge excitement that I heard that they would be playing at Café M. Seeing them in person promised to be enthralling. I was not disappointed.

The band's current line-up features Assad Ahmed (guitar, backing vocals), Sameer Ahmed (bass guitar), Alan Smith (percussion, backing vocals) and Tanseer Daar (lead vocals). For this performance they were joined by a tabla-player whose gentle, spiritual rhythm meandered through virtually every song.

Around 1997 Assad Ahmed got himself a studio and started recording. Sameer Ahmed joined in on bass, and Karavan was born. Najam Sheraz joined briefly as the vocalist for the debut "Rakh Aas", but left to revive a solo career. The search for another vocalist was tiring but Assad completed a magical formula with Tanseer Daar. 'Tan' was definitely not as strong vocally as Najam but he fared fairly well. I asked Assad how things have been since he joined. "Things are always difficult when an original member is replaced, but Tan brought stability with him. He's dedicated to our vision and I think that shows on "Gardish"," he said.

The other members – Sameer and Alan – keep busy playing sessions with Fuzon and Junoon respectively. Why doesn't Karavan focus on its own act more? "We don't like doing videos and without them we aren't in the spotlight. However, it'll be a long time before any of those bands can release three albums and sell 300,000 copies," says Assad. "We paved the way for them along with Junoon. Most new bands are fans of ours. You can look at them and see us, listen to them and hear us. It's very flattering."

Café M Live is small but this makes for an up-close experience. The audience was involved, screaming and totally absorbed in the experience. Judging by their behaviour, the audience had come with high expectations. While there were only about 30 people, Karavan was playing to the faithful and the noise this handful created effectively trebled their number. Among them were Jibran Zuberi (Indus Vision), Gumby (Noori) and Shallum Xavier (Fuzon).

The set included many hits old and new, and a few great covers. The band kicked off with "Rakh Aas", a classic that brought back memories of Najam Sheraz. The audience started by swaying awkwardly, like teenagers unsure of the game plan, but the excitement soon carried them away.
Tan held the audience – the female part, at least – in the palm of his hand. A single smile could bring the house down, and Tan knew it. Assad was an effective foil. His masterly riffs make the band, and his performance generated so much heat (literally and otherwise) that one could see the steam rising from his soaked black curls.

Karavan was clearly performing to impress and their verve put all rumours of a break-up to rest. Assad Ahmed later told me, "The break-up thing was never true! When people see me with Haroon, Sameer with Fuzon or Alan with Junoon they think that we're not together anymore. We are here to stay." In fact, they're busy working on an unplugged album.

That night Karavan brought an energy that jaded super-bands simply can't muster. They were fresh, exhilarated, and happy to be there, and the audience more than matched them. The first row, mostly female, was the centre of the hysteria, but the rest of the hall was a little calmer.

In short, the performance was a delight. You know something special is happening when you see a tiny venue go mad. There was sweat and smells, youth and remembrance, and best of all, there was passion for music. It was a night to remember, one that owes everything to a brilliant performance by a great band.

Review by: Insiya Syed

First published: September 05 - 11 2003, The Friday Times, Lahore, Pakistan.

Gana No.1 - the inside story

2003-05-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Insiya Syed delves into the controversy surrounding the new Noori video and questions the ethics that govern the re-edit of a song.

Pakistan's pop music industry is going through its cycle of evolution and one wonders if it's any coincidence that all these new bands, a new music channel and a battle of the bands happened around the same time. All of these in their own way did help people realize that music here could have more than just one dimension.

Among the newer bands Noori is one band, which has managed to make its presence felt through various means. Whether it's their frequent concerts in the three big cities Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, their unplugged performances, their unique way of entering the music scene (their music came to the forefront through the Internet), their upbeat videos or now a controversy, Noori has a way of clicking with the audience. Yes, controversy has managed to catch the band, which had, so far, enjoying very smooth sailing.

Noori has been known for making videos on themes that mostly click with the audience. Each video of theirs is based on a theme different to the other. Due to their experimental character their videos have run into trouble with censors too. Their video "Khalla” eventually got banned from TV after making a few rounds on the channels. The state-run channel had their own reasons not to show "Manwa Re" as it had certain scenes from the area that many would like to believe, simply does not exist in Pakistan. Then came "Tum Hans Diyay", which was an effort much appreciated by the legions of Noori listeners all over! Noori went on a patriotic tangent with the stereotypical video of "Jana Tha Hum Ne". All of these videos were directed by the band and edited at Noori's Small Sounds/Big Videos.

After "Jana Tha Hum Ne", Noori decided to embark upon their next project and time the release of their next video around the time of the release of their album "Suno Ke Mein Hun Jawan". For a change they also decided to get a non-Noori unit entity to direct the video. Noori approached Babar Sheikh in Karachi in November 2002. "I thought that the idea sounded great, as (being closely related to the Pakistani music scene) I thought that Noori's music was a breath of fresh air in the 'Over saturated commercial pop market' of Pakistan," says Babar. Initially the plan was to make the video of another song. "We wanted to make the video for "Bol" and shoot it in Lahore," says Ali Noor."

Ali Noor proposed a video to be made for another song on their album, which I personally thought, was rather slow for a 'Release Video' (since Noori planned this video to be their debut video after the release of their album.). So I eventually selected "Gana No 1" as the project since the energy that surrounded the song had all the characteristics that Noori wanted to portray," clarifies Babar. Conceptualising and eventually creating the visuals to "Gana No 1" was an initiative taken by Babar and Diagram Films (his film company) during the time of December 2002. It was also decided that the shoot would take place in Karachi.

When Babar was asked to narrate the early stages of the conceptualisation he went on to tell us, "All was agreed and I came up with a concept that was quite new to the visual market of Pakistan. The concept suggested that there would be no storyline whatsoever, and the entire video would just be a series of visuals with the entire band performing along with their fans energizing the whole thing. It was really quite European as there was nothing much to it except for the crisp visuals. The entire vision was to shoot the band, in their given spaces, with a variety of fresh angles and crisp editing. But this was not just it. The element that really was to set the video apart from all others was that there would be four edits, running at the same time in the form of four different screens, contained in one."

The question that now pops up is that when everything was agreed then what was the problem? "It turned out that the idea was very similar to our video, "Tum Hans Diyay"," says Ali Noor. But even then they (Noori) decided to go ahead and do the video. In simpler words did the band have a problem with the idea from the beginning but ignored it? Ali Noor still believes that he did not at all interfere with Babar's work."

The budget wasn't really anything huge for the production, even though I was told that it will eventually cost more money, I still went ahead doing it, asking for personal favors from production houses, and post production set ups, where I would at the end of the day tone and edit the video. All went smoothly throughout the shoot, but the edit was a really lengthy one, as this was like making four different edits for the same song. I truly salute my Editor and Cameraman for their hard work and patience and for sticking by my belief in the video," says Babar.

The shoot happened and so did the (first) edit and the guys were called in to observe the cut. Babar describes the scene at that point of time in these words; "It was great, as they all immediately approved it within the time frame of 20 minutes. I truly regarded their approval, as I thought that they had seen the vision (my vision), which was an aesthetic piece of work rather than a storyline alongside a love stuck couple."

Whereas Ali Noor has a different point of view; "When we saw the final edit it seemed as if the video was done really quickly. Now we spent a lot of money on it and we wanted a good result. As soon as the video was released people bombarded us with criticism like "you're ripping off your own video!" Our sources of information are the forums online and our fans did not like it. And if they don't then we are not satisfied too. And to be really honest the video made no sense!" Ali Noor goes on, "When we make our videos ("Khalla", "Manwa Re", "Tum Hans Diyay" and "Jana Tha Hum Ne") we actually take a month or so to edit it and at times even re-edit it to make it look just perfect. I don't know how it works in Karachi because I think Babar took three to four days to edit the entire thing. This shows that either he didn't have the time or maybe he wasn't interested in it at all!"

Babar understood that the video might not instantly click with the audience, which are comfortable watching videos with a consistent flow and a story they could identify with. "When I learnt that one of the Noori supporting websites has posted critical remarks about the video I explained to Ali Noor that this was normal. The video was more of an artistic vision and I knew the general public would most definitely be critical about this as this is something new and out of the box for them," believes Babar.

One of the reasons Noori fans didn't agree with the video could be that the fans that were auditioned for the video could hardly see their faces in it. For them being in a 'Noori video' was a chance to become a celebrity and the crisp editing of the video took that away from them."

After the video got released I went to Singapore with a friend, Wajahat (Cafe M-Live's owner who has done his Masters in Films and Advertising from Los Angeles). I asked him to re-edit the video. Initially I wanted to redo the entire video but we eventually decided to make a new edit," states Ali Noor.

Continues Babar, "Later I received a call from Ali Noor, demanding the raw footage to the video. I didn't care much to ask him why, and as I really knew what he was going to be doing. And to be very honest I don't have a high opinion at all for this act and consider this to be quite unethical," speaks Babar.

There were rumours making their round that Ali Noor did not even bother to inform Babar of his intention. Ali only clarifies that, "It's not true that I didn't inform Babar. I did tell him and even at that time he showed no interest and told me to go ahead. It was like "Us kay sar say bojh utar gaya ho!" I told him that I'd save you from the hassle by getting the video re-edited and writing your name in the credits. I did not want to get into the mess again by getting him to re-edit the video."

So now the new-edit has started airing on Indus and in fact even the older edit manages to find its space. I wondered if Babar had any comments on the 'single dabba' version. "Even though I am not stationed in Pakistan at this point, I receive emails as to how come this new version is running. I really don't want to comment on what comments I received really, as I don't want to cause any bitterness between Diagram and Noori, but really, I would have expected Noori or rather Ali Noor to stick by this artistic expression that we envisioned together. No comments whatsoever on the new editing, as the person who did the edit was really doing his job. Nonetheless, I can own up to the fact that such an action was taken for the first time (as far as I can recall) in the industry and that I exposed Gumby like no one can ever expose a drummer. And I still live by the comments that were initially given to me as a result of the four box edit by some of the people in the local and international media, whose comments I really respect, not to mention the excited comments from Ali Noor when he saw for the first time."

Is Ali Noor still as excited or even more? And does he have any regrets?"It's all about getting something done well. And this was surely a job not well done. I make videos with no technical expertise but I make sure that I give my best input whereas "Gana No 1" was incompetently done. I am to blame for it because I was in a hurry to release the song along with the debut album and I left it all to him!" says Ali Noor.

This was surely a statement in the local video market, as nothing like this (however simple it is really) was ever done before. Our reason of doing this write-up was not to decide which edit is better and which is not. It is more about highlighting the complexities that arise out of a system that has so far been relying on goodwill and trust on each other. The endnote shall be Babar's optimistic view; "This is really quite unfortunate and further impales my belief for strong visual expressions in the Pakistani media. But I still swear by the fact, that we shall "Design and conquer!"

What they had to say...

Jami:

If there was understanding between the band and the director, it’s okay to do such a thing. But if the director was not informed than this is surely badmashi. The re-edits of videos do happen for instance Indus Music has done some re-edits where they remove the product shots of sponsored videos. Even one of my video has been re-edited (Pal Do Pal by Najam Shiraz) for censor related reasons. And there are different version running on air.

There are no particular steps that one can take after such a thing but the director must warn the other directors so that they don’t work with such people. I don’t think that something like this has ever been done before!

Ahsan Rahim:

This is a really wrong thing to do and must not be done! It has never been done in our case. If you are getting someone to direct the video than you must agree to his point of view. It is wrong ethically as well.

As far as the footage is concerned, if the band is funding for the video than the director can’t really refuse to give the chunks to the band in case they ask for it. But the case these days is that our singers/musicians consider themselves to be ace directors too. So if they think they are really smart then they should go ahead and make their own videos themselves.

There has been a re-edit of my video (Intizaar by Hadiqa Kiyani – 2 dabbas converted to 1 dabba!) but I was the one who re-edited too! Most of the time when you re-edit the video you end up running your own song!

Asim Raza:

Unfortunately I haven’t seen the video. But I guess if it was Ali Noor’s song and his money then he has the right to show his likes or dislikes. The problem is that unfortunately there are no right for even music piracy in Pakistan. And steps can only be taken when any sort of paper work had been done prior to the shoot. Which I am pretty sure must not have happened!

By: Insiya Syed

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 18 May 2003, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Suno Kay Main Hoon Jawan by Noori

2003-03-09T23:33:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while or so, a band comes along that blurs the edges between pop, rock, and the other genres of music. The more noticeable examples in our part of the world currently will be that of Fuzon (the name says it all!), Junoon (rocking to Sufism!), Karavan (rock meets Assad Ahmed?). The timing is just about right for another group in this tradition to emerge. And the band that has become one of the most wanted live acts at the moment is no other than Noori. What's even more interesting is that the band had already performed several gigs and concerts even before they released their album (during the second week of February). Whether Noori will rack up the hits those other groups have under their belts remains to be seen, but they are aiming for the same target with their debut album "Suno Kay Main Hoon Jawan".

The young people making this band the most wanted lately are Ali Noor on vocals and lead guitars, Ali Hamza on rhythm guitars and vocals, Mohammed Ali Jafri on bass and vocals and the "ace-drummer" John Louis 'Gumby' Pinto on drums, percussions and vocals. These guys have been performing together at gigs between Karachi and Lahore, all of which seems to have paid off by bringing them into sync with each other in their harmonies and their playing. But somehow as much after observing their work for over a year, one cannot help pointing out that Ali Noor has to work a little bit harder focusing on his surs! Not that he is unbearable but it has more to do with sounding a teeny bit out of tune while performing live for even a micro-second can result in ruining the feel of the entire song. Since day one, there have been numerous comparisons drawn between Noori and Junoon. Who's better? Who's not? Is Ali Noor more stud-ish or Ali Azmat? So much so that it's not even interesting anymore, but just downright irritating! But it seems that just like when Ali Azmat started out he was called a baisura (out of tune!) the same way Ali Noor is being taken. But as time passes things will hopefully change!

Musically, the album is impressive, with Mekaal Hasan doing an excellent job of bringing out the band's best traits. I wondered if Mekaal found the recording of this record different from the other albums that have been recorded at the Digital Fidelity Studios. "The mixing was different because Ali Noor already had his guitars and vocals tracked up. So I had to essentially adjust all the recordings they had done and make it sit with the drum tracks," says Mekaal.

The record is a compilation of 15 tracks with 12 songs and two bonus acoustic versions. The album also includes three video singles that are "Manwa Re", "Tum Hans Diyay", and "Jana Tha Hum Nay". Almost the entire record runs on pretty much the same lines lyrically. It's all about not giving up hope, listening to your heart, and other such cheer-up stuff. While it may sound a bit surreal in these times a positive note is always welcome. At a time when Pakistan is experiencing a sudden burst in the music 'industry' it takes real talent to prove yourself. Good looks and DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is surely not helping out most of the people in earning them respect musically. The listeners finally have a choice and know the difference between good and bad. Therefore it seems that Noori is applying an already tried formula (Junoon's!) and targeting the jawaans of our country as their audience and it's surely working out well all over again!

The album kick-starts with the title song "Suno Kay Main Hoon Jawan" that provides the contemptuous and cynical Pakistani youth in particular associating with their music as an introspective experience and expression of identity. The next song is "Dil Boley", which has a solid rock 'n' roll sound to it. Think The Wonders' hit song "That Thing You Do" and you'll get the picture because it's similar to it. "Tum Hans Diyay" is that same song with a lot of 'chicks' in it and has received a fair amount of appreciation for the video (amazingly fresh!) and the song too.

Next up is the only Punjabi song on the record. It is not 'Bhangra' or anything even close to what Abrar or Jawad might try their luck upon. "Dubara Phir Say" (acoustic version also available.) that also happens to be Ali Noor's favourite song is amazingly catchy and for those who don't understand Punjabi, it could be totally un-understandable too! But it's funny how one can get interested in other languages like Latin and Spanish and now even Punjabi through music. It was this song that suddenly made me realize that the sound quality of this record could have been a lot more astounding considering the fact that it was recorded at one of the best studios in Pakistan (Digital Fidelity Studio), with one of the finest musicians we've got. As told by Mekaal, "Both Noor and I worked 14 hours a day for two weeks to make the record sound the way it does... and next time we hopefully won't be under such stressful working schedules!"

I somehow feel that it surely would have been better if the band had more time to work on this album. I hope that the band and Mekaal would agree with me. Noor says, "Mekaal was our savior and if it would not have been for him, arranging these songs would have been an impossible task! We are surely indebted to him for having agreed to do this at the eleventh hour because he saved the day." But what one is really left wondering is that shouldn't everything be perfect when you are making your debut? And isn't a whole lot of risk involved in hastily wrapping up things? And isn't sound quality one of the most basic requirements?

However when you move onto songs like "Bol" you forget the few minuses that might be a part of any record because it has to be the best song, melody-wise, on this album. We have had so much of "Manwa Re" but this one certainly qualifies for a classic. Although it doesn't gel well with the rest of the songs it still emerges as one of the best songs ever produced by Noori. It will be added to the same category as "Yeh Shaam" by Vital Signs and even "Neend" by Junoon.

One of the most eclectic, powerful and catchy songs of the album has to be "Jaa Re". And the credit goes to the energetic drumming by Gumby. In fact Gumby with his skilful drumming has comfortably made himself as an important part of the band, something which drummers are not usually taken as. We questioned Gumby how working with Noori was different from working with the rest of the bands. Gumby feels that, "It's definitely different than the rest of the bands. As it was only with Noori and Junoon that I played 'and' recorded with, while with other bands I was only playing. Noori treats me like a band member and I have a 100% input. Plus I am being projected equally as any of the other three members." He also feels that while he was with Junoon he wasn't recognized as much, "I feel that I spent three years with Junoon but was never treated like a band member, whereas now, my popularity graph has shot up like anything!"

However you dub it, the meticulous creation, selection, and placement of the sounds in this record give their individual qualities a completely different meaning when taken in as one harmonious entity. The few drawbacks are the minority that can easily be ignored. But one thing is for sure that Noori has arrived as is evident with their fan following which was growing even before their album hit the market. If they continue making their kind of music, one can safely predict that the next Junoon is indeed in the making.

Review by: Insiya Syed

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 09 March 2003, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Beat this

2003-01-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

The Royal Albert grooved to Fuzon, Strings were on the rise, and Noori finally came out of the garage.

As a nation we are supposed to live vicariously through our rather rank stable of prefab rock-stars and celebrities who live lives of ridiculous luxury and ease. We are exposed to their nightly hobnobbing, their sex lives, their hobbies, their alcoholism; we cannot escape. But do we want to escape? No way!

The last year has seen some big talking points. The largest power blackout in North American history; more terrorist attacks; an Indian movie that had its world premiere in our very own Karachi. But is this what we gossiped about during those long hours spent round the water cooler? Of course not, we discussed real, thorny issues like who would win in a fight between Junoon and Noori? General consensus has it that those narcissists Junoon would be left lying in the broken shards of mirrors Noori shattered over them to do their lines of coke. Yeah, 2003 pretty much rocked.

In that spirit, I offer my year-end wrap-up as one must pontificate on the year that was. These things need to be scrutinized. So here I go…

January

Small venues have done well in the past year and none better than Karachi's M-Live. You can see the band from almost everywhere in the place and the sound is excellent. The year started with Fuzon playing live to a full house. A tiny venue with a tiny stage – it felt like a cocoon, and each time Shallum Asher Xavier launched into a solo the audience felt wrapped in the tender aural embrace of a rock and roll virtuoso.

Noori managed to notch up nine performances there, yet brought the house down each time. M tends to attract a rather 'casual' crowd of people. And it was exactly that at the Entity Paradigm pre-release gigs in the month of April and June. In a smaller venue there seems to be a more intimate relationship between the performer and the audience. M is like a lounge and it was packed and very cosy throughout the year.

February

What a year it's been for the alternative pop-rock group Noori. 2003 saw the release of their debut album "Suno Kay Main Hoon Jawan" amid unprecedented buzz for the band. "Masterful" and "irresistible", raved the critics.

Noori frontman Ali Noor is still celebrating. "It was by far the most unbelievable year we ever had," he claims. The band toured hard and relentlessly all year. He went on to explain that the increase in buzz and album sales – more than 100,000 albums sold – has led to better attendance at the shows. Many even accused them of over-exposing themselves after they struck a deal with Mobilink for Free Road Shows. Ali Noor thinks that it's actually the opposite. "It was due to that deal that we ended up playing at places like Lyari! Noori is not an 'urban' band. And the free road shows were actually a confirmation that we are a masses band!" According to the band the best concert they played was the one held in Karachi Gymkhana on the 12th of October.

March

2003 wasn't just a year for comebacks but also for new beginnings. Back in October 2002 several notable artists emerged from the shadows in newly formed acts and tossed aside the baggage of playing sessions for a fresh start. Old had become the new… new. Fuzon's debut record "Sagar" is a release to be quite happy with. The lead vocalist Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan is one of (the few) distinguished classical pop vocalists in Pakistan, and Shallum and Immu play their parts to perfection.

"This was the most exciting year ever!" says Shallum. "We were signed by Virgin records for our debut album and even got an award for the best emerging talent which was so cool. We played as the opening act at the Royal Albert Hall where people dream to play. Then another concert got me all shaking (literally) as we were playing to an audience of around 8000 people in London and then they all started to chant our name." They are now planning to tour six cities in India early next year.

April

The joy of concerts is that they give you a rare opportunity to satiate your most eclectic desires. With Junoon, Noori, Fuzon, Anaida, Khiza, Mizmaar and Message getting together, the Rock 'n' Bhangra Peace Tour surely had the making of a masterpiece. Unfortunately what transpired was anything but that.

Music, and indeed peace, on this night came second to chaos and rampage. Everything from the venue to the seating, security, timing of the performances to the crowd itself contributed towards one of the most mismanaged events in recent times. The hugest bottle fight in the history of live concerts took place here! Bad sound, bad atmosphere, bad hair (well at least we knew that already), a crowd comprised largely of rowdy boys wrestling with puberty and each other – just altogether bad.

On the other hand there were bands that didn't perform even once all year, but who can still kick any other band's ass into orbit. Ziyad Gulzar, Uns Mufti and Nazia Zuberi master enough sonic variety to ensure that Rushk stick around the cult scene. They are a great team and belt out an unconventional raw sound. Crowd reaction is impossible to anticipate but "Sawal 57:34" is a collection of hyperkinetic guitars, subliminal melodies and thunderous dynamics – which is to say it sports plenty of hard rock aggression, but is firmly rooted in the pop experience, while "Behti Naar" is a radio-friendly unit shifter that suggests that underneath the sound rests a beating and often bruised human heart.

May

The "confused maulana" is what they call Junaid Jamshed these days, and he's finally decided to stop making music, at least for now. But before taking his leave this year he gave an unplugged performance which wasn't half bad. His vocals were tired, though, so maybe bidding farewell is the right move to make.

Interestingly rumours of Vital Signs making a comeback were strong this year. They even recorded a new version of Dil Dil Pakistan and shot a video (starring only JJ!) which did not see the light of the day as the band decided to call the entire thing off. A little bird whispered into my ear that Junaid Jamshed and Shahi Hasan had a disagreement regarding money.

Later in the year Shahi Hasan got the opportunity along-with Faisal Rafi (ad-man/cinematographer) to make the background score for Pooja Bhutt's directorial debut – Paap. And the least that one might say about the "classic-zenish" music score: it rocks completely from the word go! The movie had its world premier at the Kara Film Festival where Pooja Bhutt and father Mahesh Bhutt flew down to Karachi amidst much fan fare.

June

Summer brings, along with monsoon rains and suntans, a potpourri of music concerts. This summer was no different – in fact it rocked all the way. Café M-Live hosted a Noori concert where a gate crashing mob created quite a scene despite the tight security. The concert ended in tragedy as someone pulled the sound cable out right in the middle of the third song and the band decided to call it off. That left the winners of the over-hyped "Super New Jawan" campaign saddened as their once-in-a-life-time-opportunity to perform with their favourite band came crashing down. The band still salvaged an excellent live video from the performance of the song "Dil Ki Qasam". The video was directed by (guess who?) – Wajahat Rauf – the owner of Café M-Live. He has done his Masters in Film Making and Advertising from L.A. He had earlier re-edited the video of "Gana No.1" for Noori directed by Babar Shaikh of Diagram Films. It stirred quiet a controversy earlier this year!

You're never too old to rock, as long as you spent your youth building a hearty reputation to support your flabby, middle-aged self. Maybe its midlife crises, maybe it's just boredom. It was time to head bang in the scorching heat at "The Brain Net Rock Festival 2003" at Lahore's Alhamra Cultural Complex. The opening act, Naqsh, belted out a rocking performance, closely followed by The Trip and finally Entity Paradigm which really brought the house down.

London's Royal Albert Hall was the backdrop this month when the fashion gurus and rock stars took centre stage as the President tapped a toe and the spectators did the cheerleading. The object of the show: improving Pakistan's image abroad. And performances by Pappu Saeen, Abida Perveen, Junoon and Fuzon did just that.

July

Once in a long while something will appeal our ears and really capture the imagination as to what could be thought of as the perfect balance of a classical/fusion 'jazzy' album. Mekaal Hasan's Band proved them to be pretty close to that ideal with their pre-release performance of their record – "Sampooran". The pre-release performance at Lahore's Alhamra was filled to capacity even though the city was flooded by the monsoon rains. The band has successfully fused classical, jazz and rock elements into this brilliant record. The diversity of sound, stunning compositions and technical display is very vivid. According to Mekaal Hassan the album will only appeal to those who are interested in listening to fresh and progressive music. Mekaal also told us a bit about the album musically. "The album is a blend of the melodic tradition of the east, the harmonic sophistication of jazz and the energy of rock. The record also features some of the finest musicians from both Pakistan and the UK, namely Pete Lockett and Mike Mondesir from UK and Gumby from Pakistan."

While talking of great musicianship of Mekaal I can't stop wondering: Is legendary guitarist Aamir Zaki aging gracefully, or elegantly wasting? My guess: a bit of both. Everyone knows he's the biggest and best, the man who could make a guitar do anything. But there's more to it than that, otherwise he'd be history by now, along with flared trousers - whoops, back already, everything goes in circles. The rumours are always doing the rounds, but this time round things seem a tiny bit more serious. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

August

More than a decade of creative sterility. The endless churning of the marketing machine that thought it was funny turning rebellion into money. The endless reproduction of that lascivious logo, now as familiar as a Coca-Cola can. Now as Junoon returned with their 10th release entitled "Deewar", selling over a million copies in under a month, the album failed to get rave reviews. Junoon bashing was the coolest thing around this year. There are strong rumors that Ali Azmat is in the process of recording a solo album which sounds superb according to those who were lucky enough to get a preview.

It was hard to tell whether Ganda Banda and 3D Cats's "Tu Na Ho Mairay Paas" was a comeback or a farewell. I'll put my money on the latter. From the track's lyrics to its sharp dynamic to its brilliant writing, it stands as 2003's untouchable hallmark of just what musicians can do to their listeners if they truly work at it and pour their hearts out. They weave a tune that's intricate without a hint of pretension, captivating without being a tease, and explosive without being predictable.

September

To a person who thinks that music should be beautiful as well as meaningful, Strings have brought a good deal of hope in the realm of popular music with the release of "Dhaani". This year they released the video of "Chaaye Chaaye" that was directed by the ace-director Jami and the video of "Sohniyaey" which was extremely fresh and crisp to watch directed by the hip-director Babar Sheikh. The band was touring USA around December.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy picks up electric (at times acoustic) guitar and writes a battery of soul-searching tunes about heartbreak. Almost over-the-top honesty is bolstered by the winner of the largest sponsored event – Battle of the Bands last year – Aaroh, who released their debut album in September. But the album fails to offer enough pizzazz to hold my attention. Aaroh becomes an act that has spiraled into creative oblivion. "Sawal" must have been an important step for the band since they were making their debut but it certainly alienated me. Some are claiming this to be a masterpiece, and others think it's horrid. This isn't the most horrible thing ever written, but it sure isn't very interesting either.

October

Haroon, Abrar, Sajjad Ali, Stereo Nation, Rahim Shah and Fuzon were touring the UK from end September till early October. The troupe performed three shows in total. The first concert was in London's Wembley with an audience of 7800 people. Other big shows followed in Manchester and Glasgow. Guy Spy told me that only 3400 people were in attendance at a Junoon’s show the day before the London gig. What's more interesting is that reputable English daily gave the figure of people who turned up as a mighty 10000. I was also told that this is becoming a norm in the 'J Camp.' Ouch!

Meanwhile, after shooting a fine video for "Yeh Zindagi Hai" directed by Amaan Ahmed of Diagram Films and Uzair, Karavan plans to end their long hiatus (for travel, tours and a baby) in style. They have big plans and we hope that they stick around long enough to be able to make them into reality.

November

It's the best and worst of '03. Like everything else, we're defined by the extremes of each year. While some of the best albums in a long while were released this year – everyone will agree there's been a lot of quality – picking out the worst was an overwhelming proposition with all the crap we're forced to endure. There was absolutely nothing sensational about Ahmed Jehanzeb's debut release – "Parastish". Hunger and passion is lacking most of all. And where there is some reserve of that left, original ideas are largely found wanting.

However Entity Paradigm's debut album deserves the honour of being one of the best albums of the year. Intelligence was often shoved to the back of the line in favor of rhythm, expressions of passion and commercial accessibility. Entity Paradigm breaks the norm in style with the release of their debut record "Irtiqa". EP has released a 'concept album' and there's no way why you shouldn't like it. Interesting, complex compositions; extraordinary musicianship is what you should expect from this 5/5 album. It's an album that seems destined to stand the test of time.

The band toured and shuffled between Karachi and Lahore all year. There were quite a few concerts/gigs they loved. EP thinks the album launch concert at the Finance Trade Centre (FTC) was the best they played. The one in Lahore titled the 'Red Tag Gig' along-side Noori and the unplugged performance at Islamabad was fun too.

Ahmed Ali Butt told us: "The year was really good but at the same time the death of a really young friend saddened things a bit. The most exciting thing was the album release of course. And therefore even financially things looked bright although I still haven't become a millionaire!" The most interesting incident for the band was when Fawad got stung by a bluebottle while they were touring Karachi. "We took him to the hospital where the doctor informed us that there is no medicine for this so Fawad had to live through the pain for around 12-18 hours!" Ahmed tells us excitedly.

Coca-Cola celebrated its fiftieth birthday with a blast. Although it was heartbreaking to see a corporate giant and the best bands around relying on pre-recorded music, hey, at least it happened.

December

As the end of the year approached more concerts, more partying, more music and even a few more VJs took over the nation. But what really appealed were some of the best video releases ever. The video of Hadiqa Kiyani's "Mahi" directed by Asim Reza was simply out of this world. Shoaib Mansoor's interpretation of "Anarkali" was undoubtedly the best (sponsored) video this year had to offer. The industry was abuzz with rumours of rupees 45-75 lakhs said to have been spent on this video. And it was worth it.

Amongst the new-acts in the world of music was Ali Zafar, who looks and sounds maah-velous on his debut album "Huqa Pani". The problem is the lack of quality in his live performances, both – physically and vocally. Surely a person must know how to sing and dance to his own tunes.

Despite the depressed state of the economy and other unpleasantness all about (terrorist attacks, killings, quakes, the usual) we managed to see a few bright spots that helped make life's pill a little easier to swallow. Musically speaking, 2003 was definitely a milestone for us. The Kara Film Festival gave moviegoers plenty of motivation to start visiting cinemas again. On the radio airwaves, there were more options for our listening pleasure. With FM 107 there's no shortage of music to listen to all day. And now as we're well into the next year, let's fugghedabout 2003. And without further adieu or indeed ado, let's give a big round of applause to '04.

Review by: Insiya Syed

First published: January 16-22 - 2003, The Friday Times, Lahore, Pakistan.

Gardish by Karavan

2002-12-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

After their startling record "Safar" (2000), Karavan returns with a bolder-sounding, more experimental record - "Gardish" (2002). It has the likable, dreamy, rocky feel that marked much of their previous album. The album easily gives you an idea about the fact that Karavan has unquestionably grown over the last two years - musically and as a force that sounds so idyllic together.

Angst-ridden singer Tanseer Daar suitably emotes over 12 songs full of drums, percussion, tabla and strings. While implausible guitarist Assad Ahmed has worked the strings with great perfection. He proves once again why he's really the group's secret weapon on such standouts as "Beqarar", "Saadgi, "Aagay Hee Aagay" and "Dil Kee Pyas".

Each band member has played his piece to perfection with almost no boo-boo or slip-ups! Their simple melodic songs, with an alluring sound make us sway to the group's sweeping, soul-baring music for as long as the record plays and long after.

The band seems to be enjoying substantial airplay with "Aagay Hee Aagay", the first single of the record with sensational guitar work and energetic keyboards. The song is an upbeat, bouncy kind of track that has become the part of the favorite play-list of many ardent listeners. The spinning video directed by Babar Sheikh is stimulating and enlivening too.

The title track "Gardish" is that one genre-bashing tune that everybody will be listening to relentlessly. This song is by far the best the band has to offer on this record. Astounding drum act by Alan Smith on this track happens to make him my second favorite drummer of all times. The most favorite drummer being Gumby! The song just pumps you up to the greatest levels. "Gardish" is the perfect excuse for your listening pleasure. It's truly a musical masterpiece taking us on a tour-de-force for all those who want a bit more than just the usual. "Gardish" is also a challenge that exhorts the band to write those songs that glue in your skull long after you've requested them to be off and hit the road. My verdict is that the song will surely be avoiding the credibility pitfalls, becoming the sing-along breakout hit.

"Intezaar" is one of those instant hits with the more sensitive listeners with lyrics that are really easy to swallow. The title I believe is more than enough and should not require me to go explaining the concept behind the song. "Man Kahe Aaja" follows running on the same lines lyrically and has a threatening atmosphere to it. "Beqarar" ("Safar" 2000) is one of the three live songs that they have included in the record recorded live at two different venues. The other two songs are "Iraada" (a song about hope) and "Jhoom Zara Jhoom". These songs will get anybody's mind go numb. They all sound so decent and virtuous together that it's almost unbelievable. And it's moments like these that I look forward to on albums. Moments that are so amazingly beautiful. Moments that takes us on surreal roller coaster rides. It is at these instances that I pray that please let them stick together with each other without losing the creativity that they pounce with. In fact I must say that this is one of the best lined up band on the scene right now. Everybody gels up so well and ultimately sounding so tight all through the album.

"Shoure" mixes the band's trademark styles of finely honed razor-sharp riffs and towering melodies. Tanseer's serious, dramatic delivery on "Saadgi" is worth mentioning as the vocals are pretty well controlled. Assad's guitar and percussion slowly builds but the sturdy accompaniment never becomes showy giving the track a philosophical tone.

There is no sense of monotony, likeness or uniformity as each song floods vibrantly into the next. Listening to the album is an expedition in itself, one that is just as hallucinogenic as a live show. This record is bound to climb up charts. Their lyrics are magnetic, performances are rocking and the production quality is fabulous too.

This record will surely get Karavan the commercial success that they deserve. The band had done well courtesy "Safar" (2000) that did create ripples. This record will create waves. And that too with a lot more style. There are listeners who were of the opinion that the band sounded a lot better with Najam Sheraz on the vocals. Tanseer Daar proves them wrong showing his knack for singing amazingly well throughout the album.

By the end of the year we will have a few more albums up on the shelves. We'll have Entity Paradigm, Noori and Aaroh out with their debut efforts. We are already listening to Fuzon, Hadiqa and Haroon's latest offerings. With all the eminent bands scheduled to release their promising albums at the beginning of the year, the crusade for the number one album is going to really hot up. It also means a lot of gigs happening all over the city really lightening up Karachi. It's surely a rockin' year and weather "Gardish" will win the race or not only time can tell. But for the point in time go buy a copy for yourself as you would certainly not want to miss this one out.

Review by: Insiya Syed

First published: Instep, News on Sunday, Sunday 15 December 2002, The News International, Jang Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.

Hearts of Darkness by Dusk

2002-11-16T23:24:00.000-08:00

Dusk is the doomster of Pakistan. They are known for producing some of the best underground metal recently. Their debut full length release – "My Infinite Nature Alone" (1999) – was released by Hibernia productions Portugal (a Portuguese record label). Dusk Studios have never failed to impress me before, so I was expecting nothing less than high quality doom from – "Hearts of Darkness" – second full-length release. The doom metal genre has always intrigued me. Harnessing heaviness over brutality and relying upon song-writing ability. The two dark hearts and souls that make Dusk a possibility are Babar Shaikh on vocals and bass. And the guitar whiz Faraz Anwar on guitars, synths, hymns and drums. "Hearts of Darkness" is a compilation of some of their previous dark offerings from the time they took birth (1995) till now (2002). The five unsullied shadowy songs are what you should be looking out for in this record. Talk about mighty metal albums, this has it all; warp speed, heavy riffing, immaculate drumming and a considerable knowledge of just how to execute this fine art.

Vocalist Babar Shaikh possesses a haunting clean vocal style that contrasts well with the band's low-end doom rumblings. Subdued Light (2001) has a very encouraging beginning and lays down some fine slabs of epic doom metal, which sets a very impressive scene indeed. This is also where we hear the best vocals of Babar Shaikh. In his words "This track encompasses everything that Dusk is all about. A dark shade of brutality married to undying grace with a subtle shade of unforeseen atmospheres that echo the necessary gloom, which has been a trademark of all Dusk material."

Mass Grave (1995) follows and it stands furious. The attack is so precise and direct; you will feel compelled to uncontrollably jump against walls and head bang until you feel your cranium disconnecting from your shoulders.

Obscure Moon Sighting (2002) is surely the longest track on the album (12:11) and the most mixed-up and perplexed. This is one of the two guest appearances from Babar's ambient side project called Aufgang. This song washes over the listener with wave after wave of some of the most depressing chord changes and sounds ever put to CD. Barges Buns who's on saxophone has done an outstanding performance on this track. That is the beauty with such acts - they do not impress with showmanship, but instead completely rely on creating emotional vibes for the committed listener to lose themselves within. And by the end of this song a lack of a female vocalist is felt miserably. The atmosphere that is generated by a female's backing vocals in these shady songs is simply alluring in most of the metal bands from other parts of the world. I would seriously advice the band to go on a hunt for a dark angel that might willingly provide her vocals for these disoriented sounds.

None of the tracks here are for the faint hearted – especially the likes of Await (1996) and Fortress of Solitude (1997). These are anthems that any self respecting death nut should possess. The lyrics of most of the songs are murky and take us to territories that we've never been to before. Like most metal bands their lyrics too are extremely hard to understand but this is where their website comes handy. The lyrics portion on http://duskstudios.bakterium.com will help us all to understand the blasphemy expressions that run through virtually every track that totals the 80 minute time slot of this record.

Blast beats, tremolo picked guitar arpeggios, screamed vocals and very little in the way of respite from the relentless battery is what you should expect from this record. Although I'm no musician, the quality of each song structure is awesome. The riffs are laden with fantastic hooks and there are many twists, turns and times changes. Dusk performs decent doom metal just the way they intended it to be; flowing, classic and possessing a sound that will bathe you in its dream-like qualities.

Clearly, not everyone will enjoy Dusk's music. My advice is that all those who feel interested by this review should purchase "Hearts of Darkness". It is a decent introduction to the band and as an album isn't going to cause significant upset should you not like it. If you find Dusk as appealing as I do, then you really are in for a treat.

Review by: Insiya Syed

First published: Star Newspaper, Karachi, Pakistan.

A frenzy of releases!

2002-09-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

Indeed in the present era, music is experiencing a renaissance. But music is in the throes of a radical change. Though limitations of space would not allow us to discuss each and every album that has or will be heralding this new era, we have briefly compiled a list of forthcoming releases of 2002 that the discerning record buyer should keep his/her ears open for.

Hadiqa Kiani - "Rung"

The only female pop sensation of Pakistan is back with a new offering. This album is pretty similar to her previous ones but it has a better sound to it. "It has different shades of music" is how Hadiqa puts it. For instance it consists of eastern, western, folk, jazz, ballads and even country music! She has worked with the guitar maestro Aamir Zaki, the well known composer Arshad Mehmood and others. There is a lot of live instrumentation in this album with of course a lot of flute like most of Hadiqa's previous songs. Most of the poetry has been written by her mother. The new album is now available.

Aaroh - "Sawaal"

The band who is supposed to be the next best thing as they won the "Pepsi Battle of the Bands", a competition between the underground bands, held recently. They plan to release their album around Eid an appropriate timing. The album has been sponsored by a soda pop company! The band members are Farooq Ahmed, Nabeel Nihal Chisty, Kamran Khan and Khalid Khan. Kamran Khan has earlier produced Junaid Jamshed's "Us Rah Par" and "Dil Ki Baat". He also worked as an assistant director along side Shoaib Mansoor in Gulls and Guys.

Junoon - "English album"

The band members don't need an intro but we'll still go ahead with their names. They are Ali Azmat, Brian O' Connell and Salman Ahmed. Well won't we all just love something as crisp as an English album? But then good things don't come that easily. According to a very authentic source, (Ali Azmat!) they've only recorded a couple of songs as demos for some international record companies. The rest of the songs will be recorded in the States in September. And once the album is completed it's going to be released in USA and UK first. And after the international release it will come to Pakistan. An Urdu album will be in the pipeline after November, 2002.

Dusk - "Off white" and "All Hearts of Darkness"

The band members are Babar Sheikh, Faraz Anwar and Irfan Ahmed. Similar to Kamran Khan of Aaroh, Babar too is imaginative and inventive. He has directed some spanking and cool videos like Faakhir's "Deewana" and Ali Haider's "Jadu". Their first effort was released by a Portuguese record company. Their upcoming album is being released by an Irish record label. The band had been making some metal music and then moved onto more progressive old school metal. In this record they have more atmospheric keyboard and have ventured into experimental sounds. The album is due in November 2002. Dusk is also planning to release a compilation of some old and new songs by the title of "All Hearts of Darkness", this month especially for the Karachiites!

Mizraab - "Maazi Haal Mustaqbil"

The band members are (again) Faraz Anwar, Jamal Mustafa, Khalid Khan and Irfan Ahmed. Baber Sheikh is doing the backing vocals in the record. "Mazi Haal Mustaqbil" is set to be released simultaneously in Pakistan and the UK. The sound is of new metal and melodic modern rock. The album is in Urdu and because this kind of music is not very common with the masses striking a deal with a record label is still on the table. If all goes well it'll be released by the end of 2002.

Haroon Rashid - "Lagan"

Haroon is coming out with his second album which has a lot of experimentation with sounds in it. He is very happy with his work and thinks it's his best! The first video of this album has been directed by Ahsan and Amna in Cairo, Egypt. The album has a lot of personal experiences and songs that talk about what Haroon has gone through in real life. The album is due sometime this month.

Collective - Pepsi Battle of the Bands album

The Pepsi Battle of the Bands was perhaps the biggest musical event that happened in quite some time. This album is going to be a 10 track collection featuring one original track from each band from the Pepsi Battle of the Bands final. The sponsor is still in the negotiating process with some record labels and is not sure of the date it's going to be out. But by the end of the year we might see it on the shelves.

E.P. - "Irtiqa"

E.P stands for Entity Paradigm and it was declared the second best band in "Pepsi Battle of the Bands". The band members are Ahmed, Fawad, Waqar, Abid, Salman, Hasan, Xulfi, and Sajjad. Fawad and Ahmed are familiar faces as they perform in a comedy serial on TV. The album is basically going to be alternative rock. It has a lot of experimental and electronic sounds and will not have any commercial bits and pieces in it. Ahmed, one of the two vocalists, believes that even though it will be ready in two months, it will be around early next year that the album will hit the market!

AKS

The band members are Aiman, Hammad Farooq and Ali Tim (ex-Milestones, ex-Aakash) and they are surely making waves. The entire feel of the album is pretty different from what we usually get to hear these days. That's partially because there hasn't been a band with a female and male vocalist singing together since Nazia and Zoheb. It's basically a pop-rock band with classical influences. According to Ali, Aiman is a real rock singer who is very versatile and has done some duets with Hammad, who is professionally trained in eastern classical music. Their first video "Neela Aasman" was shot by Nasir Tehrani, which got them on the scene. The album is due in September and will be released with a remake of the video "Neela Aasman", but this time by Haseeb from Indus Music. The band is off to Africa, for their first ever performance there.

Rushk - "Sawaal"

This band is the combined effort of Ziyyad Gulzar and Uns Mufti. Ziyyad was with Live Sketches, Milestones and Aakash previously. The post production of the album has been done by Shahzad Hasan, bassist of Vital Signs. Having heard the songs, the best thing about the album is that once you start it, you will not be able to break off for the next 58 minutes! The time format of the songs is not standard, which will make it a little different from the rest. The songs have a medium pace and are mesmerizing. The singing has been done by Nazia Zuberi, who previously used to be with Sheema Kirmani, whereas the duets have been sung alongwith Ali Haider. By and large the sound of the album is electronic and it's due in the second week of September. Saqib Malik's stunning and bold video of the group's "Mein Kaun Hoon" has created waves.

Karavan - "Gardish"

Tanseer Daar, Assad Ahmed, Sameer Ahmed and Alan Smith have put together one of the most decent bands. And one hopes that they won't break up in the future, like some of the other bands have. The best thing about their forthcoming release is that the album includes the remaking of the Barbarians cult classic "Yeh Zindagi Hai". It's a much better version of the original that was recorded some 13 years ago when the performers were just 17 years old! Karavan's new single and video "Aagay Hee Aagay" is on air at the moment and is receiving an extraordinary reaction from many due to its guitar work. Assad Ahmed believes that it's a pure rock album, and not something that Abrar calls as rock! The album has been recorded live in a studio that was specially set up for the purpose. What separates it from the rest of the albums is that the band has performed, recorded and mixed the entire record with absolutely no synthesizers and gadgets. There is also a treat for the fans with the band planning to put three unplugged bonus tracks on the record. The album will be out in the first week of October.

Noori - "Suno Key Main Hoon Jawan"

The band members are Ali Noor, Gumby and Mohammed Ali Jafri. The remarkable thing about this band is that even though they haven't released their album as yet, they are making it big! Almost the entire album has been released on the net. The released singles include "Manwa Re", "Mujhay Roko", "Ooncha Hoon Main", "Khalla", "1947" and "Jhoomay". It's a very powerful sounding album with strong lyrics and mind-blowing musical sensations. According to Gumby its technicalities and style are very versatile. For instance "Manwa Re" is as ethnic as it could get, whereas "1947" contains a very strong message. Overall, the album is popish and pop rock combined with some commercial sounds that the masses will like. "It's fresh for me!" Gumby stressed. The part that sets this album totally apart is that the microphones used are the world's very best. The making of the video, posters, website, and all the other work has been done entirely by the band. The album is all set to be released before Ramadan. The band will also be performing for the very first time in Karachi in the next few weeks.

Falam - "Ab tak"

Fakhr-e-Alam is planning a couple of bangs this year with his two releases. His first offering is "Ab Tak" which is a compilation of some old tracks with a remixed sound. It includes the re-working of "Husn Walon" from "Falam Connection". He also plans to release a mega video that has eight models! (including Nadia Hussain and Natasha!) The song has been dedicated to the fashion industry of Pakistan which we'll get to listen and watch by the end of October. The second record is not yet titled but it's supposed to change trends and bring a difference in the pop culture of Pakistan says Fakhr. The album includes a 'gangster rap' song that talks of racism against the Asians. It's going to be a bilingual record produced by Shahzad Hasan. A high energy album might offer a unique listening pleasure to fans worldwide. This international release is all set to be released by Eid.

One truly believes that Pakistan is on the brink of a creative music explosion that will prove to the world that we are not too far behind. The effect will be, to say the least, thrilling. It's going to be one heck of a war game with all the big names of the industry along with some newborn talents like Aaroh, Noori and E.P, scheduled to release their albums before Ramadan. The battle for the top spot will unquestionably be fiery and sizzling! It was about time that there was some vigorous competition because we've hardly seen any decent releases since the last couple of years.

There are rumours too, that popular band, Vital Signs, is finally thinking of a comeback after seven years. The private channels have played an important role in finally bringing some underground talented bands on top of the ground, - surely a breath of fresh air for them as well as the viewers.

One can only hope that with the release of all the big names by the end of this year, will also bring an end to pirated music. Music, like all sound, is subject to the limitations of the ear as an organ of perception. It's finally satisfying to see creativity diffusing all over the country.

Review by: Insiya Syed

First published: Dawn Images, Sunday 08 September 2002, Dawn Group of Newspapers, Karachi, Pakistan.