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Touring for freedom
Courtesy of Sangeet Records, Call and Noori are due to perform for a ‘Freedom Tour’ in New York in October 2006. Sangeet Records, which launched Call in North America will soon be launching Roxen’s album there as well.
Making music for tomorrow
Concerning their next album, Bilal Maqsood of Strings released a statement that “The way it’s coming up, it’s very different. It’s definitely more along the darker lines. But it will take time.” Strings expects to release their album sometime in January or February next year.
Continuing their work as the Pakistani Ambassadors for UNICEF’s AIDS/HIV awareness program, they also have plans of organising concerts for this cause and possibly release a video as well.
Jamming with Shallum
Shallum had been hard at work preparing for the launch of his show, “Playing it live with Shallum” which made its first appearance on Aaj TV on Monday August 7th, 2006. Based on the concept of showing televised jamming sessions, the show depicts Shallum’s playing chemistry with other musicians.
When I grow up, I want to be a Sufi
Inspired by her collaboration with Salman Ahmed on the song Ghoom tana, Shuba Mudgal’s album The Awakening contains several songs based on the Sufi theme. Sung in high pitch, Mein sutti raiyan is one of the sufi-inspired songs in the album. Other tracks include Ali o Ali and Kar sajda.
Speaking about Sufi music, M udgal is of the opinion, “Sufi is not only music. It is like a faith, a belief and deals with man-God relationship. All Sufi songs sound like love songs. I have always been an ardent admirer of this form”.
Hadiqa collaborates with the Jogi Ranjha
The Britain-based singer K hiza who scored a hit amongst desis world wide with the release of his single, Ranjha jogi ho gaya, has collaborated with Pakistan’s very own Hadiqa Kiani on a song. Titled Mehr ma, this is the first time Hadiqa has collaborated with Khiza. The video of Mehr ma is being directed by Sohail Javed and is expec ted to be released soon.
Jjilawtan launches online radio
The Jilawatan management company has launched its own online radio. The radio is meant to stream music online 24/7 and is currently in its Beta phase. At the moment, the only options available to potential listeneres are that of having the radio streamed and of requesting a song.
Jilawatan Radio: http://www.jilawatanradio.com
LAUNCHED THIS SUMMER
The questions within
The Rushk duo, Uns Mufti and Ziyyad Gulzaar re-launched their debut album Sawal after a period of almost five years. The current re-launch as well as the initial launch of the album had been done via BMN records. The album had previously been launched in India making it unavailable for many in Pakistan till now.
Uns Muft i now currently heads his baby, the creative house Rola whereas Ziyyad Gulzaar has moved on to play with Ali Azmat as a part of his band. Ziyyad has also played on Ali Azmat’s debut album, Social Circus. This is not to say that Rushk as a band has dissolved, it is still very much there. In fact, the Rushkies would like to release a second album sometime.
Listen to me
Following the release of Abbas Ali Khan’s video Malal, depicting a vampire-dominated story line, Abbas Ali Khan has released his album titled Sun Re, named after the first video that was launched from this album. The album was released via Indispensable Communications, Tariq Amin’s record label. The cover had also been designed by Abbas and to date, this is his second album as a solo artiste.
The journey ahead
Sajid and Zeeshan also launched their debut album this summer. Titled One light year at snail speed, the album contains songs written and composed by Sajid Ghafoor with one song, Deserts, written by Fasi Zaka. The album had been recorded at Zeepar Studios with the entire post-production work being done by Sajid and Zeeshan’s other half, Zeeshan Parwez. They intend to release their next video soon, based on a song from the album, Have to let go sometime, directed by Zeeshan Parwez.
EMI has decided to resume operations in Pakistan. Marking their comeback with Sajid and Zeeshan as the first band to sign up with them, EMI plans to incorporate anti-piracy laws introduc ed by the government and has set up a whole wing to govern their implementation.
UPCOMING ALBUM LAUNCHES
The dark side of Aaroh
Aaroh has plans of releasing their self-titled second album, Aaroh, this September. Initially the launch had been planned for June, but because of some unavoidable circumstances, it had to be delayed. Most of the songs in this album have been written by Haider, the lead guitarist of the band. Two videos from the new album, Yaara and Pyaar ka jaal have already been released and have been making regular rounds on the television ever since.
High on Haroon
Haroon is set to release his third album in the September this year. The album was recorded in Haroon’s Turbo Charged Funky Lil Studio in his Karachi home. The album will be called Haroon ka nasha and most of the songs in the album have written by him. The composition of the album however, has been done entirely by him.
Dominated by lots of powerful melodies, the album does not follow a particular theme with the songs exploring subjects related to love, social issues as well as peace. Asad Ahmed, the guitarist from Karavan, who used to be with Haroon previously when they were both a part of Awaz, has worked with him on the album and the acoustic guitar sound that the album embodies can be attributed to him. The keyboards had been handled by Vicky.
According to Haroon, “I’m very happy with the album. The songs have a lot of depth in them, which is very important. It is musically very powerful and has a very fresh sound.”
Mirroring the wall
Jilawatan, the group responsible for the success of Jal before they parted ways with them, and who are currently managing Call as well, is busy nowadays in planning the release of two of the bands that they manage.
Roxen, an upcoming band that already has a little fan following, plans to release their debut album Roxen-e-deewar. Preceding the album launch itself, they plan to release the video of their song To phir aao.
Another Jilwatan project, the launch of Akash’s debut album is set to release sometime at the end of September. Their next video, Arman, directed by Xulfi is also set to be released on the tube around that time. Akash’s album is titled Aks.
Celebrities almost famous
Coming out from the Lahore underground, Coven has plans of releasing their album this September. Having been around longer then most underground bands, Coven is credited to have contributed greatly to the underground music scene in Lahore. Three Coven singles, Third world celebrity, Sailing fast and Boundries broken have already been released over the internet. The video of Third world celebrity, directed by Rola was nominated for a Viewer’s Choice Award at The Musik Awards.
Nowhere Land
Shahzad Hameed, also a product of the Lahore underground, plans to release his debut album titled Songs from the Nowhere Land this fall. The video of his first single, Fish out of water was released sometime in December 2005 to critical acclaim but failed to connect with mass audiences. According to media professionals, his album is brilliantly unique and holds promise. Let’s hope record companies will be able to see that.
The Godfather of Pop music in Pakistan, Alamgir recently performed a gig in Karachi. Courtesy of The Musik with a set designed by Omar Amanullah —inspired by Andy Warhaul’s Pop Art— Alamgir came and rocked all those present off their feet. Otherwise known as The French Kissers, a name coined by Gumby during one of their gigs at the Alliance Francaise, the band backing Alamgir included Immu, Khalid Khan, Gumby and Shallum Xavier.
The concert was opened by Aaroh who began with Sawal, and went on to perform Yaara. They dedicated Na Kaho to Alamgir and pumped up the excitement in their audience by concluding their performance with a rocked-up version of Yaad Gadoli by Abida Parveen.
In direct contrast to the high-powered performance Aaroh left with, Alamgir launched into a soft harmonica solo which launched off his first song for the evening: Shaam sey pehlay.
The concert was dominated by brilliant performances by everyone who performed: the Aaroh gang which included Farooq, Haider, Jason and Khalid along with Alamgir and The French Kissers. Each musician held their own and stood out despite having Alamgir amongst them.
On the other hand, Alamgir’s high-powered, energetic rendition of his rocked-up songs pulled the crowd back into the seventies and the eighties while still staying in the present. It was a night in which the young and the old came together and celebrated the arrival of a king that had been missing for way too long.
The Hints
What started off with little teasers cleverly depicting the mysterious appearance of the letters TMA before they would vanish with the effect of a television screen turning itself off, turned into one of the most talked about events in the music industry— The Musik Awards.
The invitations were hand-delivered in a black velvet envelope-type thing that you had to open to reveal your invitation card. Plain black in colour, there were several sides to the invitation. One side had the venue and timings, another told you that the dress code was formal and the colours to be worn had to be black and white. At the end of it all was a little chair that folded out with a coloured dot. The text “we have saved a seat for you” was below the chair and the colour of the dot depicted the area you were seated in. overall the invitation was cheeky, but a welcome change from the plain card normally sent out. This also showed the attention to detail the TMA team was giving to everything related to the event.
The Ambience
Set in a location that will not be disclosed, those at the gate would effectively beep the invitation, registering your attendance, and then would let you in. An elaborate deep red carpet was laid out bordered by creatively put-together by little back-drops where some red-carpet interviews were being conducted and marble slabs with TMA slogans carved into them. The red carpet itself led to a waiting area before leading on to the main place where the TMAs were being held.
Under a large dark grey tent with a shimmering light grey canopy, the waiting area was complete with comfortable sofas, air conditioning, beautiful lights and bartenders serving drinks that seemed a brilliant combination of a pineapple margarita and lemonade. Television-familiar faces, both in the music and fashion world would arrive and chat before moving on to wherever they wanted to be seated.
Out of those who lingered on, there were some musicians who seemed to consider themselves as having star-power above the others and remained somewhat aloof, all the while checking the other attendees out. The most blatant example was of Strings, who consciously stood a little away from ‘the crowd’ —on the pretext of discussing their upcoming performance— and peered onto the rest through the shades that they were wearing indoors, at night.
The stage can be described in one word only: humongous. The backdrop was plain black and white with Motorolla (the main sponsor of the event) written on it. In a way, there being a single sponsor was a relief: one was not confronted with an array of advertisements, had there been more then one which gives a bad taste to any event. The single sponsor with the simple way in which it advertised itself: by blending into the environment by restricting its colours to black and white, and graphics to text only was actually commendable where corporate sponsorship is concerned.
The event started several hours late, which was expected, although it would be nice to see a local event start relatively on time. The various hosts of the evening were Aijaz Aslam and Sonia Khan, Hasan Shehryar Yasin and Meesha, and Faraz and Natasha, the latter two being popular VJs on The Musik.
The TMA team had done everything to ensure that nothing was left out. They mounted large plasma screens for the benefit of those who sat further away from the stage and so could easily view everything that happened. They coordinated to make sure that everyone who had to be there was seated before they started the event. What they did not do however, was pay attention to sound. The sound, during most of the event, was quite horrible.
The Performances
The show was opened by Ali Azmat crooning to Mein Challa with various models dressed in white prancing around him and the stage throughout the song. The overall choreography of this particular ‘item’ was oddly similar to last year’s New York Fashion Week, where models showed off designer outfits in the midst of singers performing on the cat-walk. Despite the similarity, the song was done nicely.
To this day, most of us are unaware as to whose outfits were being displayed, but what the hell; it was fun trying to figure out which model was wearing what. And of course, Ali’s performance was also good.
The TMAs overall consisted of live performances by Musicians, a brilliant little production depicting Faisal Qureshi and Mani’s humour, and awards being given out. Coming to the performances,
Aaroh performed a song off their new album, Raag Neela which had Farooq jumping around on the very large stage in a pair of very bright red pants. Some thought he had lost it, however, one assumes he wanted to be noticed. If that’s the case, then he was quite successful. His pants are also one of the most talked-about things since the TMAs.
Haroon Rashid performed a single off his new album, Jiya Jaey with an ensemble of heavily done up individuals who tried hard to look like they were having a good time. Some of them wore, what appeared to be dresses. Haroon performed well but he could really have done without the people who joined him.
Who can forget Annie and her thumkas, especially at the awards? Performing a remixed version of her song Mahiya, Annie arrived on stage in an ankle length black dress and showed us in person what she had been flashing us with in her music videos: her thumkas. And helping her with them were the stage dancers. One has to commend the Pakistani-Shakira on her guts to swish-swash the way she did, she beat the rest of the performers by a mile when it came to entertainment.
Performing their very popular Jhok Ranjhan, the Meekal Hasan Band —known for being finicky about the ‘sound’, and why not— managed to pull it off quite decently. Not one of their better performances, in terms of sound, but one of the best where performances at the TMA were concerned.
Even though this particular song managed to gain a lot of acclaim for its beautifully written lyrics and melody, the performance of Zinda Hoon by Strings was a bit of a letdown. maybe the fact that they are one of the best bands to every come out of Pakistani soil and that the song was the very popular Zinda Hoon, could have contributed to a rise in expectations where it’s performance was concerned. But they could have done much better. It failed to create the ‘wow’ effect that should have been; given it was Strings who was performing.
The person who easily stole the show with his surprise appearance and being backed by some of the best musicians in the country, the pioneer of pop-music, Alamgir came back with a bang. Pulling off one of the most energetic and vocally strong performances I have ever been a witness too, he had some die-hard fans jumping on their chairs and dancing to his songs. He sang, he danced, he jumped and fell and came back on his feet again, he was amazing through and through. He depicted boundless energy at four-o-clock in the morning when most people were ready to die of fatigue and lack-of-sleep. If anything, TMA really did nail ‘it’ by bringing Alamgir back. And we will forever be grateful to them for it.
The Jury
The Jury members were: Arshad Mahmud, Anwar Maqsood, Shehzad Hasan (Shahi), Nayyara Noor, Tariq Amin, Nadeem Farooq Paracha, and Asad-ul-Haq.
The Awards
Best Ballad: Yaad piya ki, Fariha Parvez
Best Album: Social Circus, Ali Azmat
Best Pop Song: Pyaar to hona he hai, Suroor
Best Bhangra Song: Saiyyan way, Shiraz Uppal
Best Rock Song: Na re na, Ali Azmat
Best Live Act (Artist): Sajjad Ali
Best Live Act (Band): Mekaal Hassan Band
Best Rising Star: Kaavish
Best Music Producer (Album): Ali Azmat for Social Circus
Best Lyricist: Sabir Zafar for Na re na
Best Guitarist: Shallum Xavier
Best Drummer: John Louis Pinto (Gumby)
Best Bassist: Sameer Ahmed
Best Keyboardist: Shuja Haider
Best Song (Viewer’s Choice): Mahiya, Annie
Best Video (Viewer’s Choice): Na re na, Saqib Malik
Most Wanted Male (Viewer’s Choice): Atif Aslam
Most Wanted Female (Viewer’s Choice): Annie
Most Wanted Band (Viewer’s Choice): Call
Best English Song (Viewer’s Choice): Leeway, Corduroy
Best Soundtrack (Viewer’s Choice): Dost – Faakhir
The Musik Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music: Arshad Mahmood
The Musik Award for Lifetime Achievement: Alamgir
Motorolla Musik Icon: Strings
At the end of it all…
Despite the little bloopers that occurred here and there (which were in any case, inevitable), The Musik Awards achieved what The IM Jazz Awards failed to: attaining a level of chic, sophistication and attention-to-detail, also known as professionalism in certain contexts.
The first ever awards to be audited, it’s a comforting to know there are awards out there where accountability is pertinent and where authenticity is stressed at. Lets hope TMA is able to establish a reputation that would further the validity of a TMA award.
One of the ways of judging an event is to see how it starts and ends. The TMA started by bringing on stage Pakistan’s symbolic rockstar, Ali Azmat and ended it by surprising everyone with the appearance of, as he is considered to be, the founder of the pop industry in Pakistan, Alamgir. The TMAs marked their way into Pakistan Pop History; let’s hope they can live up to the reputation they have established for themselves.
After-thought: comments on the awards
Meekal Hasan: A step in the right direction, I’d still like to see the awards focus more on the achievements of the musicians both behind the scenes and in the limelight. The music scene continues to be fashion obsessed and that is demoralising for many musicians who may not be considered cool and hip by the glitterati.
The nominations for the best drummer, guitarists etc are a welcome first step and need to be further extended so that the people who play on the hits and records of the country’s stars are duly acknowledged and appreciated. Without Salman Albert there would be no Aadat and there would be no live performances if people like Pappu and Gumby were not recognised.
There also should have been a best singer and best woodwind category and there should have been best live sound engineer category too. Also some of the people nominated for the best drummer were not in any records and people like Salman and Fahad were looked over while they have been recording and playing live for ages.
There should also be a “talent deserving wider recognition” award. So that people can be aware of artistes who have major potential.
I also feel there should be a best journalist award. Just as the musicians are important so too are the people who cover and write about music.
Gumby: Well organised and the show itself set a new standard for future performances in
Pakistan. From the shoot to the logistics, everything was well taken care off.
Imran Momina (Emu): I want to judge the judges.
You (the jury) give awards based on the work that an artiste has done that year or sometime near the year that is being judged. Sameer Ahmed, the bassist for the band Karavan who won the Best Bassist Award hasn’t been in the country for the past three years. How could you give an award to someone who has not produced some concrete work in over three years? Let alone be in the same country?This means that the awards were given based on the credibility of the artiste rather then his or her recent work.
Compared to that, Khalid Khan, the bassist for Aaroh has done a lot of work in these past three years. He should have gotten the award. But he didn’t.
This clearly shows that the motive behind the awards that were given was more personal in nature. I didn’t get an award because I didn’t do any (commercial) work in these past few years.
Shallum got the award for best guitarist even though it has been more then three years since the last Fuzon album came out and he hasn’t released any record as a solo artiste since then.
And what was this about Kaavish winning the Best Newcomer award? Nayyara Noor gave the award to her son (the lead singer in Kaavish). What has Kaavish done so far? Compared to that Abbas Ali Khan should have won the award.
My point is: these awards are meant to pamper people.
If Sameer Ahmed has been playing bass for 20 years, then I have been playing keyboards for 17 years. On that basis (experience) then the Best Guitarist Award should have been Aamir Zaki.
If there is anyone making waves on the Pakistani music scene these days, it is two guys called Sajid and Zeeshan. And if there is anything billed to zip up the charts at lightening speed, it is their debut album titled One light year at snail speed.
You’re not a rockstar,
But you can see yourself up there.
Under the bright light
You feel you’re the reason.
(Chorus)
So throw away that bag of gold,
Listen to what your music holds.
It’s a melody only you can feel,
You’re about to be the King of Self.
—taken from King of Self
by Sajid and Zeeshan
I still remember the first time I had heard this song —on the radio. What followed was three consecutive, sleepless nights scanning international music channels hoping to catch its video being aired. Needless to say I wasn’t successful.
The next time I heard it I was at a local radio station while I was having a chat with a friend. The conversation that ensued went somewhat like this:
BB: whose song is this?!
Friend: Sajid and Zeeshan.
BB: No, the song that’s playing right now!
Friend: Sajid and Zeeshan
BB: I’m not asking about Sajid and Zeeshan, I’m asking about this song, the one that’s playing!
Friend: that is Sajid and Zeeshan!
BB: *incredulously* Desi?
Friend: yes, Sajid and Zeeshan.
One year later, they release their debut album, One Light Year at Snail Speed —the pre-launch gig plus the press conference that followed were both worth going to. Where an artiste/musician in Pakistan now has a host of record labels to launch their album through, Sajid and Zeeshan manage to bag EMI International as their record label. And EMI decides to make their comeback in Pakistan with them.
Hosted at a local club in Karachi, Sajid and Zeeshan’s pre-launch gig took off almost an hour late —early by most standards. The backdrop, which should have been slightly bigger in order to cover the wall, displayed a blown-up photo of their album, designed by Zeeshan himself, and a photo of Sajid and Zeeshan.
The event had its share of surprise visitors. Alamgir who had been jamming for his upcoming performance at the The Musik Awards with Shallum, Khaldi, Gumby and Emu also attended the launch with them. Well known recluses, Rohail Hyatt from The Vital Signs and Nadeem Farooq Paracha came out of their shells to attend the event. Looking around, you could see people casually walking in, in one corner Sajid and Zeeshan were giving some televised comments on one thing or the other, little groups of television-familiar faces having little conversations in another. Everything was set for them to perform and nobody knew what to expect. Keeping in mind the craziness that had preceded the launch itself, I kept my fingers crossed.
The gig officially started with Sajid and Zeeshan performing Freestyle Dive and without exaggeration, they rocked everyone’s pants off. For those who don’t know, Freestyle Dive is the song for the animated-cartoon video (directed by Zeeshan Parwez) depicting a moustached man on his way to robbing a bank, during which we get a picture of how his life would have been had he chosen not to. The video itself has been nominated for several awards and bagged a couple.
Getting back to the launch, from the moment Sajid opened his mouth to sing and Zeeshan started to work his magic on the gadgets that surrounded him, they managed to throw everyone’s preconceived notions about Sajid and Zeeshan completely off balance, even mine. I was shocked. In a good way, but shocked nonetheless. They weren’t just good, they were brilliant and the expressions on the faces of those who attended and the chatter that I was met with, post-launch, confirmed that I was not the only one who shared this opinion.
Here is a bit more of ‘the revealing’: Zeeshan can sing, really. I swear. His vocal-talents are not limited to singing mock-raags while amongst friends now and then, he really can sing. He provided the backing vocals to Sajid’s powerhouse performance in —most notably— Freestyle Dive and a couple of other songs.
Also contributing to the ‘wow’ effect was Zeeshan producing the turn table scratch sound by waving his hand over a sound effect module, which had motion-sensors via an infra-red ray. The infra-red ray would detect movement in the air above it and would therefore produce the desired sound-effect.
Sajid and Zeeshan performed a total of nine songs some of which were Free and Underestimated, Glue, Changes, My Happiness, Deserts, Have to let go sometime, All this time and the song that officially launched them on the tube, King of Self. Before performing each song, Sajid would talk a little about the song and what it was about. Hence, Glue became a song about “that something that binds people together” and so on and so forth.
The song Deserts had been written by Fasi Zaka, Zeeshan’s cousin and host of On the Fringe (OTF) —also a Zeeshan Parwez production. A mellow, soulful number, the song reflected a difficult time in Fasi’s life. This is also the song in which Sajid whipped out his harmonica from nowhere and launched into a little solo.
Following that, Zeeshan soon revealed that Sajid was not the only one who was harmonica-friendly. In Glue, Zeeshan blew into a mouth organ that was attached to a keyboard, and which resulted in ‘the harmonica effect’.
The duo had initially planned to finish the gig off with a jazzed-up version of King of Self, a song that needed no introduction and which it didn’t get. The crowd cheered happily when the familiar music that accompanies King of Self was played and they sang along with Sajid to the lyrics.
Sajid plays the guitar in a way that makes it truly his —with a familiarity that makes it difficult to differentiate the musician from the instrument. Depicting masterful versatility, he continued playing despite breaking a nail and wowed everyone with the way he ended King of Self.
Needless to say, the audience demanded an encore which Sajid and Zeeshan were only too happy to give. On Zeeshan’s insistence, they performed Freestyle Dive again. This also proved that Sajid cannot stop himself from doing a little jig to Zeeshan’s music every time this song is performed.
The downside of the pre-launch gig was the sound, which was really bad. Event managers need to know —musicians already do— how important the sound of any gig is. Essentially, people do come to ‘listen’ to songs that are being performed. Sajid and Zeeshan ended up performing in a way that didn’t make the sound-issue that dominant. Had it been anyone else, the people attending would not have stuck around as long as they did —till the gig ended.
It’s difficult to conclude a performance that remains fresh in one’s mind weeks after it happened. As a duo, they put most new live-acts to shame. Where most of the songs were perfectly tailored to the unique sound that is Sajid and Zeeshan, there were some songs on which a live, five-person band would have worked well. As a band, it was heartening to see that Sajid and Zeeshan had a good level of coordination between them.
Concerning the album, Zeeshan was involved in arrangement and production with Sajid in the lyrics and composition. At the press conference, a couple of days later (which incidentally was also the night of the TMA), Sajid commented that, “One light year at snail speed is about having a destination and making the journey to it… its about the journey itself that makes life worth-while.”
The album overall is concerned with “people, real issues, self-development, questioning on the inside”. Elaborating on the content, he mentioned that it was about “perception about love, pain, giving into people.” and that, “Some of the tracks reflect past-relationships but they have been written in a way to make them more relatable to everyone”.
When talking about how they were able to produce, compose and create music in a place like Peshawar which is rampant with restrictions, Sajid compared that to trying to choke a person: the more you choke a person, the more he/she will struggle and make a stronger effort for air/to breathe.
Since most of the songs were written in the nineties, some were concerned whether they were still relevant to the present era. In response Sajid said, “human nature does not change”
Omar Sheikh, who was representing EMI mentioned that “It was in August 12th, 1994 when EMI had closed down because of the piracy rampant everywhere. It wasn’t financially viable for EMI to continue its operations in Pakistan… this is a good time to launch an album, especially after the anti-piracy crackdown in May 2005… we are coming back with a product that is considered to be ground-breaking”. On coming back with an album that was in English, he commented that “There is an element of risk in any venture, we are coming back after 12 years and this was the perfect album to come back with.”
He went to elaborate on the extensive measures EMI has taken to ensure that piracy of their products does not take place. When pressed for comments on the anti-piracy issue and EMI’s efforts on preventing piracy, Zeeshan replied, “I am going to miss downloading free music”
For many within and outside the music industry, the launch of this album has been eagerly awaited. Unfortunately the actual ‘launch’ of the album itself is constantly being delayed.
One assumes that part of the reason could be attributed to the heavy rains that Karachi was recently subjected to. At the time of writing this article, it was not available in the market. A new date has been set and hopefully the album will be delivered to shop-keepers by then. Till it does however, one has to make-do with the two-minute songs in the promotional CD that was handed out during the press-conference.
As a concluding note: during the press conference, on how he writes his songs, Sajid commented that “It’s the music that dictates how the song is going to be. I start by writing a small piece of music and if the music moves me enough, the words just come”.
Fuzon’s lead guitarist Shallum and ex-Noori drummer Gumby will be performing in the World Music Festival in Oslo this August. Shallum has quite a load of work, considering that the launch of Fuzon’s second album Neend Na Aye Teray Bina, is expected to happen this summer. Regarding their performance in the Oslo World Music Festival, Shallum and Gumby will be collaborating with Fryd (pronounced: freed), a band of a Norwegian origin. Shallum first came in contact with Fryd at the launch ceremony of Telenor Pakistan where Fryd and Fuzon were asked to perform. Following that initial performance, Shallum, Gumby and Fryd have performed several gigs together, the most recent being during the winter season of 2005.
Shallum and Gumby will be leaving for Norway on August 14th, 2006. They have plans of staying back after the Oslo Wold Music Festival and collaborating with Fryd on an album, which will have an international release, targeting a more global audience.
Following Shallum and Gumby’s escapades to Norway is Overload. Yes, Overload is also scheduled to participate in the Oslo World Music Festival this August. Besides the Norweighn festival, Overload is expected to perform several gigs in Amritsar (India) and in New York (USA) in the near future.
Other than just doing shows around the world, Overload is also working on their next music video for the track “Storm” from their self-titled debut album. The video for Storm is completely animated and is directed by Shehryar Jabbar of Sherry’s Studios.
The success of Overload has encouraged Farhad Humayun (drummer and founding member of Overload) to work on Rumble Fish, a project he had previously shelved. Embodying a sound different from that of Overload’s but also a percussion band, Rumble Fish is a concept inspired by the Francis Ford Coppola film, Rumble Fish (1983). It will also see the band members of Rumble Fish try their hand at singing.
Currently working on a video for their yet-unreleased track, “Have to let go sometime” from their debut album “One Light Year at Snail Speed”, Sajid and Zeeshan expect to release the video on television following the launch of their album this summer.
Zeeshan Parwez from Sajid and Zeeshan on the other hand, has also been very busy working on the video for Ali Azmat’s song “Teri Parchaiyaan” from his album Social Circus. Following the animated video trend he sparked off, the video for Teri Parchaiyaan sees Zeeshan attempting to fuse traditional 2D and 3D animation into one project.
He is also currently working on two videos for the Mekaal Hasan Band. One of the videos, “Kirwani” is expected to follow the pattern of “Jhok Ranjhan”, as a performance-based video, yet exploring it with its own unique angle. Zeeshan’s second video for the Meekal Hasan Band will be for the track “Hunsdhun”. Conceptually based, the video will not feature any of the band-members and has been shot in the tribal areas. The Hunsdhun video is expected to be released on television by the end of August 2006.
