Above, far and beyond

How many times have you wished that you could just ray-gun someone of out your sight? Or while stuck in the infamous Karachi traffic, wished there were beaming stations from where all you had to do was say “energise” and you would then conveniently be transported (beamed) to the destination of your choice within seconds? From where did such ideas enter into our heads anyway?

Science fiction or Sci-Fi as it is popularly known, has been a part of literature ever since an over imaginative person discovered he or she could write. It included things the writer thought was to come and create a magical world without any magic spells, potions and unicorns. Instead, these objects would be replaced by man-made gadgets and inventions that were capable of performing wonders. Science fiction writers wrote based on what they thought the world would be like several decades or centuries after the time-period that they were in.

Literature categorised as science fiction is described as those in which the author creates an illusionary world involving hypothetical, physical, biological, technological, philosophical, historical or cultural constraints. This is done for the purpose of relating or exploring specific aspects of human behaviour, life or the universe under these new, contrived conditions. These writers reflect their awe for science and their hopes of what scientific research could yield. However, it also displayed their fears in cases where scientific research would end up reaching harmful conclusions, the consequences of which would have to be suffered by all mankind, animal-kind and earth-kind. A quick read will make it clear that Sci-Fi writers are more prone to write about the future they hope will not happen rather then that which they would want to.

One thing needs to be taken into consideration however, and that is that predictions made by science fiction writers are deeply influenced by those scientific possibilities that are mutually understood by people in that era. Also there is a considerable portion of fantasy in science fiction and many science fiction writers have also written what is known as fantasy literature.

Decades after popular science fiction writers forecasted the future of mankind, one wonders how accurate their predictions were. Now that we are in the ‘future’ that they used to write about, how has the advancement or deterioration of mankind measured up to the imagination of these Sci-Fi writers?

Some of the predictions that did end up coming true are from the popular classic book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne. He is considered to be the first to ever merit being catagorised as a science fiction writer. Most of his books including his first best-seller Five Weeks In A Balloon, From the Earth to the Moon and two other books that later got adapted to screen-plays, The Mysterious Island and the famous classic, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, deal with voyages and exploration where his characters are constantly marvelling at the new scientific discoveries that they end up making.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne had predicted that there would be self-propelled submarines that would be capable of diving and travelling underwater at very high speeds. He also predicted in the same novel that electronic watches that would be far more accurate then analog clocks and that electric generators would be used to propel very large sized engines. Furthermore, he predicted that underwater aqualungs (portable cylinders with compressed oxygen in them) coupled with adequate wetsuits would enable deep sea divers to remain underwater and work on the ocean floor for longer periods of time. He also spoke about how submarine warfare would render ships travelling on the surface of the water absolutely helpless against them.

Another popular science fiction writer, H.G. Wells has written books that set the background standard for other science fiction writers to work on. He has written one screen play, Things To Come, in which he tried to depict, in detail, the horrifying implications of World War II. Out of all his books, two of the most well-known were adapted for the big screen quite successfully. First one being The Time Machine, in which he showed time-travel through the ages and the result of the human race. The other was War of the Worlds in which he depicts the horrors of an alien invasion on earth.

In his book, Things To Come, which was published in 1933, H.G. Wells ended up with a few successful predictions including that World War II would start in 1940 and would involve all of the major countries in the world as well as air-raids and dog-fights between enemy aircrafts. He also predicted the implementation of gas warfare.

Amongst his non-war related predictions from the same book, to have been invented by the year 2054, was the introduction of air-conditioning, video tape recording and commercial television and televised broadcasts reaching almost all parts of the world. All of the inventions mentioned above have been introduced to mankind well before 2054.

A prediction that did not end up being successful was the reconstruction of the world till it reaches utopia in the year 2054. Hopefully by then, ‘enlightened’ human beings would have gotten rid of all kinds of instruments that lead to death and destruction. One of the predictions that yet to come true is that citizens will be wearing personal communication devices on their sleeves at all times. This is oddly reminiscent of the use to cellphones nowadays which most people have and keep on their self almost all the time.

In his book, When the Sleeper Awakes, H. G. Wells predicts the invention and use of all-purpose liquid food, portable television sets, use of automatic doors, mechanised agriculture and ‘light globes that change night into day’ (light bulbs). Those predictions that sound like fun, but yet to be realised, are an automatic clothes-making machine, special ‘pleasure cities to placate the masses’ (Dubai, perhaps?) and moving conveyor roadways. He also predicted that most of Earth’s population would be concentrated in great super-cities.

Brian Aldiss, another science fiction writer who wrote primarily about space travel and nuclear technology, in his book, Who Can Replace A Man, predicts space flight to Mars and sound being used as a weapon.

His predictions still to see daylight is the introduction of robots to serve and support human communities and robot wars after mankind becomes extinct. He also predicted anti-gravity to have found its way to Earth by the year 2500 A.D.

Whether or not the predictions of science fiction writers come true or not, we can safely state that these writers possessed an extra-ordinary imagination. They provided us with countless stories and transported us to faraway lands, the idea of which would have been inconceivable to most people at that time. Famous inventors are those who have a great imagination coupled with the skill and drive to realise them. Sci-Fi writers simply provide them with a direction where to begin with.

First Published:
Spider
October 2006

Music and beyond

[ Cover Story ]
The development and growth of electronic music on the internet has been phenomenal to say the least. What started out as a trend between a couple of individuals to share encoded files, which when played, produced music, turned into an alternative that record labels now consider a huge threat to their revenue and are increasingly considering switching towards it themselves as a medium through which to market their clientele.

Music and computers came together when the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) introduced the first modern-day synthesiser. Originally created for the purpose of industry professionals studying the science of sound, introducing the synthesiser opened a world of possibilities for musicians. The amalgamation of computers and microprocessors meant that comparatively large quantities of music data could be stored on a computer.

Making advancements in music technology Sequential Circuits developed the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) format in 1981. What differentiated MIDI from the synthesiser was that other then allowing the transmission of sound information, it identified the structure pertinent to the file itself. The creation of MIDI spurted a rapid growth in the development of electronic music and all hell broke loose the moment this advancement found its way to the internet.

The MP3 (Moving Pictures Experts Group-1 Audio Layer 3) format, which revolutionised the way we listen to music, was developed in the 1980s by the Fraunhofer Institute, a German research firm. It is a compression format that condenses audio files, incurring only a small difference in sound quality. The more the file is compressed, the worse the sound quality of the file becomes. The Fraunhofer Institute went on to develop the first MP3 player in the early nineties but the resulting application wasn’t up to the mark and was abandoned.

Around the same time in 1995, the Progressive Networks released, what was then described as, an application enabling internet users to select and play music clips from a menu and listen to them immediately. The application was the Real Audio Player that was integrated the RealPlayer 4.0 into the Internet Explorer 4.0 in 1997.

Also in 1997, Tomislav Uzelac, a developer at the Advanced Multimedia Products created the AMP MP3 Playback Engine which, after being released over the internet, was used by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev who altered it by giving it a Microsoft Windows outlook and renamed, the Winamp. The creation and free-availability of the Winamp is what is believed to be really responsible for the MP3 craze that raged from then on till now. Justin Fankel and Dmitry Boldrev also recently created the MacAMP.

Winamp’s launch into the cyber world boosted the growth of numerous encoders, search engines, players and so on but none could match what Napster had to offer. Napster’s history has been riddled with controversy and court-cases, which rendered it infamous, and as a hero to many MP3 pirates. From the day it was launched on the internet in 1999, Napster was a direct threat to many record labels since by connecting users to each other’s hard drives, it allowed users the opportunity to search and download any kind of popular music within minutes. However, Napster was charged with copyright law violations by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and was ordered to shut down. This move may prove to be ineffective when it comes to MP3 downloads because there are many other application software and websites which are currently offering the same services that Napster did back in 1999.

Another breakthrough when it comes to music over the internet is the online streaming of the internet radio which was first introduced by Carl Malamud in 1993. More important then that, Radio HK, the first full-time, internet only radio station began broadcasting in February 1995. This method of broadcasting used a web-conferencing reactor that would in turn be connected to an audio CD that would move in almost-endless loops. However, pretty soon, Radio HK then converted to using the servers of RealAudio.

What revolutionised online radio and made it accessible for all was when in 1999, when the ability to net-cast 10 minutes of data by anyone was made available by a company called BMP. The software used, MyCaster, was built like an MP3 player which sent a stream to the MyCaster website, while the user would have been listening to the tracks. The MyCaster website would then provide an amplified stream for their users to access. Unfortunately, MyCaster went down with the internet bust in 2001.

Music in all forms has been appreciated by people of all ages. With more and more diverse viewers logging into the internet everyday, the demand for music will constantly be on the rise. With peer2peer file-sharing in vogue yesterday and internet-radio today, who knows what the future brings in terms of trends and mode of transmission that the music of tomorrow will bring.

First Published:
Spider
October 2006

The ‘light’ side of life
We hardly have any indie groups or labels in Pakistan producing independent work. However, what we do have is Shahzad Nawaz who took the initiative to form one. Working under the label Coup d’etat, his first project, Daira, the adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s book Moth Smoke, although highly anticipated, didn’t exactly generate critical acclaim but it was a start. After the buzz surrounding Daira died down, he began working on his second project, Botal Gali, in collaboration with Humayun Saeed Productions. This time, Shahzad made sure that every little detail he could think of had been taken care of — from setting up a website acquainting interested individuals of the Botal Gali concept, to forming an Orkut community where it could be discussed, to handing out posters and a paparazzi-size booklet during the premiere of the movie to familiarise the attendees with the cast, crew, making and most importantly, the concept of Botal Gali several minutes before the movie itself was to hit the big screen for the first time. The concept behind the invitations was also well-thought and was hand-delivered in a symbolic message-in-a-bottle manner.

Over one year in the making and with a cast comprising of over 32 well-developed characters, the movie (which is rated PG) opens with a man depicting Zameer (conscience) giving the opening dialogue about Karachi as a city and its inhabitants. While talking, facts scroll on the screen displaying bits of information from the size of Karachi’s population, the date of when alcohol was banned, to the number of liquor (wine) sellers operating within the city to the demographics of their customers and so on. Zameer, clad in a simple white shalwar kameeze, speaks eloquently and mostly in metaphors. The story is set in a time where the bootleggers and the customs in Karachi are engaged in conflict and the city suddenly experiences a dearth in the quantity of alcohol available. When he is done, the camera moves to a location behind him where a man with long, filthy hair and persona is shown with his hands dipped inside an iron tub. He takes his hands out to reveal what he had been washing: an empty green liquor bottle.

Babu’s introduction into the play produces a chilling effect as he is obsessed, talking to his beloved bottles about how they, as the keeper of secrets, are used as scapegoats for everything gone bad. He speaks to them intimately and with emotion that seems to reach out beyond the screen and forces the viewer to pay attention to his dialogue with the bottles, to which he talks to with an odd mixture of bitterness and intense love. Babu, an ex-alcoholic, resides at the farthest end of Botal Gali, a place where all of the empty bottles of Karachi find a home only to be resold to interested individuals again. For eight years he has been collecting discarded, empty liquor bottles and bringing them home with him. We do not know his purpose for doing so, but while cleaning them he talks to them about the hypocrisy, confused identities, selfishness and self-indulgence of those who had emptied those bottles in the first place.

With Botal Gali, the film, depicting different stories of a variety of characters interconnected in one way or the other, we find Babu picking up discarded bottles, the morning after every drinking binge, from locations giving hints of who and where these bottles had been consumed previously.

Characters that play a dominant role in the movie are those of Shahid, a pan-spewing, surma-eyed bootlegger who suddenly finds that his brand of alcohol, ‘Dante’s Vodka’ (effectively pronounced ‘dants’ by him and his co-conspirators), is in high demand. Henceforth, he is shown making deals, having his product delivered via his so-called friend, Zahid, who’s girlfriend he happens to be seeing behind his back. Shahid can be seen making mental calculations of how much his every move would cost him and how he is going to profit from so-and-so person and so on.

Amy is an American photojournalist married to Zeb (Sheikh Amer Hasan), an ex-pat who has recently returned to Karachi. The character of Amy provides an outsider’s point of view into the lives of the elite that she is exposed to and her curiosity and quest for covering something meaningful leads her to Babu. She sees in Babu an honesty that is not contained in others. Although the point of view she represents tends to bring out some very interesting facts and observations, Amy’s innocence and seemingly angelic appearance tends to get a tad bit too much here and there.

The auditorium in which the movie was being shown was packed, with some people sitting on the stairs, it seemed as if not a single person had decided to skip the event. The dialogues were clever and well-scripted and invited thunderous applause from the audience whenever a political or a social comment was made. The scenes themselves were short and the transitions slightly abrupt, but that style of editing seemed to grow on one’s self and the abruptness of the change in the scenes wasn’t noticeable in the end. The script of the movie had been well-written with facts thrown in here and there making it informative enough not to confuse a viewer with too-much-information. the only critique in the way it was rendered that one can find is that every person who drinks is shown as getting utterly and completely wasted (save for this one small group of individuals in one story out of the very many in the film), which is not always the case.

Post-premiere talk with Shahzad revealed that the characters are named after the roles that they play and have been inspired by real-life people and the storylines in the movie by real-life incidents. He hopes the film, after going through Pemra’s censorship would hit theatres by November. The film is planned for launch in theatres in India and will be shown at a South Asian film festival being held in New York this year as well. Other then theatres, Shahzad plans to release a DVD version of Botal Gali as well.

There aren’t many who have dared to make a movie about subjects that we know off but don’t speak about. Those that do end up being made aren’t allowed to run for long on big screens or aren’t given adequate publicity and eventually fade away into oblivion. Botal Gali speaks of a subject that most aren’t comfortable depiciting via the electronic media. It is an unapologetic look at what happens when you lose yourself in the jungle that surrounds us, giving more value to social acceptance and materialism to the point of forgetting who you are, and how these individuals end up shaping a community as a whole.

photos: screen shots from the BG
1) Babu with his hands in the washtub,
2) Babu trying to mend a broken bottle
3) Amy photographing Babu


First Published:
Images
September 24th, 2006

Sajid and Zeeshan Freestyle Frenzy!
[ in focus]

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”.

Note:
— this is the un-edited version
— photos by Fayyaz Ahmed.
— written under the pseudo/pen-name Band Baji

First Published:
World Music Magazine
Sept/Oct 2006

Appreciating Music

[ awards ]

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 r

eputation 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.

Note:
— this is the unedited version, the published version is titled "Claps and carps"
— written under the pseudo/pen-name Band Baji

First Published:
World Music Magazine
Sept/Oct 2006

Alamgir has arrived!
[ comeback ]

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.

Note:
— photos will be uploaded soon.
— this is the un-edited version.
— th edited version is not what i would call 'me'
— written under the pseudo/pen-name Band Baji

First Published:
World Music Magazine
Sept/Oct 2006

Pakistani Potpourri
[ news bytes]

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.

Note: Column was written under the pseudo-name/pen-name of Band Baji

First Published:
World Music Magazine
Sept/Oct 2006

‘The Producers’ at play
The curtain rises and we are confronted with six beautiful girls, dressed in shimmering dresses, standing side by side with a comparatively older looking man in the centre. They start out singing an introductory song to the highly-acclaimed Mel Brooks play, The Producers. There are no musicians present and no band. The song plays in the background with the ensemble on stage singing along at a slightly faster pace.

They leave and the one of the lead characters in the play, Max Bialystock, bursts into the scene from under a pile of newspapers on a couch placed centre stage. The play has officially started with a most unexpected beginning: no one could have fathomed that the couch in the background had been ‘occupied’ while the choir sang. And things only got better as the night progressed.

The Producers is a well-known, award-winning (several times over) play written by Mel Brooks, based on the Academy Award winning 1968 film by the same name. The person responsible for bringing it to Karachi is Nida Butt, a human rights lawyer by profession, who has had a keen interest in drama since her college days. “I came on stage two years ago as an actress in a play and since then decided that this is something that I wanted to do. But I wanted to head my own production and this was it,” she says enthusiastically.

The Producers is a play about a Broadway producer, Max Bialystock, who manages to convince his unassuming accountant into joining him in producing a play that will be doomed to fail from the beginning. They would raise more money than needed for the play and after it does flop, they would end up pocketing the production money. The play that they end up choosing is Springtime for Hitler written by a Hitler aficionado, Franz Liebkind, keen on displaying the ‘lighter’ side of Hitler and his hidden interest in song and dance. The plan backfires and the play ends up becoming a hit with the producers, Max Bialystock and his accountant Leo Bloom, ending up in a bit of a mess.

Memorable scenes from the play include Max Bialystock’s entry and the pains he goes through to extract a check from Ms Hold-me Touch-me, and also Leo Bloom imagining himself as a Broadway producer. Ulla’s audition was definitely another entertaining moment. The actress playing Ulla portrayed the dumb-blonde cliché and was also very convincing despite being a desi in a blonde wig. Hitler enters the play Springtime for Hitler within The Producers from among the audience itself and this is accompanied by high-powered dance sequences by the cast in the final scene of Springtime for Hitler.

The cast comprised primarily of school children who were refreshingly not conscious of the audience and performed enthusiastically. The lead roles of Max Bialystock, Leo Bloom, Ulla (the Swedish secretary), Ms Hold-me Touch-me (investor), Franz Liebkind and the lead singer seemed comparatively older and mature.

Even though those performing in the choir weren’t exactly ‘singers’, the cast and crew of Made for Stage (Nida Butt’s theatrical group) have to be commended for their efforts in trying to bring the play as close as possible to its original film version. From the set design to Ulla’s famous yellow dress, every little detail had been taken care of.

Post-performance talk with Nida Butt revealed that she had begun working on the play five months prior to its launch show. “In April, I started adapting the storyline and concept and held auditions in June. Our rehearsals took place in July and August,” she said.

Elaborating on why she chose The Producers, she said, “I think there are no gaps where the storyline is concerned. The latter is simple but the characters themselves are very flamboyant. A person can find his or her own meaning from each character and it gives you much more scope and room to work with.” Made for Stage collaborated with Flame (Friends of Literacy and Mass Education) on this production. As to why she chose this particular charity, Nida said, “A mutual friend recommended me to Flame and literally everything had been decided in the first meeting. They are an excellent charity, very good and trustworthy, and are very easy to work with especially when it comes to handling the sponsors, etc.”

With the proceeds gained from this show, the charity plans to establish more schools and provide better medical facilities to the underprivileged students studying in their schools.

First Published:
Images
September 3rd, 2006