Between Rock and a Disco place

[ original ]

What is becoming an increasingly common feature in most events in Karachi is that a certain number of people are to be found in almost every other gig in Karachi. Perhaps we all share a mutual love for music and the musicians in question although it does make one wish for a little more diversity in terms of the attendees. This does raise one question, however, and that is that are these gigs limited to the viewer ship of only a few select individuals? Is this done intentionally or does it just end up that way? What about those hundreds of entertainment-starved, self-professed, die-hard music lovers who at the moment, happen to live in obscurity in the masses?

The performance in question had been eagerly awaited for several weeks for two reasons: it featured one of Karachi’s most popular underground acts, the Aunty Disco Project (ADP). ADP consists of Omar Bilal Akhtar – “Oba” – on vocals, lead and occasionally, on bass as well. One can safely say that Omar (Oba) possesses one of the best vocals in the country, a quality immediately discernable every time one sees him perform live. He’s been performing university days in the States, his previous non ADP-related claims to fame include performing as a part of the French Kissers at the World Music Day last year and performing his song Nazar at the K’la play ‘Tihai’ last year as well. Needless to say Nazar scored a massive hit with the audience and is featured in the upcoming ADP album.

Imran Lodhi is featured on bass, lead and in some songs, on vocals as well. Imran is known in the close-knit music circuit as having jammed with several renowned musicians during his university days in Lahore. Next up is Yair Qureshi, the real star of the band, who is also known as Al-Fatah, an on-radio name he acquired during his City FM89 days as a producer there. He is now associated with Radio1 FM91 and most of the time, prefers to stick with ‘Al Fatah’ – the identity has clearly grown on him. Yasir is featured on the darbuka (Egyptian drums).
What’s even more interesting to note is that Yasir acquired his darbuka-playing skills by observing a Lebanese darbuka played who came to play for his neighbour’s belly-dancing sessions back in Riyadh. Keeping in mind the ease with which he plays darbuka, it is not surprising to learn that his neighbours subsequently replaced the darbuka-player with Yasir himself. According to him, “the first massive darbuka player I saw was in a place called Taif in Saudi Arabia. From there on I was in love with percussion”.

Omer Khalid (OK, pronounced “Okay”) is featured on drums. A somewhat quiet, graceful person, to those who observe his drumming during gigs will notice one thing: OK has a habitually drops one of his drum sticks during performances and continues playing with only one while searching for the other. What’s more is that even with one stick, he doesn’t seem to miss a single beat!

The second set of musicians doesn’t need an elaborate introduction: their work speaks for itself. Mauj is growing into one of the most popular commercial acts in the country and features Omran Shafique on lead guitars and vocals. Omran might not have powerhouse vocals like Oba, but they are well suited for the songs that Mauj performs. His guitar playing skills however, are par excellence. Hailing from Houston, he’s performed countless gigs over there and currently tours with Ali Azmat as well as with Co-VEN. Off-stage and in person he is considered by many to be one of the nicest and easy-going musicians in the industry.

Sameer Ahmed is the somewhat shy, quiet bassist of Mauj and he is also a permanent part of the Mekaal Hasan Band. Not many can claim to have a close affinity with him – to most, he is somewhat of a mystery. Preferring to hang out with those he feels comfortable around, he is not a known feature in most social circles. One of the best bassists in the country, he appears quite serious off-stage – the only time a smile breaks on his face is when he’s performing and truly seems to be enjoying it.

On drums we have Sikandar Mufi. Not one to talk about himself, but having quite a few media-related accomplishments of his own, Sikandar’s been at the drums on and off since he was 14. Holding an avid interest in film-making, photography and in the creative side of things his forte also extends to theatre – graduation from college was followed by a short stint at West End (London) where he worked in stage management. With music as his first love, Mufti has delved into it full-time.

The performance itself started two hours later than the stated time and following the announcement that the opening act, ADP were going onstage, the auditorium filled up quickly. It must be mentioned here that band-members from both bands were going through somewhat of a health crisis: Oba was running a high fever; Omran had a sore throat and so on. But as they say, the show must go on and in this case and it did.

ADP opened with their rocked-up version of Prince’s “Kiss”. Which literally spilt energy off their performance and had everyone grooving to them, and yasir’s darbuka beats had everyone tapping their feet well into the performance. Despite being ill, Oba delivered a powerful vocal rendition of “Kiss” and soon had everyone singing along. The song ended with a solo on the darbuka by Yasir followed by a comment from Omar that “yes, sometimes we let him out of his cage”. It was during this song that OK dropped his drumstick and found it again – becoming somewhat of a signature antic.

The second song was Sultanant, an ADP original for which they have reportedly shot the video. a somewhat mellow number, Sultanant has somewhat of a catchy tune to it. One of their covers included “Rock the Casbah” by The Clash where Yasir simply outdid himself on darbuka – his fingers tapped undiscovered beats inviting hoots and applause from the audience. Oba then took centre stage to sing his solo song Nazar but one must mention here that the performance, understandably so, was only a shadow of the intensity pertinent when he first performed it for K’la.

Amongst the other songs that they performed including Ho bhi jahan, another ADP original; the band had incidentally stayed at the PACC (the venue of the performance) all day in order to finish shooting the video of this song. They concluded their performance with the Rolling Stones classic, “Sympathy for the devil”, with the auditorium resonating loudly of their performance.

Having had the crowd all worked up, ADP made way for Mauj. Not to be outdone, Mauj launched into an electrifyingversion of Khayaal. With the Karachi audience having been exposed to Omran for the first time, watching him play his guitar proved to be somewhat of a treat. They performed some fresh originals which included Baat barhti gayee and Awaz. Both of these songs were very strong musically with Omran taking a break whenever he thought his vocals couldn’t stand the strain and encouraging the audience to sing by repeating the lyrics for them. These little interactions with the audience encouraged some laughter with some attempting to help him along, vocally.

Mauj also performed a cover of Zoheb Hasan’s Pyaar ka Jado. They customised it in such a way that they made it theirs. One hopes it might just end up in their album as well. Amongst their more popular numbers they performed Khush Fehmi and Pahelian – the latter a recent release on commercial airwaves. In fact, perhaps out of all of the Mauj songs, Pahelian was probably the most awaited by members in the audience.

In conclusion one would like to say that the musical types of Mauj and ADP gel well. They’re both into high-energy rock but with a bit of fun added to it as well. They both rely on audience interactivity and they both have their own set of skilled musicians and overall musical sound. With ADP’s video on the brink of release and Mauj’s next gig in Karachi just around the corner, one can safely say that this ride hasn’t ended yet, thankfully.



[edited version]

Featuring one of Karachis most popular underground acts, the Aunty Disco Project (ADP) along with the increasingly popular Mauj, a much awaited gig was held in Karachi recently. ADP comprises Omar Bilal Akhtar on vocals, lead and occasionally, on bass; Imran Lodhi on bass, lead and in some songs, on vocals as well; Yair Qureshi, the real star of the band, who is also known as Al-Fatah, an on-radio name he acquired during his City FM89 days as a producer there, on the darbuka (Egyptian drums); Omer Khalid (OK, pronounced ‘Okay’) plays the drums.

The second set of musicians doesn’t need an elaborate introduction: their work speaks for itself. Mauj is growing into one of the most popular commercial acts in the country and features Omran Shafique on lead guitars and vocals. Omran might not have powerhouse vocals like Oba, but they are well suited for the songs that Mauj performs. His guitar playing skills however, are par excellence. Sameer Ahmed is the somewhat shy, quiet bassist of Mauj and he is also a member of Mekaal Hasan Band.

On drums was Sikandar Mufi. The performance started two hours later than the stated time and following the announcement that the opening act, ADP were going onstage, the auditorium filled up quickly. ADP opened with their rocked-up version of Prince’s ‘Kiss’ which had everyone grooving to them, and Yasir’s darbuka beats had everyone tapping their feet well into the performance. Despite being ill, Oba delivered a powerful vocal rendition of ‘Kiss’ and soon had everyone singing along. The song ended with a solo on the darbuka by Yasir followed by a comment from Omar that “yes, sometimes we let him out of his cage”.

The second song was ‘Sultanant’, an ADP original for which they have reportedly shot a video. A somewhat mellow number, ‘Sultanant’ has a somewhat catchy tune to it. The next performed ‘Rock the Casbah’ by The Clash where Yasir simply outdid himself on darbuka — his fingers tapped undiscovered beats inviting hoots and applause from the audience.

Oba then took centre stage to sing his solo song ‘Nazar’ but one must mention here that the performance, understandably so, was only a shadow of the intensity pertinent when he first performed it for K’la.

The other songs that they performed including ‘Ho bhi jahan’; another ADP original. They concluded their performance with the Rolling Stones classic, ‘Sympathy for the devil’, with the auditorium resonating loudly of their performance.

Having had the crowd all worked up, ADP made way for Mauj. Not to be outdone, Mauj launched into an electrifying version of ‘Khayaal’. With the Karachi audience having been exposed to Omran for the first time, watching him play his guitar proved to be a treat. They performed some fresh originals which included Baat barhti gayee and Awaz. Both of these songs were very strong musically with Omran taking a break whenever he thought his vocals couldn’t stand the strain and encouraging the audience to sing by repeating the lyrics for them. These little interactions with the audience encouraged some laughter with some attempting to help him along, vocally.

Mauj also performed a cover of Zoheb Hasan’s ‘Pyaar ka Jado’. They customised it in such a way that they made it theirs. One hopes it might just end up in their album as well. Amongst their more popular numbers they performed ‘Khush Fehmi’ and ‘Pahelian’ – the latter a recent release on commercial airwaves. In fact, perhaps out of all of the Mauj songs, ‘Pahelian’ was probably the most awaited by members in the audience.

In conclusion one would like to say that the music styles of Mauj and ADP gel well. They’re both into high-energy rock but with a bit of fun added to it as well. They both rely on audience interactivity and they both have their own set of skilled musicians and overall musical sound. With ADP’s video on the brink of release and Mauj’s next gig in Karachi just around the corner, one can safely say that this ride hasn’t ended yet, thankfully.

First Published:
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May 13, 2007