Mekaal Hasan set to release 'Andholan' in Pakistan under own record label

Album consists of eight tracks, each set in different ragas like champakalli to malkauns

KARACHI: Popular Pakistani act Mekaal Hasan Band (MHB) are all set release their third album Andholan in Pakistan. The album also brings in Indian artist Sharmistha Chatterjee for the vocals, who was last seen alongside MHB at Coke Studio.

Speaking with The Express Tribune, Mekaal Hasan shared that fans of the band’s first album, Sampooran, would definitely enjoy Andholan. “It has a sort of dark, mysterious and atmospheric feel to it,” he says.

The album consists of eight tracks, each set in different ragas from champakalli to malkauns, and ranges from bandish to kaafi. Andholan takes you through a trip from the very first track Ghunghat – a Bulleh Shah kafi, set to raag Kirwani – to Maalkons, the most dramatic and atmospheric tune on the album, to the closing Kinarey – a calm yet hypnotic track.

Hasan, for the last few years, has been touring several countries, including India. And while Andholan was originally released in 2014, when the band put the album out, no one in Pakistan heard it. “Our fans would tell us they had heard about the new album but they had no access to it,” the guitarist revealed. “That’s why we decided to make our own record label, Digital Fidelity Studios (DFS), which would take music that we enjoy and put it out there under one platform.” He clarified that DFS had been producing albums for 25 years but now, it would be under one banner. Andholan will also be released under DFS.



He saw record companies not marketing artists properly and observed many others face the same problem and so, DFS was born. “They rush through the process for attaining the rights, but when they have the rights, they don’t really do anything with the work. This is true for all companies, whether India or Pakistan,” he said.

Under DFS, Hasan plans to promote new and emerging artists alongside the established ones. He shared the label will work with Jimmy Khan, Poor Rich Boy, and a few other artists. “We are also working on Humera Channa’s new folk album,” he said. Additionally, Channa will be a part of Mekaal Hasan Band’s fourth album, scheduled for release in winter 2017. “Humera will be singing in half of the album, whereas the other half would feature Sharmistha.”

But besides this, Hasan has something else up his sleeve too: He is gearing up release the videos of the band’s live show in India. “It was brilliant playing in India! We were two Pakistanis and three Indians…Gino Banks on drums, Sheldon D’Silva on bass and Sharmistha on vocals. A week after Eid, we plan to start releasing the tracks weekly, one by one.”



Talking about how things need to change in the Pakistani music industry, Hasan added, “Until we have people playing more for live audiences than for TV, you can’t grow. It’s like one can’t become a great actor if they have never done theatre. I don’t understand when musicians don’t even want to change for the better, why do they expect others to sympathise with them? We should be willing to do something and take action.”

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