‘Paanch – Mixtape’ launches their first inter-disciplinary showcase with a bang

When five take over the hive

KARACHI: The Hive resonated with Omran Shafique’s guitar way before the show had even begun; he spread across the wooden floor lost in his own rhythm as the hall slowly became crowded with people. Red lights flashed across the glass windows, reflecting the silence surrounding the building, as everything outside remained utterly indifferent to the chatter surrounding the instruments. Vocalists Wajiha Naqvi and Sounds of Kolachi’s (SOK) Nimra Rafique walked in the room where people were trying to figure out what the evening was about. Soon, however, everything settled down, as people were asked to leave their chairs and move in front of the screen which was to project Paanch – Mixtape.

Chand Tara Orchestra (CTO) and SOK launched the venture last year with the aim of collaborating with three other artists or ensembles in order to produce an album called Paanch – the collaborative effort of five. The event was conceived by Sheikh, Naqvi and SOK’s leading voice, Ahsan Bari.

“We wanted to promote original and independent music, which is difficult to find in Pakistan,” Naqvi told The Express Tribune. “So being a community of artists we decided to start this venture, and we got these artists to contribute original songs to curate this musical project.”

On its first showcase, Paanch featured songs from Jimmy Khan, Mughal-e-Funk and Natasha Baig. However, Sheikh hit the mic before any song hit the screen, explaining what he and his associates aimed to achieve with their first mixtape.

“So I wanted to introduce the 70’s DIY for music over here, that is – If the industry fails to launch artists and their tracks, those artists can always come together and help each other put their work out there in the form of a singular album. This becomes easier in the era we are living in, where people have become hubs, generating power together. By curating this symposium of interdisciplinary art, we shall release each song, one by one in the coming month,” Sheikh explained.

After his speech, came the first song of the evening, featuring a mystical sound created by the fusion of synths, sitar and a bass (being the most prominent instruments). It was Mughal-e-Funks Jahangir, that had taken a toll on the chatty room, making it as silent as a lamp, but as powerful as the palace he would reside in. The echo made one contemplate a chamber of secrets, while the visuals on the screen, created by Rahema Zaheer Alam, synced with the audio well, creating patterns and colours the eyes would dive in time after time.

The Mughal era was followed by Jimmy Khan’s solo track Naaja Aaja the music video of which was made by Abdullah Kasumbi. The song featured a sweet melody with just a single guitar resonating simple tones. The lyrics were light-hearted while the video showed a young girl, falling in love with her stuffed toy and then losing it while growing up – apparently depicting the lost love for simple things.

Next up was CTO’s unreleased track titled Ishq-e-rang, depicting the love of the Almighty, while showcasing various faces on screen. The visuals were courtesy of artists Jahanzeb Safder Khwaja and FIDEL AI, and were created out of artificial intelligence (AI) generated facial imagery. After the song, vocalist Sherry Raza and Omran explained how the song was initially called Khuda Jaane, and with it, they wanted to create 80’s new wave sound, with the bass being the driving force while adding rhythmic elements.



SOK in collaboration with Murtaza Tunio used coding techniques to experiment with visual meditation. He combined different kinds of codes to create visuals for the band, in order to represent with symbols, the manifestation of God in all His different forms – which is what the song also talked about. Titled Sultan, the track had a grand sound. It felt as though an entire orchestra had bombarded the speakers, with the music playing harmoniously in loops, with vocalists repeating the same chants making one hypnotised by the mantra.

Natasha Baig’s Dil Lagi was the most exciting track of the night. It featured Jahanzeb Safdar’s motion-sensing techniques that imprinted dancer Minelle Valjee’s moves as she performed live. Natasha’s song was called Dil Lagi, which also depicted the love of God along with the fear – which she described as simply being the fear of losing His love. Her voice, however, seeped through the skin and lifted the true spirit of love inside each ear it reached.

However, the show was not over yet, as CTO and SOK hit the floor with their instruments to perform together, depicting the five stages of life. “The live performance is a journey, starting from creation, to love, pain, suffering and then chaos, looping back to nothingness. Even though it seems we’ve all heard about this, it’s the first time we decided what it should sound like because it is something bigger and deeper.” Sheikh told The Express Tribune and that is exactly what it was.

The five had made their magical appearance, with five others who had visually represented their sound in their own style. The Karachi Community Radio (KCR) had helped make the screening possible; given it is an audio-visual intervention in Karachi’s musical culture that helps bring together artists to make such unique events possible.

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