Amongst all the artists that were featured in the first and second season of “Uth Records”, a band that made a lasting impression with original music was Yasir and Jawad, a rock band from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The band comprises Wali Orakzai on vocals, Jawad Iqbal on the guitar and Yasir Rehman on the rabab. Their rendition of famous Pashto poet Ghani Khan’s “Reidi Gul” gave Pashto music mainstream spotlight and managed to become popular amongst people who do not even understand the language.
Unfortunately, Yasir and Jawad did not capitalise on the launch given to them by “Uth Records” as they were busy releasing their first music video, “Niqab” after a break of a year and a half. “We had recorded the songs, but couldn’t find the right team to make the video the way we wanted. Most of the directors we approached wanted to make a commercial video while we wanted to go experimental on this,” Iqbal tells The Express Tribune.
“Niqab” is a piece of poetry by Ghani Khan that talks about the darker side of life; it is based on the concept of existentialism. “We wanted to stay away from clichéd themes like romanticism in Pashto poetry and that is why we chose a piece in which Ghani is looking for answers to different complicated questions in life,” Jawad says, explaining his choice of lyrics. On the other hand, the key was to translate the existentialist dilemma of Ghani’s word into visuals and that resulted in an experimental video, something that most of their fans would find difficult to comprehend.
“It is very experimental and at places you might find it to be pointless,” Iqbal laughs. “But all of the absurdity is intentional; for all the videos after ‘Niqab’ we will not feature band performance; we will play around with visuals surrounding a single theme instead.”
The audio of the song has been produced by none other than the saviour of most Pashto bands Zeeshan Pervaiz and the video is directed by the Peshawar-based Mash productions. Since Pervaiz is producing their music this time around, the fans will get to hear a completely new sound. “The fans should expect similar instruments like the rabab, but with a more studio-based electronic feel. It might sound like lounge music and maybe even dub step but in a nutshell you can call it Pashto electronic pop with folk melodies,” explains Iqbal. The music video of “Niqab” is scheduled to release November 29.
Where did all the talent go?
There are a number of singing competitions taking place in Pakistan on a regular basis. But unlike the talent shows in India and the rest of the world, none of the talent has really been promoted. This could be blamed on the overall declining state of the music industry in Pakistan, but that is a poor excuse when Pakistan has its own YouTube sensations who have made careers out of viral videos. Shows like “Pakistan Sangeet Icon” (Indus TV), “LG Banaye Star” (Geo TV) and “Azm-e-Aalishan” (TV One) are a mere replication of Indian musical shows with seasoned musicians such as Nizar Lalani, Meekal Hassan and Ali Haider, judging the shows. Sadly, the turnout has been unimpressive; according to an article published earlier in The Express Tribune, Syed Muqaddas Ali, winner of the “LG Banaye Star” competition in 2010, received a ‘star prize’ that included cash, an album production and recording, one music video production, exposure in the media and the opportunity to gain stardom. However, not a single song has been produced by him since; neither have we seen the participants or winners of any other talent shows gaining stardom.
While one can’t really pin the blame on any artist or organisation, the singers’ disappearing acts are certainly not good for the music industry.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2012.
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Existentialism is a theme which sounds simple, yet is mind vexing to express it. Through abstract art it is almost impossible to understand what the artist wants the viewer to grasp. It has been a plausible effort by Jawad and his band to express the Quintessential Ghani Khan's, Philosopher and poet, through a subtle pantomime. People who want to the existentialist essence in the video has to have some idea about the notion of Existentialism. The writer has done an equally commendable work penning it in easy words, so a common reader can get the gist of idea without much understanding to do.
Is it a complete music album or just a music video ?