Why coffee is better

Well, the third season did kick off brilliantly for the youth-powered, the Xulfi-led Nescafe Basement. The platform has provided us with outstanding tracks since the past two years with great renditions like Tere Ishq Main, Sweet Child of Mine, Sweet Nothing, Awari just a part of its musical exploration. The show started as an initiative by Nescafe Pakistan and has evolved into one of the biggest platforms for budding musicians to shine. Even amidst great competition like Coke Studio and Pepsi Smash, the voice of the youth has found a cult following in the younger, more open-minded, music listeners of Pakistan.

If the first two seasons allowed the burgeoning platform to make us turn our heads, the third season has certainly forced the listeners to give it the attention that it so meaningfully demands. The most important element is the evolution of the young artists in the show who have now found the vigour and the drive to compete with the greatest artists from Pakistan. While Coke Studio takes help from the established names to create music, Xulfi has done wonders with the young talent that is available to him. The young artists are more confident and are enjoying creating music that has a sound of its own. It does not necessarily have to cling to the Eastern fusion that Coke Studio made its identity and although the Pakistani audience demands such acts of eastern fusion, Xulfi has taken it upon himself to churn out a unique sound of his own because music is never about what the audience wants, rather it’s what the artist wants.

The completely hard rock sound of Dhol Bajay Ga and She’s Got the Look to the melodic Anjaane and Meda Ishq shows the experimentation and the outstanding adaptation by these young artistes to these diverse set of sounds. Although artistes from Coke Studio or other major platforms are the only ones expected to produce viable music, our young budding stars are causing havoc at the moment and showing the older generation how it’s done.

The limitations of this article do not allow me to go further into details but one thing can be said for certain: music is always played from the soul and creativity can only flow where there is freedom. As for now, it seems that Nescafe Basement is the only platform which is allowing the creative juices to flow (even if they are only covers of original songs at the moment), while all others are just pleasing their respective brands. It would be quite exciting to see how the Basement evolves from here.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2015.