Posts Tagged ‘Nescafe Basement’

REWIND 2016 : Non-Bolly Songs We Played In Loop This Year + Dinchak List

Posted: December 27, 2016 by moifightclub in cinema, music, Music Recco, rewind, songs & videos, Year end special
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The list might include some songs that some of us might have heard earlier. Pardon me for my late discovery. As the saying goes, a thing of beauty is joy forever. So here goes the playlist. If you want to read, then scroll down, else just play it and let us know what you think of it.

Dhafer Youssef is a Tunisian composer and after coming across his performance in Bombay (recorded by a dear friend and shared with me), I have been itching to tell the world about him. If you haven’t heard his earthy tunes, I suggest you head straight to his Youtube account. I have included a 4 year old clip in the playlist. Trust me, his work is much wider than what you will see in this playlist.

The sun won’t set (Anoushka Shankar – Norah Jones) – Although the entire album (Traces of you) is brilliant, this song somehow did the trick for me. Norah Jones and Anoushka’s Sitar have such a musical symmetry to it. Ravi in Hindi means Sun. The song is an obvious tribute to their father and a classic one at that.

Bajre da sita (Neha Bhasin) – Much before we came across her splendid version of jag ghumeya, Neha came out with this beautiful interpretation of a folk song. Easily one of the most promising voices we have today. Hats off to the light arrangement by Sameer Uddin as well.

Ismail Ka Urdu Sheher – Is a Sci-fi comic conceptualized by Zohaib Kazi. He penned and composed the music for his comic (yes! music for his comic) which was breathtakingly good to put it mildly. You can read our recco post on the same here. The album has artists like Sara Haider, Zoe Viccaji, Jaffer ali Zaidi, Omran shafique, Samra khan and Nida Khurram. Do pick this one up. Easily the find of the year. There is a distinct feeling of a free fall in what Zohaib does, and I love it! (Fun fact – The last song in the playlist is also composed by Zohaib and it came out 4 years ago. check it!).

AsWeKeepSearching – I am late to discover this band and even though we have put the link to their song called ‘tattva‘ (which came out in 2013), I strongly urge you to check their album titled Khwaab. The entire album is here. Search the song titled ‘Other side’ and melt away. We are looking at you people @Aswekeepsearching, give us more!

Ahesta bero (Ahmad Wali) – Essentially a wedding song. The understated singing and the simple 90s like arrangement of the song is heartwarming to say the least. Heart aches if you hear it and think about what has happened in that region.

Sunoh – Shilpa Rao – While private albums aren’t topping the agenda of artists these days, it was heartening to see Kailash kher, Kaushiki Chakraborty, Javed Bashir, Monica Dogra (really?) and few others come out with theirs. I loved the mood of this album by Shilpa Rao, and in spite of the fact that my favorite song from the album (Ka karu sajni) doesn’t have a music video right now, the one you will see in the playlist is equally good.

Gerua/Kabira cover medley (Bryden-Parth feat. The choral riff) – Rarely have I come across a remix/re-imagined version of a song that can make the original pale in comparison. The simplicity of this mash-up made me love Gerua and Kabira.

Maya (Bipul Chhetri) – We are so happy we discovered his work sometime back and this year he gave us another stunner of an album. Do check his work out and you can buy his album from oklisten dot com.

Ae ri sakhi morey (Papon) –  In what would be yet another good album this year that was titled The story so far, Papon gave this ethereal tribute to a timeless composition in his own honey dipped style of singing. We loved it, hope you do so too!

Nawazishein  (Shuja Haider) – Discovered this song thanks to this season of Coke Studio Pakistan. Some found it terribly low on energy, some loved the helplessness in the singing. Depends which side of life you are when you play this, but do play this once, for no matter where you are, you might just end up humming Kaneezein hain…

Coke Sudio 9 – This year, Coke Studio Pakistan experimented with multiple composers and giving them company were disco lights that went haywire on their own will. It was a weak season but left us with some gems, like always. We have reviewed the season here and have included 4 best songs of the season in the playlist. Hear the soothing lullaby vocals of Ali, the reincarnation of a timeless classic by Momina and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, The rock solid combo of Saein Zahoor and Sanam Marvi, and the ever so moving Abida Parveen, who, according to me, sang the song of the season. Do check out the full playlist at the link above as well.

Tu mera nahi – Nescafe Basement (Xulfi) – Nescafe basement has been doing some really exciting work off late. Still this gem from season 4 leaves me teary eyed every time I listen to it. Great arrangement, killer flute, lovely execution and so much pain!

Mil ke baithenge + Vanjhali Wala – Angrej (Amrinder Gill) – Yes, I cry when I hear a good song and many a times it has nothing to do with lyrics. Here, however, whatever little I understood, made me waste more and more tissue papers. What a lovely composition. Hear it. Then, when i hear Vanjhali Wala, it makes me smile as it reminded me of a certain Coke studio (Pak) song that we have featured here. Delightful Amrinder!

Swahh bann ke – Punjab 1984 (Diljit Dosanjh) – Diljit Dosanjh has sensibilities that can outrun most thinking actors of today, and a voice that can melt stones. With this song, he politely pointed out that he is just not ‘bruaaaaah’ singer. Quite simply my favourite song from him, so far. Yes, it is a sad song. No, you don’t want to know the meaning of it, trust me on that.

Yad lagla – Sairat (Ajay Gogavle) – Well, to state the obvious, it doesn’t matter whether you listen to this song on V-Moda headphones or on a bad quality tweeter speaker, you cannot stop yourself from dancing. The sheer force of love and melody when combined sound exactly like this. We loved this album, as you can read here, but this remains the pick for me. Ajay-Atul, you sexy sexy people! :*

And that’s it.

Please let us know your picks and discoveries of the year. In addition to the non-bollywood playlist, we are also putting the ‘dinchak-playlist’ which might make you cringe but well, you might want to dance on it anyway. Wishing you a musical new year from all of us here @moifighclub!

Here goes the dinchak list, that contains my 2 favourite Hindi film themes from this year as well. Have fun!

– @Rohwit

2014 REWIND : 14 Musical Gems We Discovered This Year

Posted: December 21, 2014 by moifightclub in music, rewind, songs & videos, Year end special
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It’s that time of the year again. And in our Rewind series, we look back at the best of the year. This post is all about the musical discoveries we made this year. And mostly non-bollywood. The songs may or may not have been released in this year. Hope you have fun going through all the links. Here are the top 14 music gems of 2014, in no particular order.

  1. Omar Faruk Tekbilek – We fully subscribe to the maxim that if you want to travel places without travelling, do try and get hold of the music of that place first. Music would give you good insights about a place by the instruments used, texture of the sound, use/absence of electronic instruments etc. So when someone gifted me the entire collection of Omar, who is from Iran, and I played it, cliched as it might sound,  I was transported to the deserts of the country. We suggest you get hold of his work and let us know if you also feel we should dig deeper into the sound of that region. Meanwhile, explore whirling dervishes here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2VR9YJDQ5Q

  1. Sanjay Mishra – It’s surprising how much I have heard Sanjay’s work since last few years, and even then it didn’t occur to me that I must tell you about this man. A fabulous musician with top class sensibilities about the sound quality. Allow us to suggest ‘For Julia’ to get started. Would you believe that when i wrote this post last year, Sanjay Mishra’s Chateau Benares was playing in the background and still, i forgot to feature him in that list. This is what his music does, melts in the background and doesn’t intrude. Be it for a lazy afternoon or a dreamy evening, Sanjay Mishra just fits in! Thank you sir!

  1. Nescafe Basement – Post Rohail Hyatt’s Coke Studio, there were serious attempts at replicating the setting (And the colors!) along with music on other platforms. Some were outright ridiculous and some embarrassing. What set Nescafe basement apart was its choice of  music. Add to it the fact that the songs didn’t embarrass the listener and you have a winner! Varun Grover pointed us to Lari adda a year ago which was quite nice but we discovered Ankhiyan udeek diyaan this year from them and it is brilliant! Do check it out!

  1. Jaag Musafir – Rohail Hyatt – I am not based in Pakistan nor do I claim to have any information about the music scene there. I stumbled upon this song on youtube and then searched a bit more to find this complete album, supposedly from Rohail Hyatt. The sound has Rohail Hyatt written all over it. Do listen to all the tracks if you haven’t already and be prepared to get zoned out completely! Our top find of the year, This!

  1. Bombay Dub Orchestra – The song Mumtaaz dragged us to explore Bombay Dub Orchestra. To some of us, Mumtaaz might sound a tad filmy but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Flute and subdued vocals can weave magic isn’t it?  What is Bombay dub orchestra?

To quote from their website

“Bombay Dub Orchestra was formed almost ten years ago following a trip to Bombay, India, by Garry Hughes and Andrew T. Mackay. They’d gone to record with the city’s strings orchestra a few years earlier and decided to take advantage of the relationships they’d built up with musicians in India to create their own project. It took another three years to talk about the idea and a further three years to write, record and release their debut self-titled album.” The sound is unique and their ‘stuff’ is quite addictive. We hope to hear more from them.

  1. Bent Notes of The Bauls – When the genius of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Jerry Douglas come together, we sit and listen. This was released in 2013 and thanks to a famous lyricist who shared it with me this year, this folder has never been deleted since.  Each and every track from this album is a gem but somehow, this particular track reminds me of my childhood morning and all good things that are attached to it. (Raga purists, please excuse me if this isn’t a ‘morning raga’, I honestly don’t care)

  1. Susheela Raman – Queen between – Looks like 2014 was a good year for ‘everything Queen’. Susheela Raman really put her heart and soul into creating something which is different and not just for the heck of it. Susheela decided to collaborate with  Pakistan’s amazing Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwal and Rajasthan Maestros Kutle Khan and Nathoo Solanki, as well as her longstanding accomplices French Cellist Vincent Segal and Producer/Guitarist Sam Mills. What came out was a sound that was unique and enjoyable. Give this a try, and recollect if something like this was attempted anytime in the recent past.

  1. Abdullah Qureshi’s medley – You can check this out here – Pakistan is brimming with musical talent and range, this isn’t news anymore. While it is easy for anyone to hold guitar and pay ‘tribute’ to any song in their own way, Abdullah chose all the popular songs in this piece and boy did he do a good job! In spite of my generously lacking abilities to ‘gauge the correctness of a song, cross referencing it with ragas and western symphonies with a middle eastern bias thrown in’, I couldn’t for the life of me find a single instance where Qureshi went wrong in this song. Check it out!

  1. Paban Das Baul – I wanted to write and introduce you to the music of honey gatherers, which for some reason doesnt show up as ‘play enabled’ in youtube, but you can hear it here. Again, recommended by a close friend earlier this year,  it’s a pity it took me (not fightclub, but me personally) such a long time to discover his genius. Give this also a try

  1. Sher Khan – Pathans are cute and to further this point in a unique style, Ahmed Siddiq gave us a song that made us strum the air guitar and laugh in equal measure.  Check it out here – how cool is the guitar!

  1. Rudoh – With so much of Ghazal-sque, sufi and fusion coming out of Pakistan, it took us a lot of ‘hits’ to Rudoh’s (Real name – Humayun) soundcloud page to convince ourselves of his sound. Rudoh is contributing to the electro scene in Pakistan and while I am not the greatest admirer of the sound, I have been stuck on Highlands) for a fairly long time. Interesting sound, interesting times! Here.

  1. Asrar – Call it a sheer coincidence or God’s way of ensuring we didn’t judge a good artist just because he was subdued owing to a below par platform, much before Asrar made an underwhelming appearance on this year’s overproduced and nearly cacophonous Season of Coke Studio Pakistan, we heard a lot of his songs, and boy, were they good! Allow us to share just 3 out of the many songs of his

    1. Check out Allah he de ga (our absolute favorite!)

    2. Then check out Waris Shah

    3. And Boond boond and then one bonus…

    4.  And last – Jahan daikhoon

It really takes special talent to screw up such a good artist and in spite of the underwhelming presentation of Asrar in Coke Studio Pakistan this year, we hope he gets noticed (Bhatts, you listening?) a lot and we hear more from him.  (Don’t judge his songs by the quality of the videos)

  1. Sulk Station – As conceded above, I am terribly late at discovering some really cool ‘stuff’ (but then none of you recommended it either, so part blame on you too!). Sulk Station is band from Bangalore formed by Tanvi Rao and Rahul Giri,  whose sound is essentially electronic/trip-hop (to quote their website). In spite of not being too big a fan of ‘electronic’, I couldn’t help but fall in love with Bindiya and Take me home – seriously, good sound!

  1. Yaar Anmulle – Just look at the number of plays since the time it was uploaded in 2010 on youtube!  This is what I call a Punjabi ‘purani jeans’. Essentially a ‘boy song’ but the  insanely enjoyable video and super lyrics  make it a riot for anyone who likes to swing to old memories. Trust me, you don’t have to be a Punjabi to understand the song. I can say that because I am not a Punjabi! Just see the video once and you will know what I mean!  Sharry Mann, you da man!

So what sounds did you discover this year? Let us know in the comments section and enlighten our soul.

– Rohit