'Chal Bulleya' MHB's New Video Launched | Mekaal Hasan Band | The Official Website
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I’ll confess: the Mekaal Hasan Band[/URL] (MHB) for me (and for quite a few people) has been an acquired taste; mostly brought upon by attending some of its live performances. The first album Sampooran, featured artistes that are the best in their field, but has often been described as too ‘hard to digest’. It definitely wasn’t listener-friendly, and the worst critique that one can give it is that the sheer perfection sought in the technique employed in the musical and vocal arrangements had robbed it of its soul. Getting off to a slow start, the album picked up a couple of years later, once the style of music (an attempt at a type of eastern jazz, if you may) managed to penetrate the minds of local audiences. Sampooran is now one of the stronger music albums to come out from the local pop arena.
After a hiatus of five years, the band is now set to release the much-awaited second album. The album is being released independently, without the support or affiliation of a record label, making the band some of the very few musicians in the pop industry that are free to promote their music on whatever medium that suits them.
The album launch song Chall Bulleya, begins the album on a softer note. The lyrical content which is its prime focus, is a mixture of Bulleh Shah’s poetry (predominantly in the main chorus) fused with verses by Bhagat Kabir, focusing on bringing society up on a more positive note by eliminating the evils that exist in it.
The new additions in the musicians who contributed to the album include Aamir Azhar on bass, whose presence can be felt on tracks such as Bhageshwari which starts off with a funky bass-line. The song which has been written by vocalist Javed Bashir himself features a similar flute solo by Mohammad Ahsan Pappu. An upbeat energetic number, it’s one of the more listener-friendly tracks on the album and has the potential to be one of the album’s more popular numbers.
The multi-percussionist from the UK, Pete Lockett (with whom Mekaal collaborated and toured with in 2001) is also featured on the album on a track titled Albaella. Listeners unaccustomed to the nuances of classical or heritage music might relate it to the version (officially titled: Albela Sajan Ayo Re) from the Hindi film, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, as classical raags are often used in Bollywood productions. Based on Raag Ahir Bhairav, the composition in the album has been presented in its original form; in the Indian version, the structure of the composition had been changed from teen taal (common in the North Indian classical tradition) to a Kaherava (an eight-beat taal common in the North Indian non-classical tradition). Pete Lockett fuses in Arabic and Turkish beats into the composition, giving it a softer feel and bringing the deeply-rooted composition into the modern era. As with Late Moon Jam in the first album, Albella embodies the most ‘western’ feel with the music sounding very much spontaneous.
Bandeya is a track with embodies the most old-school MHB signature sound without sounding out-of-place in the overall composition of the album. It has Javed Bashir’s characteristic recitation of paltain interspersed with his consistent rendition of the main chorus lines, the guitar solos, etc. Perhaps the best way to describe the old MHB sound of the song would be to say that the numerous guitar solos exist, but only in moderation.
Perhaps the only song that really doesn’t belong in the album is Mohi. It starts off with Ahsan Pappu’s flute solo and the song progresses to sound like an attempt to shift from pop to a more film/soundtrack-oriented music, although the shift can only be felt slightly.
Almost half the album is already familiar to the band’s listeners. Sanwal and Waris Shah are tracks that have been picked up from the last album, although Sanwal is featured in a more reggae light. This version of Sanwal made one smile inadvertently, its light, its fun and a nice alternative to the original. But having grown accustomed to the original, I personally prefer that version in place of this one. Waris Shah, while retaining most of it in original form, has been ‘cleaned’ up of the additional instruments that seemed to dominate it in the first album. The song definitely belongs entirely to Javed Bashir’s vocal skills and Ahsan Pappu’s haunting virtuosity on the flute.
Three songs from the album have been making rounds on the airwaves for some time now. They are Jhok Ranjhan (the song single-handedly responsible for proving that the band can still do a lighter, more ‘pop’ sound and still sound good), Huns Dhun and Andholan (which goes back to the band’s more intense, ‘darker’ roots. Very much like the old MHB, it’s a little out of place in this album) and are therefore familiar to the local listener.
For listeners who were expecting more of the band’s signature listener-unfriendly, hard, intense music, they’re in for a disappointment, but only for that reason alone. The band may have shed some if its ‘darker’ sound, but they’ve retained their musical virtuosity. The songs have a very strong MHB touch to them, and as a whole, the album also plays largely on nostalgia since half of it has already been released in the form of music videos. The best from the album definitely include Chall Bulleya, Albaella, Jhok Ranjhan, Huns Dhun, Bandeya, Waris Shah, Bhageshwari.
Definitely one of the more ‘complete’ body of work to come out in the past two-three years in the music industry, the release of this album has been long overdue.
— Madeeha Syed
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Album Notes
Saptak – Eternal Flight
Saptak is the new offering from Pakistan’s premier music group, the Mekaal Hasan Band. Coming as it does after their highly successful debut album Sampooran, the new body of work is ample testimony to MHB’s high quality and commitment to this difficult path of taking the best of two disparate elements and fusing them into one memorable musical outpouring.
Mekaal Hasan, the spirit behind MHB’s success, has long believed that fusion cannot be simply mixing eastern instruments with western or singing eastern melodies against a jazz-rock setting. True fusion requires an in-depth and serious study of the two streams, an understanding of what makes them whole and of then merging, blending and fusing the two so that what appears is not a mixture but music of strong identity. It is this spirit that has driven the band to seek new avenues in a field maligned by those who have maintained a shallow understanding of the music involved.
Where Sampooran was mysterious and haunting, Saptak soars with an uplifted mood that makes it at once brighter, daring and inspiring. The album features the work of Bulleh Shah, the mystic poet whose work is beginning to inspire a new generation, Shah Hussain and the poetess Amrita Pretam along with bandishes that flow down to us from the great musical exponents of the South Asian subcontinent. Each musical journey is magical, made memorable by the strong bass lines laid down by Amir Azhar, with breathtaking solo flights from Mohammad Ahsan’s flutes, Javed Bashir’s fiery and heart stopping vocal renditions and amidst all this, Mekaal’s deft and musically inspiring touches of guitars drifting in and out of the melodies, panning effortlessly from side to side and creating a unique atmosphere of musical excellence. Against this formidable quartet, John Louis Pinto and British percussionist Pete Lockett, weave their magic and provide just the right rhythmic drive that makes Saptak an album that tempts repeated listening at many levels.
Saptak means the completion of the 12 notes of the musical scale with it's Western equivalent being the musical octave. It is apparent that this unique album from the Mekaal Hasan Band is destined to go up and up.
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