At this year’s Lahore Music Meet, Ali Suhail played a headline set at the Al Hamra, and also provided guitar support for Shajie and Poor Rich Boy. On the side, he’s part of indie outfit Sikandar Ka Mandar. So as a prominent figure on the alternative scene, it’s particularly exciting when Suhail announced his
When Islamabad-based post-rock artist Hasan Abbas decided on a rebrand, he chose the Soan river that cuts through Punjab as a representation of his music. It makes sense - his previous work has often had an aspect of ebb and flow to it, especially the wah-wah effects that pop up in almost every Streams of
Karachi band E Sharp released their debut album Bahadur Yaar Jung back in May of 2015. Ahmed Zawar has given a few details about the band's sophomore effort via twitter. The follow-up will have 11 new tracks - a welcome number after the bruising 21 tracks of Bahadur - and will be a '180 degree
The Foreversouth Collections thus far have tended to favour the more accessible side of the Karachi electronic artists that come under its roster. In many ways this is beneficial, creating a more cohesive collection and challenging the artists to create in a more constrained, ‘poppier’ environment. Under some circumstances, this can lead to stagnation - artists that
‘Plumas’ is an album that moves from esoteric electronic pop to ambient music, from lyrics like ‘fingers and toes respond when touched’ to echo-drenched indeterminable vocals, all smoothly transitioning in a cohesive and luscious release. The opening half, from ‘Window’ to ‘El Amohadon de Plumas’ is a journey of electronic jazz, where synth lines
It’s likely that 2016 will be remembered as a collective slap in the face. We lost a number of cultural icons, Trump became president, the UK voted to exit the EU, Aleppo saw one of the worst humanitarian crisis of the decade, and that was all in the last half of the year. Released on the
"We’re very proud of it. Not least because, for the past few years, life hasn’t been particularly easy for us, and our music reflects our state of mind. There were these moments when we presumed we had lost our sense of celebration, and would just be stuck in these gloomy, lamenting and inevitably
With any pop artist, when you strip everything away, a singular question remains: ‘why should I care?’ All the great artists know this, and even when singing through the most banal platitudes, they find a way to make you care. About their story. About their life. ‘Mariam’, a previous release from Mooroo, set the
A mission statement, taken from the Noland label Soundcloud: “NOLAND is not about global and local, not about identity, not about diversity and not about North and South cooperation. NOLAND is about a constellation of individuals, of identities, about laughing, arguing and the cosmic beauty of making music together in space which has
I’ve always, like many people, hated the term ‘fusion’ music. There’s an Indian restaurant down the road from where I used to live that advertised itself as a ‘fusion’ restaurant, blending Indian cuisine with fresh, innovative recipes. “Yes, you can have Tikka Masala but we have some new ways for you to enjoy it”