#m ashraf

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M.Ashraf & Noor Jehan - Disco Dildaar Mera

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M. Ashraf with Nahid Akhtar - Toune Kaha Aa Aa Aa (1976)

M. Ashraf is one of the  the best known Pakistani film composers, and Nahid Akhtar is considered one the greatest playback singers in Pakistan. I was reminded of this song after I posted the R.D. Burman track last week.  This one just might be even wilder, more psychedelic with crazy organ, out of control guitar, electronic weirdness…Its even got a guy bellowing things like “Come on, my honey!”

[ajnabi57]

When I first visited Pakistan-a quick foray into Lahore from Amritsar-in 1980 I was suitably…

When I first visited Pakistan-a quick foray into Lahore from Amritsar-in 1980 I was suitably impressed with all the imported cars on the streets. Compared with India, where the Ambassador’s shape had not changed in 30 years and anything imported would set you back several 100’s of % duty, this was an advanced country.

We got off the train at Lahore’s central station which was surrounded with…

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This week's track was Dama Dam Mas Qalandar (The Sound of Wonder) performed by M. Ashraf with Ahmed Rushdi. 

This performance is from the 1970s film Dekha Jaye Ga, one of the many hits to come from the Lahore film industry nicknamed Lollywood.

The song is an ancient spiritual in praise of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalander and has been versioned many times in both Pakistan and India.

I first discovered this version through the excellent Finders Keepers compilation The Sound Of Wonder! Rare Electronic Pop From The Lollywood Vaults 1973-1980. There's a fantastic fan-made YouTube clip that combines the song with Sesame Street's Grover to great effect.

This week we had quick responses!

BC (Wellington): This song sounds like it’s from some 70s Bollywood movie. It has some interesting instrumentation firstly starting off sounding quite industrial beginning with syncopated percussion then progressing to a quirky sound with the vocals and a mixture of different instruments. It’s hard tell what they are - accordion? Horns? Synthesizers? it’s sung in English. then again is it? It sounds like a mixture of English and some other language. It’s an unusual arrangement compared to Western ones and not one that I would say follows expected Western rules of composition. It’s as real mishmash. A mixture of middle eastern perhaps? Indian? A song of contrasts but quite catchy.

MBS (Sydney): Quirky – now that’s an understatement for this track! Perhaps this is a song straight off a Bollywood movie soundtrack – story-like lyrics, English intermingled with a foreign language that could be Hindi, super-weird 70s synthesiser sounds clanging with odd guitar riffs, echo-ey handclaps in the fade out as if from some ‘audience’ in the film … Every one of the many (!) verses threatens to lurch into a different style of music altogether, with such a strange array of novelty sounds and effects peppering the track. It’s quite a challenge trying to work out how old this track is – in conventional terms, the song could be anywhere between 30 and 50 years old – but the clumsy production “qualities” could be fooling me too. Musically the track doesn’t enlighten me terribly, but I’m sure in the context of the film I’m imagining it to be in, it would successfully illuminate the love story being told.

SL (London): Joyful in so many ways ... #Tuneful #Lyrical #MakesMeWantToDancical

DJO (British Columbia): "Martin Denny goes to Bollywood and its freaking me out. Did i just crash a wedding?… can you back up with that triangle dude!…Though i do like your synthi chops …but no I'm not going to sing with you.. Ohh fuck my date just started dancing! Ok when are you gonna start clapping?… Ohhh yah there you go! Let me out of here before i start  grinning and bouncing with the rest of this circus act!"

[yerdarlingdaily]

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Nahid Akhtar -- Susral vol. 1 (1977)

This psychedelic rocker was the work of genial Lollywood music director M Ashraf, who had his favorite singer, Nahid Akhtar, belt out those reverbed lines. When playback darling Runa Laila, who studied music in Karachi, moved back to her native Bangladesh upon its independence from Pakistan in 1971, she left a void for female Pakistani playback singers, which Nahid ably filled.

This track is really amazingly creative, utilizing a full canon of synth sounds, strings, tablas, surf guitar, garage organ and vocal effects. This guy was a music machine--his repertoire reportedly consists of 2,800 songs, from more than 400 films. Finders Keepers has a Lollywood collection out called Sound of Wonder! which largely consists of Ashraf/Akhtar collaborations... expect to see some of that soon.

track via Hindustani Vinyl