#mekaalhasan

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Starting #spring right — Sapphire releases an #originaltrack to launch their Sapphire Spring 2018 #Lawn Vol.1 — get ready for 23rd Feb! #Sapphire Spring 2018 Anthem Full song: https://youtu.be/_iBLF7POZ9E Producer: #MekaalHasan Vocals: #SameenQasim #sapphirepakistan #sapphirelawn #spring2018 #launch #sapphirewoman

[eclecticeuphony]

Sampooran (2004) - Mekaal Hasan Band

It's a shame how less known this band is in India.

I was reading about Javed Bashir after having watched Coke Studio Season 2, and got to know that he is the lead vocalist for a fusion band called "Mekaal Hasan Band". The band describes themselves as a "Sufi-Rock" band, which is just the least to say about them. The frontman of the band is Mekaal Hasan has learnt from Berklee College of music, Boston and is a maestro at the instrument. He also produces for not only his band, but also other famous musicians around Pakistan. He has worked for film soundtracks as well. To bring a classical flavour to the tracks, we have Mohammad Papu on various flutes, whose sound is seldom heard in the songs through an electronic filter (which is so ahead of it's time and is awesome).

The band has 2 albums, "Sampooran", released in 2004 and "Saptak" - released in 2009 (even Wikipedia is confused about when it has released).

These guys are serious musicians! There is wisdom of Baba Bulleh Shah in their lyrics, the intricacies and variations of western harmonies, the heft of electric guitar, years and years of classical training and practice by the hindustani musicians. This makes the songs very serious outputs.

This band started off as an instrumental-focussed band, and these experiments can be seen through tracks like Andholan from Saptak, Sampooran and Late Moon from Sampooran; but later turned into a vocal and classical melody driven band.

The best part of all the songs in this album is Hindustani Classical arrangement of intense and depp Punjabi/Urdu lyrics, paired with complementing western guitars and jazz-like fluid, improvisation-based percussion. This kind of percussion goes hand in hand with Hindustani Classical, because of the improvising-oriented nature of Hindustani Classical music.

The songs that are not lyrically based on Sufi kalaams are based on Bandishes and Khyals from Hindustani Classical music.

The opening number "Sajan", "Waris Shah" and "Rabba" are mellow and easy, a quality that is not seen in many of Mekaal Hassan's tracks. Especially, the second album "Saptak" tends to be not only far more quick and upbeat, but also intense and heavy melodically, and harmonically.

Hats off to the title track, "Sampooran" which is a guitar-flute jugalbandi of sorts based around Raag Yaman. This song is also quite grave in it's mood, though it is Raag Yaman. A small section of this song aptly utilizes Javed Bashir's aalaps around a famous Hindustani Classical Bandish. What vocal quality! There seems to be wisdom of a thousand years in Javed Bashir's vocals - both lyrically and melodically. Mekaal Hassan, on his electric guitar also follows the Raag Yaman scale while playing in a blues-rock style. Which is downright awesome, and might even sound better than the flute parts at times.

"Sanwal" was probably the biggest hit of Mekaal Hassan Band that brought it to popular notice (to those who know the band). "Sanwal", "Darbari" and "Ya Ali" are heavy and gravely. The flute, guitars and vocals in all the three songs are so intense, none of them tend to tone down for the other - but that's what you want to listen to when you listen to Mekaal Hassan Band! That's the style that defines the band. "Sanwal" and "Ya Ali" have sufi lyrics, while "Darbari" lyrically belongs to a more western / central part of Asia, and not Pakistan or India as such; while is melodically around Raag Darbari Kanada.

All in all, this album is an amazing introduction to a band that is so sharp in terms of it's melodies. It is intense, serious, and even aggressive at parts (the climax of Darbari and Ya Ali's progressive composition).

Do give it a listen. Mekaal Hassan Band have done this in 2004. That is unbelievable! They were years ahead of their time. It is only after 2009, after the popular Coke Studio, and festivals like NH7, that people started enjoying indie music of this sort.

The bad part about this band is that they have disbanded quite a lot, especially since 2010. It's quite the heartbreak considering the mature melodies that they came up with and the standards they have set in just 2 albums. Javed Bashir left, came back, and left again. Asad Abbas was the vocalist for a while, and now they are an Indo-Pak music act, featuring an Indian female vocalist.

http://www.mekaalhasanband.com/