There's something undeniably special about Kailash Kher's music, particularly the way he captures the essence of a woman's perspective in love. Listening to his songs feels like being truly seen and understood. The vulnerability, the intensity, the all-encompassing joy that comes with loving someone completely.
Soulmate (genre: blues rock): formed in 2003, based in shillong. they mostly sing in english. i would recommend love you, voodoo woman, shillong (sier lapalang)
Indian Ocean (genre: multi. mostly jazz and rock and folk fusion): formed in 1990, based in delhi. they sing in multiple languages. i would recommend bagh aayore, shoonya, jaadu maaya
Moheener Ghoraguli (genre: multi; rock (folk and blues), jazz, baul, american folk): formed in 1975, based in kolkata. they sang in bengali. i would recommend ei shomoy amar shomoy, amar priyo caffe, sei phuler daal
chandrabindoo (genre: rock, multi): formed in 1998, based in kolkata. they sing in bengali. famous music composer pritam was a part of chandrabindoo! recommended: hridoy, geet gobindo, ami amar mone
Pakistan:
Junoon (genre: sufi rock): formed in 1990, based in lahore and nyc. multilingual. i would recommend: sayonee, yaar bina, azadi
Entity Paradigm (genre: rock): formed in 2000 (but they kept breaking up and rebanding every few years. also entity and paradigm used to be separate bands till they joined. yes this is the one with fawad khan. this is very mainstream. (<- girl saying this as if half the others are Not) anyway), based in lahore. they mostly sing in urdu afaik. recommended: hamesha, waqt, fitrat
Mekaal Hasan Band (genre: sufi rock, alternative rock): formed in 2001, based in lahore. they are multilingual, but mostly urdu afaik. recommended: raba, ranjha, ghunghat
noori: formed in 1996, based in lahore. multilingual. recommended: yariyaan, meray log, dil ki qasam
Recorded this snippet of the Al-Firdaus Ensemble, a Sufi music group influenced by the great Muslim poets of Al-Andalus, which I saw perform tonight for the Mawlid al-Nabi (birthday of the Prophet). Every time this singer opened his mouth to sing my eyes started welling up with tears… his voice was so beautiful. It touched me the same way Jeff Buckley’s soaring voice touches me.
May be music is my first love even before I knew computers and tech. Ghazals, qawwalis, sufi music - my love since childhood and school days. I still remember singing these songs with my friends during class VIII and IX. May be later due to my academics and the busy schedule I lost touch but whenever I listen to these songs now I’m taken back to those golden days, the days of innocence and peace.
These are not regular music, regular lyrics. They have feelings in each and every word. They have depth. They have life and listening to them is an experience of a lifetime. My love for the language Urdu has come from here itself.
The music, the lyrics emerge you in to them.
These kind of music are not like today’s gen where songs are made mainly for reels and social media - the 30s and 1 min cuts.
These music, these songs knew no length. They can go up to 20-30 mins long or even longer. I’ll share such music too in this series. And we love them for what they are.
I myself would have loved to be present in a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or a Jagjit Singh concert. But somethings just can’t happen now. They are legends, maestros and till this day I don’t think we have been able to credit them properly and thank them enough.
Switching it up after Corvus Corax, and going with Niyaz, the Persian Sufi-trance group. Their performances involve elaborate light shows combined with dance. Hands down one of my favorite bands of all time.
« Ayy Yorum Biyo » by the legendary Tajik singer Muboraksho.
In 2009 the Iranian group Kiosk covered this song in the Iranian dialect ( « Yarom Bia » ) with the help of the Sufi artist Mohsen Namjoo. The group preserved the Tajik origins of the song and paid tribute to Muboraksho by keeping the lyric « از بدخشانمه ... ( ...from Badakhshan ) » and featuring clips from Soviet director Sergei Parajanov’s 1969 film « The Colour of Pomegranates (Цвет граната) » in the music video.