Someone Played the Music in My Head

Of all the music that I listen to and love, fusion has intrigued me the most. Specifically between Indian and Western. I've heard all kinds of it, ranging from the classical (Ravi Shankar and Phillip Glass) to jazz (Shakti), from folk (Tri Atma) to rock (Indus Creed, Indian Ocean, Thermal And A Quarter) and pop (Bally Sagoo, Euphoria, Orange Street, et al). Some film music is also great – A.R. Rahman and Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy spring to mind. I scour the Internet for Indian influences in music from around the world.

Being a musician myself, I've experimented endlessly with ideas. My hard drive is littered with dozens of incomplete pieces of music that draw from Indian classical and folk on the one hand and rock on the other. In my head, I could hear the possibilities. But I've neither heard that perfect piece of hindutsani/rock fusion, nor been able to create it myself.

That was until I heard the Mekaal Hasan Band (MHB), from Pakistan.

Their last album, Sampooran, was released two years ago, if I have it correct. To my mind, this is it. This is the music I've been hearing in my head for years. I have not heard the CD itself, only what is available on their website at http://www.mekaalhasanband.com/ and at http://www.muziq.net/songs/Mekaal_Hasan/Sampooran/. The sound is not great as the tracks have been downsampled significantly. But do go and check it out. There are some great videos too.

Comparisons with Indian bands are silly to my mind, but perhaps inevitable. I love what Indian Ocean and TAAQ are doing. Some Euphoria too. But I think the direction is different. Whereas Indian bands tend to have a lighter, "poppier" sound, MHB is more rock to my mind. The fusion by Indian bands is much more adventurous and tends to embrace many more influences. As I read somewhere, the reason for this is the wide-range of music that India has - from north to south, from east to west. In comparison, Pakistan has less to draw on. As a result, bands like MHB tend to be more focused on a particular style. And perhaps because of this, they hone their art to a greater degree, whereas Indian bands produce more disparate music.

Whatever may be the case, MHB, to my mind, has produced the most seamless Hindustani classical-Sufi-jazz-rock fusion I've heard to date. It's hard to tell where one leaves off and the other picks up. Or is it merely sitting on top of each other all along? In fact, I would venture to say that 'fusion' is a wholly inappropriate term here, because inherent in that term is some element of influences being 'forced together'. No such forcing is evident here. This music has a very organic feel to it... like it is as it was meant to be.

I could go on. But I'm a musician. Not a music critic. So I'll urge you to hear the music and judge for yourself.