Happened to listen to some songs from this album Tere Pyar Mein by Pakistani singer Imraan Danish, which was released in May 2008. Starting off as a bassist, Imraan played bass and wrote music for different bands before going for musical tutelage under Ustad Rustam Fateh Ali Khan and completed this debut album of his as solo singer, last year.

Talking of the album, I heard five songs from the album and found them to be quite engaging.  Rooh is the best of the lot, a song leaning towards devotional. Bardti Hi Jai sounds like a retro Bollywood disco track. The title track has slight Latino elements. And Tujhay and Faslay are  decent melody tracks.

Though not something that could be called an exceptional debut, Tere Pyar Mein is definitely worth buying and Imraan Danish shows a lot of promise. We provide here the track listing of the album and a couple of videos. You can listen to more samples and buy the album online at VIP Records. Also, to know more about Imraan visit his myspace page or facebook page.

Track Listing:
1. Bardti Hi Jai
2. Tere Pyar Mein
3. Dil Tujhay
4. Rooh
5. Tu Nay Churaya
6. Kaisay
7. Chandni
8. Pyas Baqi
9. Faslay
10. Rungeely
11. Deewana

Bonus Tracks

1. Bardti Hi Jai ( Club)
2. Tere Pyar Mein ( Remix)
3. Faslay ( Remix)

Came across this compilation of David Garrett’s 2008 album Encore while I was looking for his recently oft discussed violin cover of MJ’s Smooth Criminal. And what a good find it turned out to be. While this 16-track album features covers of songs ranging from Smooth Criminal to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck to Queen’s Who Wants To Live Forever?, David also plays some popular western classicals like Vivaldi’s Summer (Four Seasons), Brahms’ Hungarian Dance #5 etc. David Garrett, for the uninitiated, is the 2010 Guinness Book official entry for the fastest violinist in the world. That must be more than enough of an intro I guess!! Enjoy the album.

Smooth Criminal (Incidentally I found a better violin cover of Smooth Criminal played by Alex Depue which can be seen in the second half of this video. Staccato is just awesome for the song!)

Who Wants to Live Forever?

Clair Du Lune

He’s a Pirate

Summertime

Hungarian Dance No.5

Chelsea Girl

Summer

O Mio Babbino Caro

Air

Thunderstruck

New Day

Ain’t No Sunshine

Rock Prelude

Winter Lullaby

Zorba’s Dance

Anu Malik is totally out of gas, as is evident from his flicks of late. And he continues his (lack of) form in Teree Sang. His first song, Chal Mera Haath, is replete with stereotyped beats and a dull tune. His daughter Anmol Malik is decent on the vocals though. His next song is an even more unimpressive Lal Quile, where he attempts a rap akin to Ashok Kumar’s Rail Gaadi from Aashirwad. Even Anmol and Shaan’s singing do little to capture your interest. The best that can be said about the two numbers from Anu Malik is that they would sound way better when you listen to Bappi Lahiri’s Miss Baabloo!! Rendered by the man himself, this song is totally mindless and annoying. For that matter I have been annoyed with Bappida eversince he made that ridiculous claim about Jai Ho being inspired from his Ramba Ho. Coming back to the album however, Bappida does a surprise rebound next with Tere Bin. A song slightly reminiscent of Kailasa’s Teri Deewani in its progression, Raja Hasan and Sumedha Karmahe splendid on the vocals (Darbar I guess the raag is). Sumedha, by the way, was a finalist on SaReGaMaPa 07. Wonder where she was all this while. The debutant composer duo Sachin-Jigar make their entry with the pop style I will be there for you sung by Dominique and Clinton Cerejo. Next up is Leja Leja, a soft melody well arranged and rendered wonderfully by another debutante, Jahnvi Shrimankar and Salim (Shehzada I guess, from the voice). Maula Mila De, their next song, is a very engaging Sufi rock number sung to good effect by Suhail. Following up on the same mood, the duo belt out a second sufi rock song, Morey Saiyan, this time getting behind the mike themselves. And this one is even better than the previous one. The first interlude is totally engrossing with the classicalized guitar sequence (I have my doubts that it is Niladri Kumar on electric Sitar, as he did in Alvida from Metro). The duo sign off the album with a milder and folksy Rab Milya, coming out in Jigar’s voice. While Jigar has done a good job of the singing, Sachin and Jigar once again prove their astuteness with the orchestration.
Sachin-Jigar totally steal the thunder with their five songs in Teree Sang. Bappi Lahiri does a schizophrenic act, giving one totally crappy track and another very enjoyable number. And as for Anu Malik, consistency is the word! And hey, a soundtrack devoid of any remix!!

Some of Shantanu Moitra’s best songs have come off the vocals of Shreya Ghoshal. And so it is that Shreya Ghoshal and lyricist Ajay Jhingran render with aplomb the sprightly Bhai Re, a song reminiscent in parts of Lage Raho. The MD employs just an accordion and guitar for most part of the interludes, and the effect is scintillating. And nice idea bringing in a Thavil!! The middle-eastern tune of Dekho Ji Dekho, though slightly repetitive, will keep you engaged mainly due to the high energy singing of Dibyendu Mukherjee and Sunidhi. With its slight semiclassical elements, Jheeni Jheeni sung by Bhupinder and Hamsika Iyer is a very soothing kind of song. Shantanu Moitra is spot on with the instruments while the singers are simply brilliant. The bluesy title song, Gun Gun Mann Ka, has Shaan crooning away with Shantanu’s vocoded voice chanting Bengali lines in the background. If anything, the unconventionality in the arrangement will have you hooked to this one.
Short and sweet, this latest offering from Shantanu Moitra.

Jay Z is back!! After over a year of waiting, the ace hip-hopper’s newest album shall finally be out today. The Blueprint 3, a revisit to his 2001 classic The Blueprint is officially scheduled for release on September 11 (eighth anniversary of the release of Blueprint), but its first single Run This Town shall hit the stands today. What makes this more exciting is the fact that the song features star singer Rihanna and rapper Kanye West. If this single is anything to go by, The Blueprint 3 is going to be another super album from Jay Z!! Well here is the song for you to make a judgement yourself.

You can also listen to the song on Jay Z’s myspace page.

I couldn’t help but post this, a little gem stumbled upon by mere chance, a sweet surprise. Ladies and gentlemen presenting the the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain! They are a bunch of blokes who have set out to interpret the world with their Ukes. They have collaborated with Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Kaiser Chiefs and David Arnold to name a few. As an instrument Uke is blessed with the ability to captivate the listener in the first listen itself and they have exploited it to the hilt. Watch this brilliant piece of work.

Visit their web page for more vids.

Since I got hold of this album late and happened to read two excellent reviews already written, I was initially thinking of not writing a review of Kaminey. But I am now so hooked to it that I decided to pen down my thoughts anyways. The best song of the lot is indeed the roller-coaster ride that is Dhan Te Nan!! The gangster-like motif on the line Dhan Te Nan and the recently oft-used surf guitaring (Pump It, Cash) complemented wonderfully by Sukhwinder’s and Vishal Dadlani’s power-packed singing. Whatte song!! The hip-hoppish remix with Bob Omulo’s rap has been nicely done as well, but I really couldn’t see a requirement for that after the brilliant original version. Coming to Pehli Baar, when you see Mohit Chauhan in the credits section the expectations from the song are set. This song is no different either, no negatives intended. Pehli Baar is a brilliant composition, Mohit living upto his reputation in delivering such breezy melodies. But I feel if he goes on like this people might start getting fed up. There was a time when Lucky Ali used to be similarly typefied, his voice reminding of associated Caribbean-style beats et al. I thought the success of ARR’s Masakalli would have led MDs to give him faster numbers but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Coming back to the review however, next up is the title track. When you have a title like Kaminey, you would expect a violent abusive sort of song. But Vishal totally takes you by surprise here, dishing out a soft number that would hardly have you thinking of the title as an abuse. The instrumentation has been superb, especially the orchestral second interlude. The violin segment just blew me away!! And splendid singing by Vishal Bharadwaj. Kailash Kher and Sukhwinder Singh render the folksy Fatak to perfection. But the song reminded me of his older songs like Omkara. The whipping sound accompanying the word Fatak is nice. The singer I was waiting for, Rekha Bharadwaj, enters in Raat Ke Dhaai Baje, an item number I presume. As always, its sheer delight to hear sing, with excellent support given by Sunidhi Chauhan. I was surprised to hear Suresh Wadkar in this song given the genre. But he does his part very well in his own unique way. Vishal also slows things down a bit in the middle for Suresh. Other vocalists joining in are Kunal Ganjawala and Earl. Again I found the remix a redundancy. Go Charlie Go, the instrumental theme of the movie, is a reprise of Dhan Te Nan, albeit with more retro whodunit sort of music, heavy beats et al. A fitting end to the soundtrack. Vishal Bharadwaj continues to surprise with his diversity. And I am not complaining!!

Meet Blackbud. They are a 3 piece band from Wiltshire, England. I just listened to their new single, “You can run” from their eponymous album and thought may be they are a one-song-wonder-band and then I listened to couple of songs from their first album. They are good, no doubt. Well written songs and quite refreshing stuff.  They are already being compared to Led Zep and Radiohead.  Here is a video of their latest single from Blackbud. This one is very Radioheaded.  “Forever” and “Heartbeat” is also recommended.

It seems to be a really bad month for Indian music. Less than a week after D K Pattammal left us, Hindustani virtuoso Gangubai Hangal breathed her last earlier today at Hubli.
Born in Dharwad in 1913, Gangubai got trained under the tutelage of the renowned Sawai Gandharva in the Kirana Gharana, the same gharana that produced such greats as Bhimsen Joshi and Pt. Channulal Mishra. She was also one of the very few ladies to come out of the illustrious gharana. She made her musical debut at the 1924 Belgaum session of the Indian National Congress. A strict purist, she always believed in the classical tradition of music. In one of the rarest instances of recording for a movie, she sang a song in the Marathi movie Vijachi Lagan. Gangubai was awarded with the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award at different stages of her life, for her outstanding contribution to the world of Hindustani music. Her autobiograpy titled Nanna Badukina Haadu (The Song of my life) was released three years back.
With Gangubai’s demise ends a great era in Hindustani music. Below is a video of her performance.

Beth Ditto is probably the coolest person in alternative rock. She is the lead singer of the Gossip who by the way have released a new album Music for Men after the successful Standing in the Way of Control.

Here is a video of the single “Heavy Cross” from Music for Men. This song  sounds a bit like Franz Ferdinand, the guitars and all. Can we call this  dance rock? I guess we can.