On any other time of the year, the Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton, UK is just another dairy farm  and probably the
only sound that you are most likely hear is the mooing of the cows. But for a few days almost every year since the early
70′s this piece of land becomes the Mecca of music lovers and hippies. Yes, this is Glastonbury and we are talking about
the Glastonbury Festival.

Glastonbury Festival or Glasto is the summer festival of music, it is one of the largest cultural festivals in the planet and has been held in Glastonbury for the last 40 years. This year’s edition got over two days back. The biggest attraction this time was supposed to be U2 and Bono is believed to have written a song exclusively for the festival. But an unfortunate accident forced U2 to back off, and they were replaced by Gorillaz. The other headlining acts were Stevie Wonder and Muse. The festival celebrated its 40 birthday this year and Stevie Wonder sang “Happy Birthday” to the festival on stage.

Glastonbury is much more than a showcase of music and festivities. Glastonbury was started as part of the free festival
movement of the 70′s. Even though the festival isn’t free any more, a lion’s share of the proceeds go to aid charities like
Oxfarm. It is interesting to note that such a huge enterprise of human gathering was started majorly by the efforts of a single man and that too in his private property. Micheal Eavis a sailor-turned-milkman owns the Worthy Farm and it was while sneaking into a Led Zeppelin concert with his then to-be-wife, that he got the idea of starting the Glasto Festival. During the earlier days going was tough and the festival was held on a shoe string budget. But slowly it began getting
bigger and bigger, the 2010 festival was reported to have costed 22 million pounds to produce.

Glastonbury is literally a swiss army knife of festivals. There are a lot of things happening there under the name of Glastonbury – there is music, films, dance, partying and even cabaret. It is your garden of earthly delights.The whole farm is divided into different areas and each area has it’s own attractions and performances.There are 4 music stages in Glastonbury. The Pyramid stage is the most important one staging the high profile performances. The stage is built from materials auctioned from a Ministry of Defence sale. The other stage is called “The Other Stage“. There is a stage named in honour of DJ John Peel and the fourth stage is called Acoustic Stage. There is an area called Block 9, a late night party zone where the party lasts all night long.The highest grounds of the farm, overlooking the rest of the festival, is occupied by the Green Field. This area is dedicated to the green movement and holds different sorts of activities to raise awareness about environment, community living etc.The other interesting feature of this festival is the Dance Village, which is basically a stage where disco, house and various other dance music guys perform. Then there is the Kidzfield, a mini recreation park for the kids within the Worthy Farm. There is lot more to Glasto than what I have captured here. It is amazing that so many people, most of them at different levels of inebriation, maintain some sort of order amidst all these revelry. It may be that the spirit of the festival takes you over and captivates you so much that you act like a collective soul perfectly in tandem with the rhythm of the festival. Yes, there have been incidents contradicting this but they are way too minor to be accounted.

While some of the prominent artists to perform at Glastonbory 2010 were Gorillaz, Muse, Shakira, Vampire Weekend and Stevie Wonder, you can check out the HUGE line up on the Glastonbury website. Fortunately this time there were no rains; Glastonbury is infamous for its mud and rain. The farm is a low lying area and heavy rain can turn it into rivers and pools. The sanitation of the festival is also a major challenge. All the filth and dirt generated by the thousands of festival goers has been handled in a responsible manner. Glastonbury also offers an amazing camping experience in the meadows of the Worthy Farm. It is a holistic entertainment experience where everything you do is fun. Glastonbury Festival is a definitive thing to do for a hippie tourist. It is closest to “the summer of love” experience we can get. This is the Mahakumbh of music and performing arts and I hope it goes on forever.

Kahaani Aankhon Ke is simply mesmerizing, starting on an alluring acoustic guitar-dominated arrangement, steadily building up to a rock mode, and then mellowing down to the way it started. And justifying their choice, Neuman Pinto and Joi Barua do an awesome job on the vocals. Rock elements dominate the orchestration of Geet Mein as well, where the singing is taken up by Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya. Though not as captivating as Kahaani, Amit Trivedi‘s arrangement is good enough to get you hooked. Rock seems to be the dominant theme of the soundtrack, as Nadi Mein which follows next is also built on that template. Though the arrangement of this one bears unmistakable traces of Ek Hulchul Si from Dev D, Nadi.. would rate better in my list. Full credit to the vocalists, Amit, Joi and Neuman, who once again pull off a fine job.
With its interspersed folk-rock elements in orchestration, philosophical sort of lyrics and Mohan‘s earthy rendition, Naav Chadhti could very well pass off as an Agnee song! Yet another winner this one from Amit! Motumaster has Anurag Kashyap penning the funny lyrics. The song sees a big lineup of singers including Raman Mahadevan, Amitabh, Bonnie Chakraborthy, Kshitij Tarey, Amit’s ex-bandmate Sriram Iyer, Tochi, the MD and the lyricist. But the song turns out slightly disappointing in comparison with the songs heard so far. You can have a laugh at Anurag’s wittiness in places, but that is probably about it. But after that brief dip Amit Trivedi gets back in form come Aazaadiyaan. Starting off on a breezy ambient sort of orchestration, the song suddenly shifts to rock in the middle. While Amit Trivedi, Neuman Pinto and Amitabh Bhattacharya are once again brilliant behind the microphone, I loved the cameos by the harmonica and the sitar. For some strange reason the harmonica portion sounded to me like the refrain of Lux Aeterna from Requiem for a Dream! Things come to a close with a simple and poignant instrumental theme. Though it has been beautifully done, its functional nature might put it a step below the other tracks of the film.
Udaan is yet another near-perfect score from Amit Trivedi. Every composition that Amit does seems to be yet another step he takes towards greatness! Something that so reminds me of one Mr. A R Rahman! You can listen to Udaan here
MusicAloud Rating: 8.5/10
Recommended Tracks: Kahaani Aankhon Ke, Naav Chadhti, Aazaadiyaan

Pee Loon is delightful. Mohit Chauhan‘s rendition has a magical quality and lingers on. The chorus is very effective; Kailash Kher rendering with restraint works well and so do the harmonium phrases. The interplay of various styles in the arrangement is great and the transitions all through the song are seamless.  This song is being hummed all around, already!! The remix version has a different interlude with a new chorus phrase. However, it lacks the charm of the original. The other song promoted is Tum Jo Aaye. The track starts interestingly with earthy sounds; the chorus kicking in with prominent bass, promisingly. However, Pritam gets it wrong with the vocalist!! Tulsi Kumar‘s singing lacks the expressiveness the tune demands. Tum jo aaye Reprise paints another story altogether. The interplay of instruments is brilliant once again. The tabla and guitars are noteworthy in the sound scape. Both the interludes are also done well; the alaap layered with the chorus; the harmonium solo; and whats probably santoor in the second interlude. Raahat singing the whole track this time around makes a lot of difference. I am in love is another gratifying track.A strong tune with KK in the lead. The track uses harmonies through out the song effectively. The sound track has another version with excellent vocals by Karthik; the voice texture just perfect. The backing vocals shadowing the lead vocalist in the second verse is more effective in this version. The arrangement with minor modifications is more crisp in this version and complements the vocals beautifully. Too bad that we dont get to hear Karthik very often in Hindi!! Babu Rao Mast hai seems out of place in this album and is ordinary. The track with lots of electronic sounds, lacks in cohesion; The vocals dont add any value either. Parda, probably intended as a tribute to Pancham Da’s “Duniya mein” has Sunidhi in the lead. I would personally pick the original any day!!

The album has been worth the wait, for just Pee Loon, Tum Jo Aaye Reprise and I am in Love(2 versions); These in themselves provide a wholesome musical experience! You can listen to the soundtrack here.

Rating: 8/10 rating just the above four tracks..

Hindi film industry has seen a number of music directors but few have left their mark on the industry like R.D. Burman. The man who ruled the industry for almost three decades brought groove to the hindi film music introducing a lot of western themes to the music.

Today, when the world celebrates his 71^st birth anniversary, we join in by remembering the talent of this musical prodigy.

R.D. Burman’s talent was seen in hindi movies much before he officially started composing for them. The tune of the song “Sar Jo Tera Charaye” was composed by him as a child. He also played Harmonica in the song “Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara”.

RDB started his music career with Mehmood’s “Chote Nawaab” and then continued assisting his father on a few projects. However, his first independent hit movie was “Teesri Manzil” and then there was no looking back. In his career spanning almost three decades, Pancham Da gave music to 331 movies in 6 languages.

Few know that Pancham Da collaborated with a number of western musicians. Of his many English albums, “Pantera” – the album he produced with Jose flores – is the most well-known. Although not one of his best works, it proves the versatility of this musical genius.

The popularity that RDB’s music enjoyed in the 60’s and 70’s however subsided in the late 80s and 90s. He would have jumped back in the game after the soothing music of 1942: A Love Story. Unfortunately, he passed away on 4^th of January 1994 just weeks before the release of the movie.

Nevertheless, the legacy of Pancham Da continues with a number of DJs who keep remixing his classics. It just proves the timelessness of his music.

“The horn from hell” – that’s how a critic expressed his views on this instrument. Time magazine has listed it in its “10 most annoying sounds” list. As you have guessed correctly we are talking about the Vuvuzela. It is going to remain an indelible memory of this year’s edition of FIFA World Cup.

No one is sure about how Vuvuzela originated even though a musician called Freddie Maake claims that he invented the horn in the 70′s. Also the Nazareth Baptist Church came out with a demand to ban the horns at the stadiums as they consider it as their own and part of their rituals. The church uses a metal version whereas the Vuvuzelas seen in the stadium are made of plastic. The origins of the Vuvuzela can be traced back to the “Kudu” horn which was used to summon distant villagers to attend community gathering.

A Vuvuzela generates a pitch of B flat below C. An anonymous musician has written a concerto in B flat for Vuvuzela, more details are here. Here is a video wherein a Vuvuzela orchestra member demonstrates the proper usage the instrument.

The possibility of Vuvuzela becoming a regular instrument seems to be very remote. But it has definitely caught on the imagination or rather gathered the ire of the millions of soccer fans around the globe. So much so that Youtube recently introduced a new button to its videos. The button, denoted by a soccer ball icon, on clicking introduces the now-familiar vuvuzela drone to any video that you are watching. Not that I have seen it improve anything I watched as yet! The sound of an individual Vuvuzela has been compared to that produced by a flatulent elephant through its posterior. But the collective sounds of the Vuvuzelas resemble the hum of a million bees. Its incessant beehive buzz is posing serious headaches to the broadcasting companies covering the tournament. Accusations of ear damage and even viral infections have been made against the instrument. But the South Africans seemed to be unfazed and are blowing their own hellish trumpet.

Below is the concerto I had spoken of earlier. Though musically there isn’t a lot to it, it does sound way better than how the instrument sounds over a World Cup match!

Coming from SEL and sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Ali Zafar, Ullu Da Patta is a fun-ride all the way, for its flippant lyrics and equally flippant arrangement, which does bear traces of Move Your Body. Loved the “He’s a good looking Ullu Da Pattha” refrain! The remix also has innovative elements of its own to catch the ear. The trio’s only other score for the soundtrack, I Love Amreeka, though a tad mediocre by SEL standards, is still entertaining for its frivolous folk elements, and the singing by Shankar Mahadevan, Ali Zafar, Akriti Kakar and Anusha Mani. The reprise version has everything just the same, except that Shankar Mahadevan is missing in the ensemble, leaving Ali Zafar to take charge. Zafar may be a good vocalist but he surely isn’t as good as Shankar Mahadevan! There is also a third shorter and even less attractive version called Welcome to Amreeka which has Ali Zafar doing a solo.
Dhruv Dhalla may have given a spunky score for Khosla Ka Ghosla but his composition here with DJ Abhijit Vaghani, Shor Sharaba, doesn’t come anywhere close. The track delivered by Jaspreet Singh and Suraj Jagan sounds more like a remix than an original track. Dhruv however improves matters in Kukduk, a song which while having your feet tapping all along, also bears testimony to the limitations of Dhruv Dhalla as a composer with its strong resemblance to Chak De Phatte. Master Saleem does a good job on the vocals as well. The last song is completely Ali Zafar‘s own. He does the vocals, composing, lyrics. And Bus Ek Soch does sound the usual Ali Zafar material too, a very nostalgic charm all about it.
Multiple composers. Comedy movie. Ideal ingredients for a disaster soundtrack. But Tere Bin Laden fortunately is not that bad, with at least a couple of tracks that will have a consistent audience for some time. You can listen to the soundtrack here.
MusicAloud rating: 7/10
Recommended Tracks: Ullu Da Pattha, Bus Ek Soch, Kukduk

Soundtracks composed by classical exponents tend to be in most cases a bittersweet experience, more so when such tracks happen for movies of a parallel nature. On the one side while they ensure the highest quality of music, the compositions bear a heavy influence of their regular line of music and hence they invariably get listened to by very few people owing to the esoteric nature. Scored by grammy-nominated sitarist Ustad Shujaat Hussain Khan and Shaarang Dev Pandit, son of Pandit Jasraj, the soundtrack of Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta is yet another one in that league.
The two ghazals that start off the playlist are both beautifully arranged. First one, Ai Khuda, has been delivered perfectly by Ustaad Shujaat Hussain himself, bread-and-butter stuff for him. And the second one, Barhaan Dil, has two variants. The first one has Shreya Ghoshal doing the vocals and KK does the honours in the male version. The third song, Fariyaad Hai, is a melancholic folk ballad, fittingly sung by Richa Sharma who has in the past delivered quite a few such songs. The longest track of the album is Behoshi Nasha sung by Udit Narayan and Shreya. And the only track where the composers have tried to bring in a slightly filmy touch to the arrangement, producing a breezy melody characterised by its flute sequences. The final vocal track, Ajnabi Aankhein is also one with a ghazal flavour, sung by Roop Kumar Rathod. And this is the one I liked most, for its haunting tone and the surprise rock-ish twist in the first interlude.
The last four tracks are instrumentals all with heavy classical flavour. First one, called Nailpolish on the toes, has been composed in raag Sindhubhairavi I felt, and is dominated by flute and sitar. The second one, Losers Theme, seems to be in raag Abhogi, and has some splendid flute playing to a soft background of acoustic guitar and keys. Solitaire Blues is a continuation of Losers Theme with the flute playing on at a faster pace. A Shade of Red is for most part an alaap on the sitar, which is followed by unrelated bits and pieces, denoting the situational nature of the track.
The four instrumentals shall make for excellent background material, but having read the plot of the movie I doubt if anyone would be paying attention to the background!
Music Aloud Rating: 7.5/10
Recommended Tracks: Ajnabi Aankhein, Fariyaad Hai, Losers Theme

Vivek Nenmini

“All I really had was my talent. Without that I wouldn’t be welcome at the White House.” – Sammy Davis, Jr.

Chicago based, originally formed in Nashville, Welcome to Ashley (WTA) is plentifully talented. Soaring guitars (Pete Javier), taut old-school drumming (Sherrlia Bailey), effortlessly thumping everyone in line on bass (Jeremy Barrett) and a deep soulful voice (Coley Kennedy) keep you engaged throughout the thirty minute record Beyond the Pale. A follow up to their 2009 release Absent Man, Beyond the Pale is at once lyrically darker and with short and punchy tracks comes through as a record showcasing the bands musical influences of post-punk and new wave.

At first playing, they do sound much like The Smiths; Coley Kennedy’s vocals are quite uncannily reminiscent of Morrissey. But on a second (which eventually leads to more) and keener listening WTA promises more and move a couple of notches up on the ‘potential’ meter. What a Day It Was For Dying bleeds through as a morbid opener with dark, drug/alcohol fumes-enveloped lyrics. The gloomy undertones continue on Destination before they make a complete turn from dismal to cheerful in the upbeat Those Dreams of Mine. The Catbird Seat sets Pete’s guitar and Sherrlia’s drums pacing a fast conversation with Coley as they walk the streets of their adopted home, Chicago.

Gotta Get Back to You is a typical alt-country belter. My favourite I Love Monday Mornings is soulful with a cathartic refrain, ideal to get past those dreadfully blue hours. Light of Love is that quintessential pop-rocker which will get all the working youth’s heads bobbing in unison at the local pub. (If only the pub played more than the ubiquitous classic anthems. Sigh! I shall for now leave the rant against such pubs to a later piece.) From Monday mornings WTA proceed to the crisply arranged, intelligently written love ode- Thursday Afternoon and conclude with the haunting End of the Line.

In an interview to Rolling Stone a while back, Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin stated “There’s still incredible merit in making albums.” WTA’s Beyond the Pale, at once validates the pronouncement completely and is indeed incredible. With such powerful talent WTA could one day, if not sleep at the White House like Sammy Davis Jr. managed to, take centre stage at a show that can bring down the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

You can listen to Beyond the Pale in its entirety on their website.

Episode 2 titled Will opened with an Urdu version of Khaled‘s classic Aicha. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fame Amanat Ali got a well-deserved opening on the show, and made good his debut with a soulful rendition (though nobody can quite replace Khaled’s brilliance!). The lounge-ish orchestration adhered to the Khaled version for most part. A good cover all in all. Song no. 2 was a poem by Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai called Moomal Rano (or is it Momal Rano?). Wiki tells me Momal Rano is a tragic love story like Heer Ranjha. Fakir Juman Shah and his four-men Sufi ensemble rendered this song. The song has a beautiful old-worldly feel to it, right from the raw voices to the mostly traditional instruments backing the vocals. Even the video is very quaint, five singers fervidly strumming on their tanpuras. And in a trance-like manner the song gains speed as it progresses. Very addictive track!
Two sterling performers from Season 2, Noori and Zeb & Haniya, came together on the next song written by Noori’s Ali Hamza, which was called Tann Dolay. And once again they produced a super number! This one stands out for the vocal excellence of the four singers complementing each other so well. The arrangement was spot on as usual. Lahore-based rock band Entity Paradigm debuted on Coke Studio with Song No. 4 which was a cover of Sajjad Ali‘s 1993 track Bolo Bolo. The cover pretty much followed the original in its arrangement, just raising the tempo a bit. But I would rate this version below Sajjad Ali’s, the vocals not quite upto the mark I felt. One more reason is the guitar solo which formed the second interlude of the original song being done away with. Bringing up the rear were Rizwan and Muazzam, qawwali singing brothers who are nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, with a song originally sung by their uncle, Naina De Akhay. The duo sounded almost like the maestro with their powerful rendition, especially in the sargam portions which they delivered with mind-boggling speed and accuracy.
Another episode, and another set of wonderful tracks. I look forward to the July 4 episode. And totally in awe of Noori and Zeb & Haniya’s consistency!  You can download the songs here.
Music Aloud Rating: 8.5/10
Recommended Tracks: The only track I didn’t find that upto the mark was Bolo Bolo. Can’t really pick a top 3 from the rest!

The groovy dance pop elements of Nana Chi Taang will have you hooked right from the word go. Kunal Ganjawala‘s boy band-like voice comes out best in songs with Western flavour. And for that reason he does a fab job here too. Not pointing out an instance of plagiarism here, but the recurrent humming loop reminded me of the humming loop towards the end of Rabbi Shergill‘s Bulla Ki Jaana. The remix is also a good listen with some innovative improvisations. Sajde, with its folksy arrangement, is the standard Pritam romantic melody. But KK and Sunidhi‘s flawless delivery mitigates the banality of the tune. The remix which sees Sunidhi replaced by Harshdeep Kaur, is not so appealing though.
Shehzad Roy makes his debut in Bollywood with Bullshit, guest composer Shani‘s take on Shehzad Roy’s controversial 2008 satire on Pakistani politics called Laga Reh which was promptly banned there. Priyadarshan was better off using the original track itself though, as Shani’s version doesn’t compare with Laga Reh (which you can watch in the space below this review). And finally there is Aila Re Aila, the song which currently accompanies the TV trailers. Sung by Daler Mehndi and Kalpana Patowary, this one is another definitive Pritam dance track, strongly reminiscent of Dil Mein Baji Guitar from Apna Sapna Money Money. But it packs quite a punch nevertheless owing to the exuberance of the singers. The remix is a fast forward version of the song at best.
By regular comedy movie standards, Khatta Meetha‘s soundtrack is pretty decent. Happy to see Shehzad Roy debut in Bollywood!
Music Aloud Rating: 7/10
Recommended Tracks: Nana Chi Taang, Aila Re Aila, Sajde