So apparently the wonderful music from Season 1 of the cult show called The Dewarists isn’t over yet. Episode 8 of the show had featured Midival Punditz collaborating with Humble The Poet and Monica Dogra in the fab ambience of Goan beaches to produce No I D Required. As it turns out, that was not the only song they produced in the three days they were together. There were three more songs, of which one song titled Silent Screams has been put out on soundcloud by the Punditz for free download (HT to Praveen VR for the find)! Slower in tempo than No ID.. but a good listen, mainly due to Shaair’s singing.  And a groovy arrangement.

So here is what you do. Click here or go to the widget below, and click on the download button. And soon, before the download limit has reached (if they have set such a thing). Enjoy the music! The important question now is whether Dewarists have more such unreleased tracks. If yes, hoping that we will soon get to hear those too.
Silent Screams – Punditz, Shaair and Humble The Poet (Free Download!) by Midival Punditz

It was some time in 2005 that I got first introduced to this song Giriraja Sutha (named Giriraj Sudha by the artists on their CD et al) by my good friend and partner at Music Aloud, Praveen VR. The song turned out to be a landmark song in my life for multiple reasons. That was probably the time I really started paying attention to the genre of fusion music, a major share of the office bandwidth was utilized in subsequent days in a mad rush to procure songs by various fusion bands. And that was the time Shankar Mahadevan, to me, got promoted to a pedestal above other contemporary film singers, this rendition of his (and other fusion songs of his I heard later on) totally floored me. And most importantly, that was the time I got introduced to the guitar God named John McLaughlin, and the fusion band Remember Shakti comprised, apart from him and Shankar M, of Zakir Hussain, U Srinivas and Selvaganesh Vinaykram. Hundreds of fusion songs I have heard since then, but this band has always remained special. I was lucky enough to catch them live when they came to Bangalore in 2006. One of the best concerts I have attended to date.

So coming to the point this post was supposed to be about, in February this year I shall be graced with that fortune yet again, when the band is making another of its concert tours in 5 different cities in India. Below is the schedule of the tour (source: johnmclaughlin.com). The tickets can be booked via bookmyshow. So if you love fusion music, mark off your calendars and make plans – this is one concert you DO NOT want to miss. They do not tour very often, for one thing.

• 5th February Ganesh Kala Kreeda Manch, Pune
• 7th February Shanmukhananda Auditorium, Mumbai
• 9th February Palace ground– Mekri Circle, Kaveri Junction, Bangalore
• 10th February Lalit Palace Ground– Hyderabad
• 11th February Music Academy Hall– M G ROAD, Chennai
• 12th February King George School, Dadar, Mumbai

And below are two songs from the band, to guide you in your decision making.

46 years, since A S Dileep Kumar was born. And 20 years, since he changed the way we perceive film music, with that score for Mani Ratnam – a combo which subsequently gifted some out-of-the-world music to us. Anyone who follows ARR’s music would undoubtedly agree that the sound of ARR’s music has changed over the years, in fact there are many who sorely miss the 90s music of ARR (yours truly included). But that is no reason to conclude that ARR has lost his touch, the man quite adequately proved that with that cracker of a soundtrack this year for Rockstar. Sadly though this writeup comes at a time when another soundtrack of his has released, which wouldn’t count among his best works courtesy the dubbed lyrics. Hardly a matter of concern though actually, given that there is always the Tamil original to fall back to. Therefore,  not letting that worry me on this wonderful day, here is wishing the maestro a lot more years of celebration and of lovely music. And as a birthday tribute, here is a compilation of my 30 fav instrumental tracks from Rahman (one of the few themes I could think of where the list could be a restricted to a fairly reasonable number of songs! ). Enjoy!

Two songs where the lyrics pretty much killed it for me were Sharminda Hoon and Phoolon Jaisi. The complexity of the former even in the Tamil version had taken some getting used to, but here it is back to square one, and Madhusree and Rahman on vocals also aren’t able to make up for the other factors. Phoolon Jaisi has Clinton Cerejo on vocals with Kalyani Menon retained from Tamil, with her original Malayalam lyrics. The references of naazuk and komal ladki seriously make it sound like Javed Akhtar penned some beauty product jingle! And a third place where the lyrics disappointed was the highlight of the original soundtrack, Aaromale, once again sung by Alphonse Joseph. I mean if they keep the lead hook in Malayalam, why not leave the rest of the song too as is? Well they don’t, and the resultant product doesn’t seem quite there. Shubh Shubh Ghadi.. in place of Swasthi
Swasthi.. is especially cringe-inducing. But overall if the song still retains some of its charm it is kudos to that truly God-level arrangement from ARR. Leon D’Souza sounds quite nice rendering Hosanna with Suzanne D’Mello doing a lovely job on chorus, but the decision to make Leon do the rapping is a bad move, his voice seems to be too mellow for rap. Rashid Ali and Shreya Ghoshal prove to be able replacements for Devan and Chinmayi singing the Hindi version of Anbil Avan, Sun Lo Zara. Almost every element of the arrangement is left untouched, except the transition from Mendelssohn’s Wedding March to a North Indian shehnai piece here instead of the South Indian wedding-based naadaswaram piece. And
that switch hurts, the juxtaposition was one of the highlights of the original.

The title song appears as Zohra Jabeen here, with Javed Ali replacing Karthik. Another commendable replacement, the man renders it beautifully, and the orchestration is the same guitar-led awesomeness that adorned the original. In Dost Hai Hum To Rahman goes for an almost complete makeover, making it a complete hip hop track but retains the violin hook that I had so loved in the original. Naresh Iyer leads the vocals with Jaspreet Jasz and Arya doing the rap. Interesting revamp, but not quite up to the original. And the last vocal track is the only original song specifically for the Hindi edition, Kya Hai Mohabbat, sung by the composer himself. Philosophical lyrics, melancholic tune, Rahman’s singing.
Works. And finally there are 4 instrumental tracks. Broken Promises is where Shreya Ghoshal builds on the Aaromale hook and delivers an ethereal Bageshri-based humming. Then there are two songs that, though they imply a Malayaliness in the title – Moments In Kerala and Jessie’s Land, don’t have anything Malayali about them. That said both are lovely listens – Moments In Kerala for its simplicity and the soulfulness in Prabhakar’s short violin solo; and Jessie’s Land for the breezy improv over the Hosanna lead hook, which is
rendered quite well by Megha. The final piece Jessie’s Driving Me Crazy by Sanjeev Thomas and Timmy is a regular rock song, nothing particularly memorable about it.

A soundtrack that will take much getting used to for people who are crazy about Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya, due mainly to Javed Akhtar. With a couple of songs which might
not work even then.

Music Aloud Rating – 7.25/10

Top Recos – Broken Promises, Zohra Jabeen, Moments In Kerala, Kya Hai Mohabbat