Nusrat and Michael Brooke . . . The Night Song(s)

The tracks Lament or Intoxicated from the album Night song by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brooke speak volumes about the musical understanding of these two geniuses and not only that of their own traditional styles but of the other's as well. Electronic music could have sounded nothing but intrusive with Qawwalis had it not been for Michael and if not for Nusrat's original voice the overall impact of the tracks would have been anything but cliched. Maybe this is where the years of penance comes into play. Even in a slightly lighter and more popular track like Tere Bina Nahi Lagda Dil Mera which has high recall for all those who follow Nusrat, there is a freshness that Michael has lent with his innovative use of guitars and once again some fantastic electronic elements. The song truly evoles what its rechristened title suggests, Longing. Interestingly, this album's title has also been thoughtfully decided because it couldn't have been heard at any better time than the night. We have spent many evenings on my terrace listening to this album with friends who equally enjoy music.

On this album, Michael holds his ground by chosing to do what he's best at - infusing unique guitar sounds in the original melodies and embellishing it with select electronic sounds. Michael's brilliance with use of guitar sounds goes back to The Joshua Tree by U2 where Michael created a unique guitar sound for the group. He uses a technique of directly plugging the guitar into a preamp instead of a voiced guitar amplifier. He adds a variety of effects using processors and this makes his guitar sounds very unique when one hears tracks like those on this album with NFAK.  At the same time, Nusrat pours out his passion taking the listener in a few seconds to a meditative state. Even those who are not ardent listeners of any particular genre of music have been mesmerized by these tracks whenever i have played them. The high point of these tracks is their repeatability. I seldom come across creations that one can listen for years together and not get tired of the voice or the music. I have been listening to this album since 2005 and the sensitivities continue to grown on me. But its not one of those albums which doesn't get your attention at the first instance but needs to grow on you. This one catches the listener unawares because of its sound as well as the first class sound mixing.

There is no way that one can hear conflicting music styles in these kind of creations unlike the downright cheap gimmicks of wannabe artists from both sides of the world. I have personally witnessed the thievery and quite often massacre of traditional music by DJs who travel across continents to Mumbai just to record a few loops of the Shehnai or Sarangi, which then interject some second grade club mix to give the revellers a karmic feel in Goa and Bali shacks. On the other hand are greats like Michael who work with a much broader purpose and import the richness of Hindustani music into their own concepts. One great example of folk music finding a global audience thanks to such efforts is Dil ki Doya by Paban das Baul and Sam Mills. They feature on the album Real Sugar produced by Peter Gabriel's Real World label. Mills found this bard on the Indo-Bangaldesh border from where they proceeded to some jamming sessions with Mills on the piano and eventually found their way on this album. There couldn't be a more visual song than this one and when i say that I am putting it in the class of what Rimsky Korsakov or Edward Grieg were trying to do with music when they wrote the vivid works like Scheherazade or In the hall of the mountain king. Without ever having heard any words of Baul in my whole life, I nearly deciphered the entire song and validated this with my friend Probir Mukerjee's grandad. These sort of accompishments have opened a whole new set of possibilities for music from across the continent to come together and 'fuse' in the real sense. One more example that I cannot stop myself from quoting here is Shakti and particularly Lotus Feet from Remember Shakti Vol.2. Of course, I don't want to do injustice to Shakti by not dedicating an entire blog to it but to put it in a nutshell, Shakti is probably the most successful attempt so far at truly mixing sounds and musical cultures. Many have taken it from there and used similar combos though not quite as honestly.

These examples serve the single most important purpose of reminding us how unaffected collaborative music remains despite the political and territorial differences that are raging across the world.