Asif Khan look.hear.capture.
Archive for March, 2010
nothingness
it was dark outside. of course, it was closing upon midnight. he was still coming to terms with adjusting to the concept of daylight saving in this part of the world, but he did know that even though the sun may not go down as early as it does in his part of the world, midnight is dark. and tonight, the darkness had been lurking from dusk. or maybe since the time he thought dawn had broken. he didn’t really know if there had been a sunrise at all.
leaving home – the life and music of indian ocean
something on the lines of ‘indian ocean has mostly used four instruments through their career. we urge you not to add yours’ flashes on screen. a message which elicits a smile and a quick glance to do a double check on my phone to see if its set on vibrate. its a small gathering at the cozy theater.
Fist of God – MSTRKRFT
The Canadian duo of Jesse F Keeler (better known as the unimaginative, yet obvious, JFK) and Al-P, in the short span that they have been together, managed to carve out a niche for themselves as one of the most sought after remix artistes. Though they may not have received much applause for their debut album [...]
Grounded in Space – Advaita
Creating fusion music, especially when considered in conjunction with Indian classical music is akin to walking on thin ice – the effect of a single strain at the wrong spot, and you run the risk of going down under. Thankfully, Delhi based band Advaita has been providing us with doses of raga based music, in [...]
Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice – HIM
The Scandinavians have usually been better known for their brand of hitting heavy metal in our part of the world. But then they haven’t just confined themselves as far as genres go. Finnish band His Infernal Majesty, better known as HIM, have kept themselves busy over the course of their career making a brand of [...]
Campfire Songs – Animal Collective
The Animal Collective has steadily grown in stature as one of the most avant-garde electronic acts. Much of the credit for this goes to their last release, “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, which has constantly been creating waves since the time it came out. But the Baltimore based band still seems to hark back to the time [...]
Rebirth – Lil Wayne
Stardom is good as long as it doesn’t allow you to overstep your capabilities. Lil Wayne, with the phenomenal success of the “Tha Carter” trilogy behind him, and with self proclamation of being the best rapper around had definitely cut a meaty place for himself in the hip hop galaxy. This was all the more [...]
Transference – Spoon
Managing to create seven records over a musical career is quite a feat in the industry. And if they bear a hallmark of consistency, it becomes all the more commendable. Spoon, the indie band from Austin has done just that with their latest record “Transference”. In fact, they sound much better this time around. Something [...]
Raymond v. Raymond – Usher
As one of the foremost entertainers of the past decade, Usher has cemented his position as a modern day entertainment machine. Though his forays into displaying his histrionic abilities may not have found much notice or critical success, this can be discounted as one of the effects stardom usually has. Nonetheless, as far as his [...]
Mechanize – Fear Factory
Not many bands have been able to mash together different genres of metal and been successful at it. Fear Factory, with its brand of music picking up in the nineties, proved itself to be contrary to this popular belief. Combining death, groove and industrial metal, they made a pioneering statement during their heyday. Band bickerings, [...]
We Are Here – Apparatjik
Side projects are fun, specially when musicians wish to display an new facet to themselves. This holds itself true in full measure when you get to hear Apparatjik’s “We Are Here”. The name which would probably make you sit up and notice is that one of the members is Coldplay bassist, Guy Berryman. Synth led [...]
Heligoland – Massive Attack
You maybe forgiven for thinking of this album to be the name of some tiny landmass tucked away unknown in some corner of the earth. Well, you would be just about right, actually. So while it beats us as to why Brit trip hop pioneers, Massive Attack, chose to name the album after this group [...]
Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
Nashville, being the cradle of American country music, has been home to producing some of the best known country music acts we’ve known. There were days when country music used to be tales of everyday hardships with words of wisdom interspersed, with a certain rustic nature which endeared it to the soul. Now, it’s more [...]
Hellbilly Deluxe 2 – Rob Zombie
Be it his music or his directorial pursuits, Rob Zombie has relied on the power of shock to the fullest to further his ambitions. Recent times haven’t really seen much action from him, apart from his engagements with the release of “Halloween 2” which didn’t do much at the box office either. “Hellbilly Deluxe 2” [...]