Music blog: Laal’s new video

Laal band’s newly released song ‘Dehshatgardi Murdabad’ should be hitting everyone’s Facebook walls lately for its bold and direct approach for criticising the US, while the song is one of Laal’s most catchy, foot tapping numbers that have come up since some time.
It has a very catchy chorus, one that sticks in your mind and is already playing when you wake up in the morning (if, you have been listening to the song the night before, like I was). But when it starts, what I love the most about it are the daring lyrics, the subject matter, and Taimur Rehman’s break dance.
Jokes aside, the video starts with Hillary’s famous (or infamous, whichever way you want to interpret it) words: “The people we are fighting today, we funded 20 years ago”. This sentence being made to echo, the song then begins, and the lyrics are chanted out in a kind of aggressive spitfire…the kind of mood that was slightly similar to those days in the 90s when Junoon and some other college/university bands began to challenge authority.
At first I feared Taimur might go a bit off key, because sometimes that happens: being a good musician does not necessarily mean being a great singer, but Taimur does well enough as the market shows because his albums are still being sold. I was hoevere pleasantly surprised.
I did have qualms about the song recording. The music was louder than the vocals and this marred the whole effect. The mixing could have been better too. But Laal has inserted captions underneath so we don’t miss out on the words…though that is a bit odd as song videos go. Not disturbing though.
Musically, I preferred ‘Dehshatgardi Murdabad’ to ‘Aalu Anday’ by the Lahori trio called Beghairat Brigade. Though many people are comparing the two in general terms, I wouldn’t go as far as that because BB is being cathartically sarcastic about the idiotic conspiracy theories that have landed Pakistanis in a complete state of denial, while they have mentioned some taboo subjects like Dr Abdus Salam (I really hope these three make it in life after this). Unfortunately though, their song was not too well composed, leaving it to be annoying more than anything else.
Meanwhile Laal is talking (seriously) about CIA/US policies towards Pakistan and asks why on earth we are embracing the people who have landed us into trouble throughout history. The band has always attempted to make simple videos with a kind of rough cut look to them, rather than spend too much money for one of those slick and over-edited products. This may not always be a bad idea, but this remains debatable.
Cuts of secret documents, CIA agents shaking hands with Pakistanis, of the treacherous doings of the US decades before it included Pakistan in the horrible and controversial War Against Terror, and interestingly enough a comparison of the US’ rejection of ‘Islamic jihad’, to the reality of their own ‘American jihad’ wich is regularly propagated by Hollywood through its very popular movies including Rambo. Like it or not, Hollywood is involved with spreading a lot of propaganda.
Taimur’s break dance, and the typically 80s/90s music with its electronic flavour, its RnB rhythmic beat, its catchy melody is all done deliberately as the singer told me himself. The entire thing was a trip back to the 80s to get the drift of the whole scenario and to give it that kind of music and effect was important, besides the fact that Laal attempts to venture into an array of musical styles from acoustic blues inspired music to pop-rock, and now this.
Watch the video on Youtube to get a better idea!