Ali Azmat becomes a rebel with a cause as Klashinfolk
is released and the only cause he knows is music.
Muniba Kamal
Karachi
Ali Azmat has done the unthinkable. He flew out to the US just days before his album Klashinfolk released on August 15 to play shows to project his album there. Meanwhile, if you are seeing him quite frequently on your television screens it is because he has recorded enough promotional material for his album with all music channels that they are now rolling it out to plug sales. When you are as seasoned a musician as Ali Azmat is - the man has lasted for decades and kept it up despite the break up of the most successful rock band in Pakistani music history - you can start messing with the system.
The system that dictates that musicians hold press conferences for every album release has been in force for a while now. Especially since record labels have come into existence, press conferences have become the norm. They are short affairs. The media is invited, both print and electronic, and the flashbulbs and handheld digital video cams all around serve as a reminder as to how far along Pakistan's media industry has come. The media presence is enough to fill a hall at any hotel and the advantages to the artiste are obvious. In one fell swoop of publicity, they make headlines in newspapers the very next day and within a couple of hours of the press conference, they make headlines on news channels too, provided the artiste is big enough. Strings with Koi Aanay Wala Hai were all over the place.
Then, there is Shehzad Roy, who with a master–stroke of a launch at Karachi Juvenile Jail managed to both release his album with maximum impact and raised important issues. He dragged music journalists and channels with him to the prison and juvenile prisoners enjoyed the album launch that had a live performance and a screening of his video. It was a surreal moment. A Pakistani musician played the media spotlight just like Lady Diana did all those years ago when she went off to visit landmine victims and so turned a taboo topic into a human rights issue; Angelina Jolie is ultimately following in her footsteps. And Shehzad Roy did the same for the juvenile prisoners at his album launch – he turned their plight into an issue. That very day 'Laga Reh' started airing. If a musician has pulled out an ace this year, 'Laga Reh' is it. The Shehzad Roy juggernaut is taking off and with the mass appeal of his songs, it seems that the musician has finally hit his stride so strongly, he will now start giving the more established names a run for their money.
While Shehzad played the system, Pakistani music's original rebel Ali Azmat has gone completely against it.
“Why should I do a press conference?” he counter questioned Instep Today when asked how he could possibly leave just days before his album release. “The video will strat airing. I've shot interviews and promotional stuff already and that will be put on air.”
And to a great extent Ali's reasoning is correct. He has a fan following that will buy his album no matter what. The video for 'Gallan' has started airing with the tagline 'out in stores now' and he is regularly gracing our TV screens. If you think back, Shahrukh Khan was on vacation in London when Om Shanti Om was released. Arjun Rampal and deepika Padukone attended the functions in India, meanwhile various TV programs with Shahrukh in them like Nach Baliye were aired as Om Shanti Om specials. With pre-recorded matter making up the bulk of entertainment, stars can promote their ventures on all our television screens even though they may be on vacation!
Ali is not on vacation. He's touring the States to kick of the marketing of his new album. He is teaming up with old friend and ex-Junoon band mate Brian O'Connell to do it and Omran Shafique, the guitarist on Klashinfolk. Ali has always been about the music, preferring to stay away from press conferences and explaining himself too much. And this time round, it seems that all the attitude of Pakistani rock's original rebel is spilling over into his album. The artwork of the album is unlike anything Pakistan has ever seen before. Designed by renegade filmmaker Uns Mufti (the angry young man of media) the images jump out at you.
The artwork features Klashnikovs and guitars and features Ali Azmat as Big Brother/Hitler incarnate. Pinting a finger straight at you he asks “You and what army?”
But it has nothing to do with the political scenario of Pakistan. Indeed, Ali Azmat is and has been a staunch supporter of President Musharraf. The system Ali is rallying against is the human urge to be a part of a system and the sinister minds that create it.
“It's about everything… communism, capitalism, consumerism,” he says. “There are people, faceless people who control the world. They instill fear in us, make us run away from reality and escape into a world where we have to spend more and more for things we don't need. They employ herd mentality and indoctrinate humanity to a certain way of life and we follow them blindly.”
So Klashinfolk draws the map for a land called Azmat with a chand sitara (crescent and star), surrounded by a sun and arms cutting across it. All the players on the album get their own states within this new musically drawn world. And while fighter planes fly off to the right from Azmat's indoctrinated universe and guns shoot off from the left, an assembly line of babes in trolleys head down right below. The inferences to a war-and-consumerism driven world are obvious.
The album itself is a richly layered one that will grow on you. On first listen, one has heard the songs but one has yet to think of them in terms of the Klashinfolk paradigm. For that you will have to wait for the review. But one can safely say that Ali’s newest offering is a step ahead from Social Circus. The ultimate rock rebel has taken not just music, but also attitude to a whole new level. Amidst all the art work, one spots perhaps the briefest acknowledgement ever in the history of Pakistani music. It reads: “Ali Azmat would like to thank… no one.”
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