Get High with Nusrat

"You, my sweetheart, are my heart, my life." This is an English translation of how the new Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook collaboration, Night Song, begins. Night Song is the sequel to their classic previous collaboration, Mustt Mustt (released in 1990, it was voted one of this decade's top 100 albums by Alternative Press). However, while Mustt Mustt was the product of the artists' separated efforts, Night Song was written collaboratively.
The serene, moving Qawwali vocals of classically-trained Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, combined with the music of Canadian ambient composer Michael Brook produces an aural experience perhaps only paralleled by the eyewitnessing of a faith healer at work, a miracle birth, or a natural disaster in this present-day world.
The mood of Night Song swings wildly from track to track. "Longing" is basically a slow ballad beginning with a slide guitar's sweet melody and ending with strangled pleas (In English, "my dear longing for you is killing me."). "Lament" is plodding, desolate and dark, with Nusrat droning "without you there is gloominess--come back home sweetheart" as mellow background guitar sounds soar and slowly drift to the depths of one's soul. "Intoxicated" is a more upbeat tune featuring unexpected outbursts of Nusrat's rapid-fire, metaphorical vocals about obsession.
One could draw certain parallels between this album and many of Brian Eno's works and productions (of course, Brook has done extensive work with Eno in the past), and the music of Brook's 4AD-mates Lisa Gerrard and Dead Can Dance, who often times also fuse traditional foreign (or pseudo-foreign) vocals and rhythm with modern ambient music and, on occasion, technological sound. This makes traditional music somewhat more accessible to the listener while adding diversity to the elements of ambient
- which is, to begin with, an eccentric form of music with a devoted following.
Nusrat has recorded over 60 albums so far, not to mention collaborations. He has worked with artists such as Real World Records founder Peter Gabriel (_Passion: the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ) to Eddie Vedder (_Dead Man Walking Soundtrack). Brook has recorded several albums and has collaborated with various ambient and other musicians. Night Song shows Brook at his best--the richness of his imagination really shows.
Night Song makes a great companion to either sudden revelation or a simple evening in the forest, under the stars. Despite the down-to-earth lyrics about relationships and spiritual cleanliness, the two artists make an obvious, pronounced effort to lead one down a path of pure spiritual ecstasy. It is certainly one of the best collaborative albums of the decade.

Reel To Real

Most of the time I talk about the films. But it is high time I do some reality check. Not concerned with the movies but the real life situations which affect the real people.

The monsoon have hit the Indian coast. Poor people were waiting for the rain gods to shower their 'blessings'. Indian crops heavily depend on the monsoon rains and if these fail, there would be drought and people might even starve.

Now India is a 'developed' nation. Software companies are comming up from everywhere. In Bangalore in every nook and corner you'll find at least 5 software companies. India has become the back office to the world. BPO are everywhere. The retail is booming as well. Walmart has hit the Indian retail sector. Target is planning a tie-up. News channels have become a disease spreading like a cancer. People don't watch movies unless it is a multiplex.

Amidst all this the moonsoon has hit India!!!!

And the scene is very different. The commercial capital of India, Bombay is submerged if it rains continously. Its satelite city Pune is a chaos. In Silicon Valley Bangalore any time during rains you have threat of falling into a pothole which is not visible due to water logging. Air traffic is disrupted. Rail netwrok in shambles.

What is the cause? It has been now 60 years since India was independent. What has it achieved. We can say it is a nature's fury. But nature's fury hit at other countires also. The basic thing is that we are not ready. Indian people/politicians only think of short term benefits. When nature hit hard they'll take action. There is no long-term planning. No disaster management teams. You'll find lot of commisiions set up for ridiculous cases.

Tax payers pay so much money. Where is it gone? Pre-monsoon they built the roads, which will be destroyed before the next year's monsoon. So the road contractors can send their tenders again the next year.

People don't complain. It is not their job. It is the job of government. Ah come on ...wake up. The government is taking you for a ride and you don't even know about it.

This is India my dear. It'll remain like it is no matter what.

A perfect film for a rainy, cold day

I can't quite understand how anyone can dislike Alfred Hitchcock's films. Personally, he's one of the few old school talents I find interesting and watchable, even if his work is dated and set in its era (the era when most sets were hopelessly phony). I guess you have to appreciate his themes - dysfunctional relationships between a man and his mother, flawed by essentially innocent men caught up in a web of intrigue, beautiful blonds, comments of authority figures, black humor, etc - to really appreciate Hitchcock.

Interestingly, James Stewart was Hitchcock's original choice for the role of Roger Thornhill, the hapless ad man who is mistaken for a spy who doesn't even exist to begin with and is chased half way across the country by villains and authorities for a murder he didn't commit. For one reason or another, Stewart was unavailable and the part went to Cary Grant instead. Grant seems better suited to the character and the situation than Stewart would have been, but I can easily picture Stewart being chased in the cornfield by the crop duster.

Like all Hitchcock films, there are hundreds of things that aren't realistic though set in the real world and lots of highly improbable stuff going on everywhere, but if you give it a chance you'll enjoy it and won't care. Don't miss Eva Marie Saint having to dub over a then lewd line about love, a full stomach and sex. The use of a crop duster may not be the most practical way to kill a man, but it's a great visual representation of the great Hitchcockian examination of "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide". The music and clinging to Mount Rushmore is also memorable. Did I mention the innuendo?

10/10