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Mekaal Hasan Band – Saptak (Album Preview)

Saptak album cover

From Sampooran (a set of five notes) to Saptak (a set of seven notes), we preview Mekaal Hasan Band’s latest album.

I’ll confess: the Mekaal Hasan Band (MHB) for me (and for quite a few people) has been an acquired taste; mostly brought upon by attending some of its live performances. The first album, Sampooran, featured artistes that are the best in their field, but has often been described as too ‘hard to digest’. It definitely wasn’t listener-friendly, and the worst critique that one can give it is that the sheer perfection sought in the technique employed in the musical and vocal arrangements had robbed it of its soul. Getting off to a slow start, the album picked up a couple of years later, once the style of music (an attempt at a type of eastern jazz, if you may) managed to penetrate the minds of local audiences. Sampooran is now one of the stronger music albums to come out from the local pop arena.

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Articles

Mekaal Hasan – Fusing the Punjab to Rock and Jazz [Rolling Stone Article]

MekaalMekaal Hasan stands tall in the tight knit Pakistani rock scene which is eagerly awaiting Saptak, his band’s second album. EMI will release the album in India soon, so fans across the subcontinent will get a chance to judge how far the Mekaal Hasan Band has grown since its first album, Sampooran.

Hasan, who headlines his band, infuses Punjabi themes with Western Jazz influences. The band’s composition practically makes it a requirement. The lead singer is Javed Bashir, supported by the flutist Papu and by Hasan on guitar. Bashir and Papu come from a traditional folk and classical background, while Hasan brings Western jazz sensibilities – he was trained at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

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Articles News

Waris Shah and Sanwal on Saptak Record

When we asked Mekaal Hasan, “Why are Waris Shah and Sanwal on Saptak Record”, these were his words:

“If you remember the record that was supposed to come out was Andholan. However, since we were signed to EMI, they had no idea what to do with the kind of record Andholan was. The band had plenty of material written and thus decided to incorporate that material for EMI and hence the record Saptak. The reason for those 2 songs being there was because Waris Shah has a video for it and EMI wanted to run that on this record. Sanwal is there as a reggae version which we’ve been playing for 2 years so we decided to document that version. I hope you enjoy the new record. It was a lot of hard work but also lots of fun.”

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News

Mekaal Hasan Band – Saptak [Track list and Chull Bulliya Video Detail]

There are 11 songs on Saptak. The record is 63 mins long so there’s plenty of music coming your way. Here’s the song order:

1. Chal Bulleya
2. Bandeya
3. Ranjha
4. Jhok Ranjhan
5. Sanwal
6. Bhageshwaari
7. Huns Dhun
8. Waris Shah
9. Andholan
10. Mahi
11. Albaella

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Downloads

Mekaal Hasan Band – Sampooran + Instrumentals

Instrumentals & Live

* Andholan
* Animalcule
* Teri Yaad (Cover)
* Fall From Grace
* Jhok Ranjhan
* Kinna Sona(Cover)
* Pentagruel

Sampooran

* Darbari
* Late Moon
* Rabba
* Sajan
* Sanwal
* Sampooran
* Dreamscape (live)
* Waris Shah
* Ya Ali

Download here