Madnyan Shaam relies not only on listener’s understanding of Kashmiri language but also on an intense soundscape. Language isn’t primal in music. Sound can capture the essence of meaning.
The first track is Poanso which translates to Money…
How much should I loan you? The voice of someone asks during the intro.
Using a sample of Pink Floyd’s Money to create a ballad chronicling the totalizing influence of money on all human relationships is a challenge pulled to perfection here.
Sweet relations you’ve embittered
O money! O money!
And friendly faces you’ve revealed
O money! O money!
It is an album of words as all great albums are.
Jazz Ahmad Jazz is a blues retake on an old Kashmiri rhyme. Societal deceptions are talked about in the song. Zaagan is a protest song about political disappearances that is eerily haunting.
The anxiety of being a Kashmiri is an existential anxiety. You never know what’s next in a land besieged constantly by violence. Being a Kashmiri in itself is akin to a state of paranoic martyrdom because one never knows.
At the 2:40 mark the singer plays the character of a reporter announcing: –
From the last 24 hours, 7 people are missing…
The names of the disappeared ones, along with the names of their fathers and the names of their districts in Kashmir are reported by the singer who has taken on the role of a journalist.
Politics is the refuge of the oppressed and Gaekhir is a testimonial to that. We move onto the title track. Madnyan Shyaam is a folk song that serves as an ode to intense gloom perpetuated by the conditionality of being a Kashmiri.
Pity the one whose crop is starved
What will he desire from the serving pot?
Nundkol is a beautiful lake in Kashmir and also the title of the next track. There’s sampling of chirping birds and sounds of spring over lyrics that are intensely metaphorizing over flora and fauna.
Does a Cicada set self on fire
And reveal itself to the glim?
It is a song of reflections…
Does anyone arrive at Nundkol
And not pine for the love of spring?
Khuaftan Baange is depressingly cathartic. Wobah stretches into a terror of pure darkness that is certainly feelable but not explainable.
The writing is raw, vulnerable, and fearless in its emotional exposure. It speaks directly from a place of deep longing, existential confusion, and with a self-awareness that’s rare.
My Kashmiri friend who has shifted to Delhi tells me that Gamuk Matsar Shahras Manz is the best song on the album just after she tells me that she misses home. The song reminisces Bandpoor, Narbal, Mahvour… The song reminisces Kashmir…
Once I went to Bandpoor,
And came back with a single shoot
The writing is at once comparable to Rumi and Rilke…
Why was the shoot severed apart?
What do I say what befell me?
Gamuk Matsar Shahras Manz odes all those places left behind in Kashmir. The state becomes an embodiment of loss, it becomes a fading mirage, a flutter of wings and a flight.
From his ancestor’s route
Why did he flee afar?
Why is the illustrious Koshur off his path?
There is politics. There is music. Gaekhir is politics through music.
Backed by the production magic of Mir Kashif the trio of Sarfaraz, Suhail and Mohsin have spelled out something extraordinary.
Gaekhir blends humor, skit, satire, poetry and performance art with elements of folk, blues and rock to shed light on social, political and cultural issues.
Madnyan Shaam is a concept album, a rock opera, a political satire, an opus and a breathtaking addition to the oeuvre of Kashmiri Art. There is a level of narration, pain and politics on the record that is unmatchable. Talent is but chaos centered into creation. It is more than just protest.
It is ghostly. Kashmir is a haunt that never pauses…
Poetry disguised as music. Philosophy disguised as politics. Much like ‘The Wall’ and ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’- Madnyan Shaam is a magnum opus that gets more and more relevant as it ages…
