Lahore-based Mekaal Hasan band's new album is more like great folk music -- accessible, timeless, and a preferred alternative to evenings wasted on reality television

Lahore-based Mekaal Hasan band's new album is more like great folk musicu00a0-- accessible, timeless, and a preferred alternative to evenings wasted on reality television

Try this over the weekend. Log on to YouTube. Look for Chal Bulleya, a track off the Mekaal Hasan Band's new album, Saptak. Watch it. A few minutes into this exercise, you find yourself nodding along. Blame it on the Lahore-based trio's ability to blend East and West as smoothlyu00a0-- at times, a little too smoothlyu00a0-- as the UK-based Asian Underground. Even the music video mixes concepts from Sufi poetry and the Biblical 7 deadly sins.

Mekaal Hasan, Javed Bashir and Mohammad Ahsan are out with their
latest release, Saptak. EMI Music for Rs 195. Available at leading music stores

For nine years now, MHBu00a0-- comprising Mekaal Hasan on lead guitar, Javed Bashir on vocals and flautist Mohammad Ahsan Papuu00a0-- has thrown in everything from jazz to soul and folk music into the mix now referred to, somewhat inadequately, as Sufi Rock. The band first made waves in 2004 with their debut album Sampooran, which got it a number of awards but, more importantly, an appreciative audience.

Saptak doesn't exactly take off where the first album left off, primarily because MHB appear to have stopped leaning on classical music as heavily as they used to. This comes across lyrically too. Chal Bulleya, for instance, makes accessible the poetry of both, Sufi poet Bulleh Shah and Indian mystic Kabir. The bearded twosome's verses appear again on Ranjha, carried by another great tune.

The standout is Jhok Ranjhan, an infectious track that's more pop than rock. It grows on one rather quickly too, which explains why it spent four weeks at the top of Pakistan's charts. Bhageshwari also deserves to be on repeat mode, showcasing as it does Ahsan Papu's flute very well. Finally, fans of Salman Khan (the few still around after Veer, that is) may recognise album closer Albaella, which made an appearance in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

In the West, an album like Saptak may appear on the World Music shelves. For us, this is more like great folk musicu00a0-- accessible, timeless, and a preferred alternative to evenings wasted on reality television.