This month’s Beyond the Border features Karachi’s Aziz Kazi, Mumbai/Toronto rapper Fenifina, Pakistani-American singer-songwriter Ali Aslam, a collaboration between producers Kahnvikt and Amrita Shakti, and Los Angeles band Race (rows 1 and 2 from left). Photo: Jayden Lal (Fenifina), courtesy of the artist.
Kahn Vikt and Amrita Shakti
A Tamil track that transcends all borders, “Kingdom” is a blossoming, light-hearted electronic fusion. With music produced by Canada-based Pakistani-born artist Khanvict, aka Asad Khan, Indian-Australian artist Amritha Shakti sings about liberation, power, and taking control in her first entirely Tamil track. The collaborators originally met at a New York music festival in 2019, and while “Kingdom” was written during quarantine, the notion of remote work is not in the air. “It really took a lot of back and forth takes to get there, but we enjoyed every moment of it. I think we were both so inspired by the song and wanted it to be the best it could be,” Shakti said in a statement.
Ali Aslam
Brooklyn, New York-born singer-songwriter Ali Aslam is a Pakistani Muslim American, and like many artists, identity is at the heart of his work. His debut album, The Last American, brings to the forefront American culture, with which Aslam has what he describes as a “strong and complicated relationship,” citing U2, The Killers, and Bruce Springsteen as some of his formative influences. The album opens gently with “Rebel Song,” while tracks like “Photocopy” and “Wise Man and the Fool” are more complex. “Color of the Sun” and “My City” are more like a piano-driven indie rock band, reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie. Permeated with the faint sound of strings (“This American Dream”), The Last American is full of Aslam’s comforts and questions.
Phenifina
Mumbai-raised, multilingual rapper Fenifina, aka Josefina D’Souza, is a Toronto representative of Desi hip-hop, having released two singles throughout 2020, “Rukna Nahi” and “Jism E Roohaniyat.” Having performed her first live show in early 2020, Fenifina’s visual and lyrical aesthetic is firmly in place. In Hindi and Marathi, she sings about never giving in on “Rukna Nahi,” while her freeverse Instagram release “Na Hai Insaaf, Na Hai Sukoon” focuses on caste discrimination and lack of justice. Set to trap beats by producer Ainsheen, her latest release, “Jism E Roohaniyat,” released in November, explores more philosophical issues in Hindi and English.
Aziz Kazi
“Kakan” by Aziz Kazi
A percussionist and drummer for a range of Pakistani acts and performers at Coke Studio, Aziz Kazi offers a glimpse into his own thoughts as a solo hang drum artist on his album Cacan. Harnessing the light percussive power of the hang drum, much of the nine-track Cacan focuses on the meditative sounds created for Aleph at Karachi’s Studio A. Described by the artist himself as a “gentle, dreamy journey”, Kazi offers a highly detailed take on the hang drum, playfully layering and progressing over delicate electronics created by Umair Dar and Anas Alam Khan.
Musical Dock
In the case of Dr. Varshini Muralikrishnan, Musical Doc stands for “Doctor,” not “Documentary.” Anyway, for those wondering. The Los Angeles-based Indian-origin artist has performed in the US as a soloist and part of ensembles, but also had her eye on writing and releasing her own songs. With the help of producer Peter Madana, her latest single, “Real Woman,” fuses her R&B, smoky modern pop side with her unmistakably powerful Carnatic vocals. Written during the artist’s trip to India, the song marks her transition from working in the medical field to becoming a full-fledged musician.
race
Chandbibi and the Waste Candidates, a jazz band once active in the indie scenes of Bangalore and India, may have called it a day after the release of their debut album, Tidy Funk, in 2014, but six years (and a relocation to Los Angeles) later, vocalist Mana Contractor, guitarist Siddhant Jain, and drummer Navneet Rao have found a new jazz home in Lace. Their debut EP, Liar’s Notebook, released earlier this year, showcases their familiar clean, playful jazz style, enhanced by the addition of bassist Connor Coram and percussionist Emi Desiré. Plus, the music video for “Bird” gets an evocative visual treatment, with movement artist and choreographer Sophia Klass interpreting their song against the canyon backdrop of Utah’s Cedar Breaks National Monument.
M.K. Khan
Weekends On Earth by MK Khan
MK Khan, a Bengali-born, Indian-origin producer, is quintessential synthwave in that his entire visual aesthetic is free of any trace of his own face or identity, anchored instead in neon-lit, gentle, nostalgia-filled Instagram posts and tweets about Pokémon and the ’90s. Nevertheless, he released Weekends on Earth this October, producing one of the best-selling albums on Bandcamp of 2020. It’s perfect retrowave and synthwave, infusing cinematic atmospheres and spacious drums while never sounding cheesy or repetitive, which is tough to do in the already crowded and growing field of synth music.
