TUNING IN: Live fusion
By yousuf khan
Music is an emulation of one’s inner self, it’s an art form best described by Fuzon’s lead guitarist Shallum Xavier: “God gave artists to the world so that people can dream during the day.” It’s a mode of expression that jolts down an invisible force to its listeners in a precarious manner, leaving them with an experience to cherish. This is the kind of a rendezvous I recently had while attending a Fuzon gig.
The atmosphere at the venue was electrifying and one could feel it. As a band faced with enormous success after the release of their first album followed by controversies, I was more than eager to catch up on what this talented bunch had to offer after a sabbatical of five years. Those who may say that the replacement of Rameez on vocals is of no comparison with Shafqat will agree that he has the added exuberance of youth that the latter lacked, and his vocals were spot on throughout the night.
There’s a certain degree of spark that always makes a band what it is and what it stands for, and for the most part Fuzon is that band. The gig was a live set of around 10 songs for a local music channel. The band opened with Soon, soona from their upcoming album while Journey encompassed some really nice guitar interludes that caught my attention. This was the first time I was hearing Rameez and to be honest I loved the eastern fusion of his expertise with the orchestration of Emu on this track. The trio followed that up with a few songs from their first album along with a rendition of Tere Bina. Also played were Pyar Na Raha and Khamaj from their first album, something different for the audience as the vocals distinguished the band’s identity with their new sound.
The atmosphere at the venue was electrifying and one could feel it. As a band faced with enormous success after the release of their first album, I was more than eager to catch up on what this talented bunch had to offer after a sabbatical of five years. Even those who may say that the replacement of Rameez on vocals is of no comparison with Shafqat will agree that he has the added exuberance of youth that the latter lacked.
After the dearth of live shows, the performance came as somewhat of a breather for Karachiites. Moving on, Fuzon did an absolutely amazing cover of Abida Parveen’s Dhanin Nagia. Aatish-o-Abd, a song from their upcoming album and composed by Shallum, is guitar-oriented and starts off with the opening riff from Shallum and moves on to an uplifting tempo and Emu’s proficiency as a keyboardist. It brought back the memory of Shallum’s rock genre roots evident in the guitar solo. They highlighted the show with Neend Na Aye whose video is being aired at almost all of the local music channels.
In conclusion, the event was more or less an opening statement by Fuzon that they are back stronger than ever. As Shallum puts it: “We make music because we love making music, and I want to do this every night. Our personal endeavors and objectives in life were very different in the first album — merely an experimental project by us.”
link: http://dawn.com/weekly/images/images8.htm
-Muzik Pakistan
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