Singer-songwriter and folk artist Arieb Azhar is back in the spotlight with the music video and single, ‘Charsi Bhangi’. For this newest production, Arieb has collaborated with a bevy of artists including Malang Party and Surkhwaab’s Zishan Mansoor as well as Jasir Abro, Ajay Harry and Jon Saville, while recording at Karachi’s acclaimed A for Aleph studio.

The audio credits, however, differ from the music video credits, that feature Arieb Azhar as well as Anil Saleem, Zawar Ali Zahid and Alan Smith as musicians with an extensive cast as well.

With such a crew of people involved, the single is among Arieb Azhar’s strongest releases. While a narrative is running through the music video (with a concept conceived by Arieb), what’s most palpable is that the landscape is not something you’d expect from him. The song is not just the singer with his guitar but a partially funk-laden tune. The song, with its words, within the music video illicit different response from people within the room. It’s very smart and one of Arieb Azhar’s coolest music videos.

A quick glance at Arieb Azhar’s resume will tell you that he is much more than your average singer-songwriter. With folk roots, he has starred in important documentaries such as the award winning Indus Blues and spearheaded performing arts festivals in different cities. He held the post of Director to Karachi’s T2F for some time, which culminated in the resurrection of Creative Karachi Festival (2019).

While Arieb Azhar has moved back to Islamabad, he is still dedicated to music, which shows in the release of ‘Charsi Bhangi’.

Among his many accomplishments, Arieb Azhar has released a critically acclaimed debut album and featured on Coke Studio and Lahooti Melo. Check out this heartfelt song that only someone such as Arieb could sing with that baritone.

Rearts Records: Unreleased EP material among other releases planned for March

Rearts Records, the company that first originated in 2017, has hit a new stride. After publishing records from artists as eclectic as Ali Noor and Kashmir among several other names, Rearts Records has great big plans for the month of March.

Speaking to Instep, founding partner and creative director, Azeem Hamid announced that they have signed their first international act, Embers in Snow, based out of Dhaka, Bangladesh. “Embers in Snow is an alternative, shoegaze and dreampop project by renowned producer Rakat Zami. The act’s repertoire spans over a decade with multiple singles, EPs and a debut album titled Solstice which was released in July 2020. At Rearts, we plan to launch ourselves in Bangladesh very soon in an official capacity and are looking into expanding our roster beyond Pakistan and to other parts of South Asia.”

Their roster includes Amna Riaz who has released her debut EP titled no thoughts: head empty, with the label.

“Other releases include Ali Alvi who is out with a stellar sci-fi music video of the song ‘Saazish’ in collaboration with Abdullah Kasumbi from his debut album of the same name.

“Next up we’re re-releasing Entity Paradigm’s debut album Irtiqa across all major streaming platforms this week - definitely a treat for all the EP fans out there. We’ve been highly grateful to Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan who trusted us and gave us the license/permission to release this album on all major streaming platforms. We also have some plans to release some unreleased stuff by Entity Paradigm.”

Other artists who will be releasing music via Rearts Records include Zoha Zuberi who is all set to release a track from her upcoming EP mid of this month. Hashim Mehmood (the lead guitarist of Black Hour) is working on his second instrumental studio album and is in the final stages of production. In March, Taha Jamil is planning to release the music video of his debut single ‘Raaton Ke Diye’, an indie-pop-punk track. “His musical work embodies the Pakistani musical and lyrical style with contemporary western pop, punk and rock influences such as Oasis and Muse,” said Azeem.

He reiterated, “We’re closely working with Ali Noor in terms of curating Noori’s music across all major platforms properly! Soon we will be re-releasing all their content in hi-audio quality for Noori fans out there. Moreover, we’ve recently signed Pakistan’s first thrash metal band Tabahi, (formed in 2007) and have re-released their entire catalogue. With the band we plan to release the music video of their single ‘Hona Hai’, written by Sabir Zafar, on 6th March 2021.”

Post Ramazan, Rearts will be releasing Auj’s debut album Sifr. Furthermore, Khamaaj’s debut album is in production too and Bilal Ahmed, the lead vocalist of Tamaasha, is all set to release his solo debut album post Ramazan along with Tamaasha’s debut album, which is also scheduled for release during the same time.

“We plan to expand our roster to over a 100 artist by 2021. So far we’ve got around 50 artists signed with us.”