Rap and hip-hop duo, Young Stunners (ft. Talha Anjum and Talha Yunus), seem to be the choice of hip-hop outfit for corporate-backed music. Before collaborating with Faisal Kapadia for the hugely successful song ‘Phir Milenge’ off Coke Studio 14 earlier this year, they also appeared in Pepsi-backed ‘Why Not Meri Jaan’ campaign, leading from the front with the title song which has gone onto cross 15 million views. Talha Anjum from the duo also appeared on Karakoram’s ‘Ye Dunya’ as part of a Coke Studio 14 collaboration, which also featured rap sensation Faris Shafi.

But even as the duo seem to be the forerunners on prominent mainstream platforms in terms of rap music, they haven’t lost their street cred. Their newest collaboration is with Kashmir’s vocalist and lyricist Bilal Ali for a blazing song called ‘Aazma Le’. In fact, the bold effort of a song was trending on YouTube at number three this past week.

Written and performed by Talha Anjum, Talha Yunus and Bilal Ali, the music video is grittier than anything Bilal Ali has been a part of and possibly one of the grittier ones for Young Stunners as well. The music video is part-performance and part-storytelling. As the story goes, in a chaotic, dusty environment, wearing a bullet proof vest and holding a gun is Talha Anjum coming across random individuals before a Blackwateresque team enters the area and unleashes gunfire.

In another universe, we see Yunus, Anjum and Bilal with the latter singing and he brings a fantastic degree of poignant energy to a song that is very much about a real world that may seem alien to those of us sitting comfortably in our homes.

As with Young Stunners, they do add an element of surprise as the shot character - essayed by Bilal Ali hands - Talha Anjum a glittering ring (that reminds you of the Tesseract from Avengers films). The scene cuts and we encounter Talha Yunus rapping in fast cipher-lines he is so good at. And so, the story continues. There is an element of reality, a dose of optimism as well as surreal occurrences. To learn what the ultimate end is, and not giving away all the spoilers, we recommend you watch the music video. It’s a sizzling number much like ‘Woh Banda Nai’ which was produced by Bohemia and Sumeet Sing and the music courtesy another talented artist called Jokhay.

Eridu drops Art as Reason [remastered]

Adeel Tahir, who goes by the stage name Eridu, is among the most exciting independent artists working in Pakistan’s growing music scene. As a sound designer, producer, engineer, his name often pops up from being associated with now-defunct Karachi collective, Forever South (FXS), to the burgeoning A for Aleph, home to some of the best music presently coming out of Pakistan.

In his role of engineer, producer and sound designer, Adeel has worked with some of the coolest cats from the music scene including Malang Party, Surkhwaab, Gentle Robot, Natasha Noorani, Takatak, Tamaasha, Poor Rich Boy, Taimur Tajik, Taha G, Rozeo, Maanu, Janoobi Khargosh and perhaps others. His range is so expansive that it makes you wonder if there is anything he can’t do musically?

A tremendous bass player in addition to his many skills, as an artist under the stage name Eridu, Adeel dropped his debut EP, Art as Reason in the summer of 2017 featuring five singles (‘Broken Haven’, ‘Exordium’, ‘Seru Home‘, ‘Scythe’ and ‘Art As Reason (feat. The Creature & Autodream)’.

After a gap of many years, Eridu has released a remastered version of the same album and the result is how quickly the sonic landscape encapsulates you with its crisper, more elegant soundboard. You can hear the finesse, particularly when plugged directly into head/earphones.

Most of the musical work is done by Eridu himself including composing, performing, arranging, recording, mixing, mastering and production with album artwork by Natasha Humera Ejaz and artwork reimagined by Zahra Hassan Shah.

The five-track EP is slightly obscure in the sense that it will only appeal to a niche audience (at a time when electronic music is so popular in Pakistan) nor is it pandering to anyone. But, because of the nature of the music it features, you will find at least one song you can ponder over as well as fall in love with. It isn’t easy to work with a multitude of artists and managing to keep your identity as an artist as sacred and intelligent as it once was but with this remaster what is obvious is that Eridu is well-aware of this fact.

– The album, available on bandcamp and other platforms, is released by A for Aleph under exclusive license from Eridu.