rom making heads turn with his Coke Studio 14 collaboration with Justin Bibis and Hasan Raheem for ‘Peechay Hutt’ to landing his ferocious Naseebo Lal collaboration ‘Aag’ on the soundtrack of Disney Plus series, Ms. Marvel, Talal Qureshi is in his groove.

Among his latest releases are songs such as ‘Faltu Pyar’ with Natasha Noorani and Hasan Raheem, and ‘Hum’ with Faris Shafi, the latter being an ode to Shafi’s late father.

As music producer, Talal has refused to be labelled and has shown he can do anything from lo-fi to trap to ambient without glorifying himself within the context of any song.

While fans decipher his newest song with Faris Shafi, ‘Hum’, in an audio and visual context, Talal Qureshi is not the only one doing collaborations in this post-pandemic world, dependent on technology like never before.

Hasan Raheem has released a song this month called ‘Tu Kahan’ after collaborating with Karakoram (‘Kyun’) followed by Natasha Noorani and Talal Qureshi’s terrific ‘Faltu Pyar’.

Apart from dropping an acoustic version of ‘Kyun’, Hasan has dropped a song called ‘Tu Kahan’, essentially a collaboration with a Karachi-born artist, UMAIR. Produced by UMAIR, ‘Tu Kahan’ is written and performed by Abdullah Maharvi, JANI & Hasan Raheem with UMAIR producing, mixing and mastering the song.

Technically, it is a song by UMAIR where he has brought a crew of artists together and it works out well. Not every song is worth considering since so much content is available to us, and we have only so many hours in a day. But apart from the fact that any song ft. Hasan Raheem automatically commands attention, this UMAIR production is very good. For one thing, it doesn’t make an effort to become something akin to ‘Peechay Hutt’. This hip-hop and slightly R ‘n’ B track is a love letter to the one who got away. The lyrics depict this story in no uncertain terms; interpretation of how we listen and vibe to a song is another thing. Since we haven’t been able to find a full-scale music video, the song on YouTube has artwork that you can stare at while listening. If the lyrics point to heartbreak, the electro-music also stays true to the idea. This ambient beauty makes for a good song if you give it a chance. UMAIR, like Hasan and Talal, is building his discography, working with other artists, prominent and otherwise. However, this may well be the strongest song to emerge out of his music camp and we can only hope UMAIR’s music sojourn continues to showcase artistic growth. After all, electronic music and hip hop seem to be the voice of the current generation and the competition is getting brazen, edgier, almost daily. Plus, it has moved on from what was considered compelling (musically) a decade ago, at home and abroad, followed closely by many of us.