ne of Pakistan’s pioneering rock acts, Junoon, featuring Ali Azmat, Salman Ahmad and Brian O’ Connell broke up as a band years ago after releasing Deewar as their final studio album.

Azmat stayed in Pakistan, making excellent music at home, while Ahmad and O’ Connell left the country for good.

However, 13 years later, the original trio reunited for a music video (of one of their older songs, ‘Khudi’) and played live shows, in and outside the country, sponsored by EBM and Geo for some of the shows and music video (EBM).

Leaving behind an acrimonious past as best as they could, the trio’s live shows prompted us to look at their terrific discographic past.

But as we mourn another year of the tragedy that was 9/11 and the innocent lives it took, we also mourn how one coordinated terrorist attack changed the shape of the world. No one was spared as wars, racial profiling, and countless lives were lost. Pakistan, too, got caught up in the subsequent ‘war on terror’ because of its strategic geopolitical placement. We’re still in the thick of it.

While we continue to grasp these realities in a gradually intolerant society, we can’t help but be pulled toward the Junoon song, ‘No More’. It feels relevant particularly today.

The music video, shot in the USA, and   the song sung in English by Ali Azmat,  may not be universally acclaimed like  ‘Sayonee’, but it is perhaps the only   English language song by Azmat that has had some poignant impact.

The music video, shot in the USA, and the song sung in English by Ali Azmat, may not be a universally acclaimed song like ‘Sayonee’, but it is perhaps the only English language song by Azmat that has had some poignant impact. The sound is both grungy and prog-rock but what’s most arresting are the classic Ali Azmat vocals, and the lyrical matter.

As Azmat sings, “Ashes of falling hope/Choking me inside these doors/Stormy winds seduce the night/ Over New York and Karachi skies/Sinking in a sea of time/Mourning since 119…” - you know the song is (a) influenced by the attack on 9/11 in the United States and (b) a reflection on the feelings it brought on. The song is pertinent as it is aware of the grief and further loss of life and trauma that followed. In his days with Junoon and later as a solo artist, Ali Azmat has made an effort (time and again) to sing in English. And it always makes us wonder why he doesn’t stick to his mixture of Urdu and Punjabi.

‘No More’ is the one exception to the rule. Give it a chance, once more, with love