Thursday, October 17, 2019
Mustt Mustt
As I list off the 100 greatest albums ever (once again please remember: not the 100 best albums, rather albums that are each of them the greatest album ever made) I will undoubtedly be pitching in my share of choices easily recognizable to the lay music lover. Coming along I will be making my case for albums well lionized and more or less worshiped by the literati. And why not? I'm no kingmaker. Nevertheless it is a pleasure to find myself off the beaten track already with this collaboration between the Qawwali singer (sort of an Islamic mystical devotional music type) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khhan and some Canadian music guy named Michael Brook whose contributions seem a bit more ambiguous in the project to me. But it is the greatest album ever, so, well done Michael Brook!
But you don't want to hear about how this is possibly going to be my only album featuring primarily Pakistani music. And your concern is not with this album's (relative) obscurity (and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was actually pretty famous anyway when it came down to it). You just want to know why this is the greatest album ever made.
I don't know.
When Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sings:
Dum must qalandar must must, dam must qalandar must
it's not, like a big moment in my life.
And then he sings Dum must qalandar must must, dam must qalandar must.
And then he sings more things that sound a lot like Dum must qalandar must must, dam must qalandar must.
And
Sakhi laal qalandar must must
Sakhi laal qalandar must must
Jhole laal qalandar must must
Dum must qalandar must must, dam must qalandar must
And, it's really good. It's
I mean, wait.
Wait.
Isn't that... the face of god?
No, it's just music. But...
This guy's voice. Warbling, screaming, tearing your heart up, bouncing on mad rhythms. I don't know what he's singing about and I know exactly what he's singing about. A small groove is located, a trance is entered and cannot be contained, ecstasy is unleashed. The sky is raged against, exalted. Heaven bursts apart in a shower of swirling sounds. A trance is entered. A trance is entered. A trance is entered.
Wait.
Isn't that... the face of god?
Yes, that is the face of god.
Mustt Mustt
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