Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 07

This episode started off with celebrity performance Uzair Jaswal who sang ‘sajna’, and on concluding Call performed their iconic song ‘jilawatan’.

Final of Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands, Season two has two contestants namely Badnaam and Kashmir and both of these bands are really promising and have equal chances of winning the title.

Final round consisted of two rounds; 01) mash-up song and 02) original song.

Badnaam stated off the proceeding and performed ‘Ishqnaama’ which was a mashup of their original song ‘ishq mei teray + halka halka suroor by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan + teray ishq nachaya by Adida Parveen and haq ali mola ali also by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and wow what an explosive performance it was. Their mash-up started off very splendidly. Vocals were very melodious and were full of feelings and emotions that comes with the original ones. They really had put their heart and soul into this mash-up. Felt excellent.

Kashmir’s mash-up ‘ankahi’ consisted of two very popular songs ‘adat by Atif Aslam + aeitbaar by Vital Signs’. Although vocals on both song were lacking to come near the original ones but had their own style and music arrangement and compositions were both of top level.

Second round started by Badnaam’s original song ‘kalyaan Ishq’ which had all the elements of Badnaam’s style. It had powerful vocals, excellent music arrangements and composition too.

Kashmir sang their original ‘kaaghaz ka jahaaz’, excellent composition, nice and soft with nothing very hard to it but still very amazing to listen too, groovy bass lines with equally soothing vocals by bilal. All this coupled with excellent live performance, almost flawless. Yes another song which forced the judges to give them a standing ovation and a hug from Atif Aslam. WOW.

So finally with their song ‘kaaghaz ka jahaaz’, it seems as Kashmir has done it already. Now it’s for the audience to vote and decide, but I personally think that Kashmir should win this battle which will be like a repeat result, as during the last Battle of the Bands 2002, where final was between Aaroh who were more on the mellow side with softer and melodious type of music against Entity Paradigm’s power packed performance.

My vote goes to Kashmir but I have gut feeling that most of the Pakistani audiences will vote for Badnaam for their sufi type of music, which seems missing since Ali Azmat left Junoon.

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 06

Episode 06 of Pepsi Battle of the Bands, season two knock out round can also be referred as semi-final of this competition with only top three banding remaining now.

This episode started off with celebrity performance from Asrar which was very powerful, energetic and explosive and was the real highlight of episode.

Moving back to contestants, Roots were first to perform and they decided opted for traditional folk song ‘peera ho’, which was also sung by Khalid Anum during late 90’s. Voice of Rutaba Yaqub didn’t suit the music style of this song. Roots nearly destroyed the peera ho and tried best to kill the essence of it. Music produced also wasn’t very firey. After this performance Roots should walk out on their own rather than waiting for judges to ask them to leave.

Second to hit the stage was Kashmir, who sang ‘mehdah ishq vi toon by Pathanay Khan’. Song started soft and mellow and vocalist brought it up very nicely and was full of soul. Kashmir has been my favourite song from the beginning till this knockout stage.

Badnaam performed ‘bismillah karraan by Nadeem Abbas’, perfect start with excellent and perfect vocals and equally excellent support by other band members. Probably first flawless performance of season two of Pepsi Top of the Pops. Can’t say more on it. Even though not on my favourite list but this band seems like a potential winner.

After three performances Badnaam was declared to be safe and remaining two bands Kashmir and Roots were declared to be in the danger and were to fight again for only one remaining spot in the final.

Roots came back very strongly and they performed their original song ‘pagal sa, ye dil’ which was their first near perfect performance. Everything seemed to worked for them for this song, their vocals (with a bit of Shania Twain), composition, music arrangements felt perfect.

Kashmir also came back very strongly with their original song ‘soch’, started soft and mellow as its turning out to the style of Kashmir, Bilal has created own style of singing and along-with Vais Khan who happens to Fawad Khan’s favourite and drummer Shane J.Anthoney will do wonders on stage.

Finally judges thought that that Roots should leave and Kashmir should stay on, felt like a decent decision as Roots performed in-consistently whereas Kashmir and Badnaam were consistent throughout.

Now eagerly waiting for the final between Badnaam and Kashmir. 

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 05

Episode 05 of Pepsi Battle of the Bands, season two a battle between last four contestants and from these four only three will proceed further, with one very unlucky band to head home.

Zeb Bangash started off the proceeding with her song ‘sureela samandir’, which had some Nazia Hasan into too and was very melodious to listen too.

Jasim and The Pindi Boys were first to hit the stage with the song ‘yes love by Dr & Billa’, which was by far the best performance by this band. It was an overall good attempt from them.

Then it was Badnaam with ‘sham-e-qalandar’ folk song / traditional song, stared off with a bang and exploded right away, overall a very explosive performance full of energy and with it a very traditional feel to it. Vocalist Ahmed Jillani is next level guy, he should be up their taking centre stage with all the legends.

Kashmir came in next with ‘waqt by EP’, although not as good as Fawad would have done so, but musically good to enough for ears. Bilal’s vocals are not meant for this type of song. He should concentrate on even more mellow songs. Music arrangements were awesome and fit for head-banging.

Officially Roots were the final act the day with ‘mera dil nahi available by Vital Signs’, and vocalist almost destroyed the essence of original song. This song gave me a a very miserable feeling, although some parts sung well and music was arranged well.

Badnaam and Roots were declared to safe ahead of Kashmir, I think judges were not in their senses while deciding this one, and then remaining two bands Kashmir and Jasim and the Pindi Boys were asked to perform again.

Jasim and the Pindi Boys sang ‘dil mai tum by Bunny’ which was a pretty mediocre performance at this stage and then Kashmir sang their original song ‘faisaly’ which was better performance as compared to Jasim and the Pindi Boys, judges also thought same and asked Kashmir to proceed further and Jasim and the Pindi Boys were asked to leave.

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 04

Episode 04 of Pepsi Battle of the Bands, season two was to be battle between last six contestants and from these six four were to proceed further, whereas two very unlucky were to head home. Theme of this episode was is original songs from the bands.

Sara Haider started off the proceeding with her song ‘zindagi’, which was very soulful and had feelings to it, but needs to work on her urdu accent, some of her pronunciations were very indianized, but over very energetic performance.

Kashmir were first to hit the stage with their original song ‘buddha baba’ from Bial’s childhood memories, started in a very soft and mellow fashion with Bilal’s vocal standing out. Overall above-average composition with a very fresh feel to it. Music was arranged nicely and their performance was without much errors.

Durvesh came on then with their original track titled ‘sadaye darvesh”, which according to them has all their heart and soul in it. Excellent try it was, they surely did put all their heart and soul into it. Very powerful vocals with equally powerful and fiery music to match it. Truly amazing to listen to, just by listen to this song takes you to next level. Best performance of episode 04.

Jasim and the Pindi Boys performed their original song ‘korina’, which reminded me again that Jasim and the Pindi Boys is the most over-rated band of this season two. This song doesn’t have much to it, at times looked exciting but overall not impressive song at all.

‘Khirkhiyaan’ was up next by Roots, with good music arrangements and equally good composition, but with weak lyrics and not matching vocal tone ruined it altogether. Vocals and music didn’t synchronize well enough.

Madlock also had the same problem composition and music arrangements excellent but vocals were missing at that level. Their song ‘kab hoga’ had better lyrics as compared to previous performer, but on other aspects they were on same level with Roots. Music and vocals were going opposite directions.

Badnaam was the final act of the day with their song ‘khawaja ki dewaani’, and with a soft start and was expecting it to explode a bit early and but explodes a bit late. Vocals of Ahmed Jillani is the best part of this song.

Judges preferred Roots and Pindi Boys over Durvesh and MadLock, which was a very pathetic decision, both Roots and Pindi Boys are highly over-rated and should have been sent home.

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 03

Episode 03 of Pepsi Battle of the Bands, season two was the start of knock out rounds where from eight chosen contestants two were to head home and six were to proceed further.

Another development at this stage was Farooq moving out as judge and Shahi and Atif Aslam moving in as judges. Now revised judge’s panels consists of Atif Aslam, Shahi Hussain, Fawad Khan and Meesha Shafi.   

This episode started off with celebrity performance from one and only Atif Aslam who sang ‘yaad tehari’ which is his latest number to hit the market. Song had very powerful, energetic and explosive vocals which are now a trade-mark of Atif Aslam.

First band to hit the stage were Darvesh who sang ‘Allah hi dega’ by Sounds of Karachi, overall performance was near excellent, didn’t leave much for criticism.

Second band was Jasim and Pindi Boys who sang ‘jabsay hm howay jawan by Vital Signs’, and they have improved a lot from their previous performance but their vocalist needs to work more to make it to big stage.

Aura performed ‘dekha na tha by Alamgir’, which was more of a disappointment, especially from vocals perspective, music arrangement were creative and were excellent but vocalist didn’t fit well to the mood of the song. Although it was better re-make, but wasn’t expecting this kind of performance from Aura’s vocalist.  

Next in line was Madlock who sang ‘kahan hoon mai by EP’, musically started off with a band, but when vocals came in, it was very disappointing.

Kashmir performed ‘mera piyar by Aamir Zaki’, which was a very sentimental due to sad depart of maestro Amir Zaki, this song brought excellent feelings and memories. They Kashmir performed this song was truly amazing, vocals from Bilal gave this song an altogether new dimension and now this is song is on my favourite list. Composition, music arrangements and vocals all had sentimental values to them, this is surely next level stuff.

Next were Badnaam who performed ‘kaala jorra paya, which is a famous folk song’, started off with very impressive vocals + powerful, explosive and very unique vocal tone. By far most unique and most powerful vocals of season two. Rest all was impressive too.   

Shajr tried a very difficult song which was ‘kisay da yaar by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’, and it sure was an excellent try, but was probably too much for Shajr. Singing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is not an easy task for anyone. Even Rahat Fateh Ali Khan prefers not to sing this one during his shows. Vocals of Shajr aren’t meant for this type of song, she really messed it up. Although backup music was strong enough to support it.

Roots performed ‘iss bar millo by Hadiqa Kiani & Aamir Zaki’ and this was another forgeable performance with not much to say on it.

At the end of show two Aura and Shajr left the battle and six bands Darvesh, Jasim & Pindi Boys, Madlock, Kashmir, Badnaam and Roots were to proceed further.   

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Elimination Round

Elimination round of Pepsi Battle of the Bands 2017 was full of surprises, ill-fated and bad-decisions from the judges. It seemed strange why all three judges were agreeing and dis-agreeing together on every performance. A certain disliked by one judge was disliked by others too and vice versa.   

21 bands were short listed for elimination round out of which initially only 06 were to proceed further, but due to immense amount of talent available judges requested for addition 04 bands to proceed further totalling to 10 bands proceeding. Finally all agreed on 08 bands moving forward and 13 bands facing elimination.  

Decision to choose Badnaam over Naksh and V-Sell was decent one, whereas preferring Roots over E-Sharp and OB Positive wasn’t easily digestible.

Eliminating Khamaaj was the worst the judges could do, lead vocalist of Khamaaj was by far the best find of this year’s Pepsi Battle of the Bands and I am sure that his vocal chords are more powerful than both male judges Farooq and Fawad and his vocal tone and singing style is also extra ordinary. Don’t know if both male judges were afraid to choose someone better themselves. Kashmir was a decent selection.   

Disqualification of Positive was another blunder by judges, even Pindi Boys didn’t show up with all band members but they weren’t asked a single question then why did they ask a very silly question ending up in dis-qualification.  

Choosing Madlock over Sikandar ka mandar and The Grovers; The Quetta Boys was very okay as Madlock had that flare to go ahead, but choosing very mediocre band Aura and highly over-rated Jasim & The Pindi Boys left a bad taste

Choosing Shajr over Ehl-e-Rock was another pathetic decision, whereas Darvesh deserved to proceed.

Overall after watching this elimination round I have serious doubts about the abilities of judges to choose better outfits.

This round ended by a performance by Aaroh with Farooq on vocals who is only good giving recording performance and his live performance is a bit below average and I am sure bands like Khamaaj and Kashmir can perform better than Aaroh.

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 02

Pepsi Battle of the Bands is back with episode 02 with Ayesha Omer as host and same judges Fawad Khan, Farooq Ahmed and Meesha Shafi.

Ehl-e-Rock was the first act of Episode 02 and according to them Ehl-e-Rock is not just a name but it’s an ideology and brother hood fraternity for rock lovers and rock followers. Band was formed in 2009 and they have working together since then with hard rock being their main genre. They did change coupe of vocalist from time to time with currently Waqar Younus as their frontman. They have already released an English album “words of mass destruction”. They performed their original number named as “Junoon”, Waqar’s vocals were fully energetic and are here to stay and his vocals jelled well with the music. Music arrangement was also up there. Felt like a complete performance and one of the judge Farooq called them a power house.

Khamaaj is a though and Khamaaj is a raag too and they named it Khamaaj due to the reason that their no was no other band with this name and this band with nine members is been together for two years now. From their original ‘Bezubaan’ which is sufi rock song with tabla and Junooni type guitar tone, its seems that their guitarist is inspired by Salman Ahmed (Junoon). Khamaaj should try to create their own style of music. Their vocalist stood out and is by the best I have heard in first two episodes of Pepsi Battle of the Bands 2017. His vocal chords and vocal tone sets him apart from the rest and I predict him to be the next ‘Atif Aslam’. Sound of Tabla felt good after quite a while. This band needs to jam a lot more and if they improve their music arrangements and music style a bit they are sure winners of this Pepsi Battle of the Bands.

Nafs is a three piece band and they performed “main shah” by Manjhi Faqeer and apart from impressive vocal tone of vocalist there is not to mention about their performance. Music arrangements need improvement a lot and they need to add some more members to perform better on-stage.

Badnaam another three piece band and they are into sufi rock music with sufiana kalaam, their vocalist Ahmed Jillani said he was a big fan of Farooq and that was the real destroying part of their performance. They performed their original number ‘Alif Allah’ and Ahmed Jillani was trying too hard to copy Farooq’s style of vocals. I have feeling that Ali Azmat’s style of vocals suit your type of music a lot more then Farooq’s, so if you feel like copying go for Ali Azmat not Farooq. Rest all stuff like music arrangements, composition and lyrics were good enough.

E-Sharp started off in 2005 as band and they have also released their album by name of ‘bahadur yarr jung’ during 2015 which was success on social media. They have also released their second album during this year. They performed their original number ‘chaahay sau saal’ with pretty oridinary performance, nothing seemed very special just a normal type of band and their music was arranged well and had a feeling like “‘heard it before” feel to it.

Yoon is a band from Swat where music has too folk in it and Yoon is trying to infuse western elements into folk music of Swat. They are first band with a Rubab player and they also have a tabla player with them too and according to them they have introduced a new style of music which is getting appreciated very well. They performed ‘chaap tilak by Amir Khusru’, vocalist lacked accents and tone for this type of song was missing too. Tabla and Rubab gave a good feel to it but overall very hollow, empty and disappointing performance.

Darvesh is someone who deeply lost in love of lord as said by the band Darvesh and naming band Darvesh was due to their deep love with music. They have been together for two years and are like family. They are started off with three members and are now 10 members. They are here to introduce a genre qawwali rock and their original number ‘Sawali’ written by grand-mother of Saad Ali Khan had a feel good factor to it. Music arrangements and composition were very pretty ordinary and overall a very ordinary type of performance.

On the concluding note, best act of the episode 02 was definitely Khamaaj, closely followed by Ehl-e-Rock, Badnaam and Darvesh. I see Khamaaj as a clear winner here.

Pepsi Battle of the Bands, Season Two – Episode 01

Pepsi Battle of the Bands is back with a bang and this time with Ayesha Omer as host and on judges panel Fawad Khan frontman of ‘Entity Paradigm’ who stood runners-up of first edition of Pepsi Battle of the Band. Farooq Ahmed frontman and lead vocalist of ‘Aaroh’ winners of first edition of Pepsi Battle of the Band is also on judges’ seat. Third judge is Meesha Shafi whose credentials to be a judge aren’t enough and she be selecting new talented bands when she isn’t that established herself.

Again Pepsi Battle of the Band comes at a time just like late 90’s when many band were fading out. Junaid Jamshed from Vital Signs had started a solo flight, Awaz also disintegrated was also fading, Junoon was facing wrath of government after their ‘ehtisaab’ song and when Ali Azmat shouted ‘lota, lota’ during a concert in Lahore, Junoon were banned to perform in Punjab by Manzoor Ahmed Watto’s government. This trend gave rise to solo acts and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Junaid Jamshed, Ali Haidar, Sajjad Ali, Abrar-ul-Haq, Hadiqa Kiani, Saleem Javaid, Ahmed Jahanzeb and many more started to rule the music stage.

This time around Pepsi Battle of the Bands got an over-whelming response from budding musicians and bands as approximately 100+ bands poured in from all over Pakistan to prove their mettle and only 06 to proceed to main round competition was expected to be intense too. Winner of main round aka grand finale will get an album deal which includes producing + recording + editing + mixing at any leading studio, concert and tours throughout Pakistan and royalty album throughout.

Review on some of the bands that performed;

Naksh means impression and they are here to inspire, according to Naksh they had been performing together for last 15, 16 years. Three brothers and a school friend had been jamming together since then their lead vocalist Mehak joined them recently. Mehak feels that there is a good chemistry between them while producing music. They performed Bolo Bolo by Sajjad Ali with nicely arrange music, played well and sung by Mehak’s powerful, bassy yet flat vocals.

Positive had a very positive feel to them, they were also part of Pepsi Battle of the Band’s first season and did make it top ten even at that time, Positive said that thinking should be optimistic and with a positive attitude. Positive sang a very soulful song Kalab by Allan Fakeer, which was sung exceptinaly well by the lead vocalist Yousuf and tabla & flute added soulful flavour to its full content.

Pindi Boys led by Jasim Ahmed were a very disappointing, although they have released some of their music on social media but even that couldn’t help them to grasp the in-demand music. Lyrics and compositions are done by Jasim and then music is arranged with all members while jamming. They neither sounded any different nor were they any near to Pakistaniayat as claimed. They sang their original track titled ‘Pindi Boys’, which failed to impress at any stage.

Kashmir was the first real rock band of the evening with real rock attitude and music also, they started off during 2012, first had a difficult name to their band now are called as Kashmir, according to their lead vocalist Bilal; their basic genre alternative rock but they also mix and fuse music of other genres. They performed Hamesha by EP and their performance was 30% of what EP sang at first season of Pepsi Battle of the Bands.  Vocalist could have added a little more fire but failed to do so. Wes Khan lead guitarist was highly praised by Fawad Khan for his excellent playing style and referred him to Slash.

Bari the Band two piece band, sang Yaara by Aaroh and surely they sang much much better then Farooq. Music could have been a bit better.

Madlock from Lahore is a three piece band into alternative rock music as claimed, but when you get to hear them on stage they were too soft to start off with and followed very flat kind of high pitched vocals, music arrangement was also very mediocre type but end scream was scintillating.

Shajr sang ya Ali by Mekaal Hasan, sung exceptionally well but was missing the kind of vocal tone required for this kind of song, it seemed that they had jammed very hard for this performance, and their overall performance was okay, with only vocal tone not matching the mood of the song.

Soul Anesthetics performed their original song and from very outset of their performance they seemed to be out sorts, very dull sounding music with equally disappointing vocal performance.

Aura was another disappointing performance by with too much inspiration ColdPlay, they failed to produce anything unique.

OB Positive, another three piece band and they have doing music together for almost ten years now, for them music is passion. They performed aeitebaar by Vital Signs and although they sang it well but vocals of both didn’t synchronize which effected their performance to some extent. If both vocalist go their ways, they may end up well.

The Bands Are Back!

Pepsi is proud to launch Battle of the Bands again, after a 15 year hiatus. Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi, Shahi Hassan, Farooq Ahmed and Atif Aslam were confirmed as the official judges for Pepsi’s eponymous musical reality show. The five powerhouses appeared together at a Press Conference held by Pepsi Pakistan at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi.

This comes after the release of Pepsi Battle of the Bands launch song, a mashup rendition of Alamgir’s ‘Dekha Na Tha’ and ‘Do Pal Ka Jeevan’ by Vital Signs.

Fans, the world over, are elated to see Fawad Khan returning to his musical roots, a feat he has been preparing for since the past 6 months – where he is joined by, Meesha Shafi, Atif Aslam, Farooq Ahmed and Shahi Hasan to preside over the newest wave of emerging talent in Pakistan, with Ayesha Omar acting as the host of Battle of the Bands.

Fawad started off his career as a contestant of Battle of the Bands back in 2002 with his band EP, so the franchise has come back full circle with a semi-finalist band member returning at the peak of his career to be part of the judging panel, and Shahi Hasan, an integral member of the country’s most famous pop group, Vital Signs, is back to mentor new talent in Pakistan.

Farooq Ahmed, from Aaroh, winners of the first Battle of the Band returns as a guest judge for the audition episodes. He has been lending his musical ability and status as the returning champion of the franchise to help bring forward a new age of band culture to the nation.

Hundreds of audition videos poured in from all over the country and 36 bands made the cut for the audition rounds; they will be a part of musical history in the making, a forum renowned for establishing creating original music in Pakistan. Pepsi had held auditions for Battle of the Bands earlier on in the year and the top bands are being mentored to be part of the biggest musical show in Pakistan.

The season consists of 8 episodes which will include the celebrity judges, Fawad, Meesha and Farooq for the auditions, and then the addition of Atif Aslam and Shahi Hasan for the battle rounds. Two power-packed episodes have already been launched which have been received phenomenally well by the media and music fans alike. In this press event, the Top 8 bands were also announced who are now going into the Main Rounds of the program. These talented Top 8 bands are from different music genres and their names are: Kashmir, Darvesh, Roots, Badnaam, Aura, Madlock, Shajr and Jasim & The Pindi Boys.

The Marketing Director of Pepsi Pakistan, Mr. Salman Butt said “Pepsi has always taken great pride in showcasing musical talent in Pakistan and Pepsi Battle of the Bands is our chance to do it all over again!”

The bands are the true stars of the show, and Battle of the Bands will highlight their Journeys from underground rock groups till they become household names! Special focus will also be aimed at the importance of the grooming and styling that goes into becoming a great music band.

Not only is Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands a turning point in Pakistan’s music industry; it is a convergence of some of the most brilliant minds in entertainment. With the Grammy nominated, Faisal Rafi directing and leading music production, along with his incredible music team, Pepsi Battle of the Bands is truly a force to be reckoned with. Saad bin Mujeeb from Green Chillies Production is the video producer of the show.

Several high end fashion designers and celebrity stylists have been taken on board by Pepsi to dress and style the judges and the bands.

Pepsi has specially flown in UK based director, Andrew Bramley particularly known for being the video director of the band Coldplay for 9 years. He is joined by DOP, Nick Collier, renowned for his work on shows like the X Factor and the Olympics games, and Jack Linnekar who is the lighting programmer.

International Advertising Limited, Saatchi and Saatchi are the executive producer of the Battle of the Bands, while Proximity Advertising is handling digital content. Catalyst Public Relations is providing PR, Image Consultancy and Celebrity Management services.

The show airs every Sunday evening on all major TV Channels. Every episode is also available on Pepsi Pakistan’s website: http://www.pepsibattleofthebands.com