MUSIC MASTI

So here I am sitting in Ali Azmat's fab pad listening to the orchestral manoeuvres of "Deewana," the first single from the album. And apparently Jami is in the editing studio giving the video its final shape. Ali's slip-sliding vocals and the glamorous, sonorous arrangement seem to fit like yin and yang. It is a heady, intermittently raucous but strangely undulating mix. In other numbers, such as the eerie "Teri Parchaiyan" (produced by the reclusive Rohail Hyatt). Ali's vocals plunge suddenly into undiscovered octaves and mess with your mind as he snarls his way through rejection and ruination. "Na Ray Na" asks questions you may not want to answer, but it is both soulful and stirring - for now it is the song I want to listen to repeatedly despite the fact that it drags me down each time I do. "Dil Ki Sera" takes an unexpected jazzy twist with a saxophone refrain that is tempting, seductive. The album in total explodes with overwhelming inner energies. None of this is clear on a first listen; "Social Circus" will grow on you; it reveals new facets even when you feel you've finally figured it out.