When Ali and Salman went their separate ways

His Bigness
Fasi Zaka
 

Junoon was something else. Arguably they were the first pioneers of music, which showed rock music could be done in Urdu, and done well. Their use of local rhythms and indigenous melodies made the spectrum of rock far richer than what it was otherwise.

A lot of it had to do with Salman Ahmed's vision and sheer doggedness in pursuing his pipe dream. By the time of their second album it was obvious that Junoon was something special.

But throughout it seemed that the band was really just the fruits of the imaginative dexterity of Salman's vision. Brian was made to appear as something superfluous. Ali Azmat on the other hand caught the imagination of the public's eye.
Ali's claim to fame within the band was as a stage performer, the one who did the prancing to give the unit energy. His voice was powerful, but little was made of any other contributions Ali may have had to the band.
 
Before Ali and Salman went solo, it was generally thought that all Ali brought to the band was his voice and stage antics. Salman was credited for the musical genius and cerebral matter behind the band and as a guitar player Salman was credited as an extremely gifted riff maker.

One reason for this was also that non-music initiatives that made the band famous, like peace overtures toward India and their ehtehsab movement appeared to be spearheaded by Salman with little overt support by Ali.

These two significantly different individuals made Junoon what it was, each apparently compensated for what the other couldn't provide. But, when it came to who made Junoon essentially what it was, it definitely looked like Salman's baby.
 
When the rocking duo went their separate ways, all the bets of success were on Salman and not Ali to make it big. The set up was obvious; Ali would fail badly because he would no longer have Salman's talent to mooch off. The pocket dynamite would be exposed as a talentless musician gifted with a brilliant voice who needed someone else's material to flourish.

But when the band broke up, Ali no longer had to put up with Salman hogging press time as the spokesman for the band. It became public that the two great classics of their mediocre last song sets were actually Ali's compositions, 'Garaj Baras' and 'Tara Jala'.
 
Even the public posturing of the band changed in the end, far more images of Ali on stage with a guitar were splashed across performances, making him look like a musician and not just a guitar playing ventriloquist's singer.

With the release of debut albums from both ex-junoonis there is an extremely interesting platter of matter to re-evaluate who was what in Junoon. The public has already spoken with Ali Azmat's Social Circus as a definite favourite over Salman Ahmed's Infiniti.

After listening to both albums for the longest time it's interesting to see the kinds of variations both have compared to the Junoon of old.
 
Despite the hammering Infiniti got in the press, it's not that bad really. The problem is that its quite derivative from a lot of Junoon's older worker, but without the killer riffs that Salman is known for. His voice just doesn't have the elasticity that Ali musters without effort. In a lot of the songs when Salman's voice is made to stretch it's a let down. But then again, with some of the lighter melodies in 'Al-vida', 'Nazar' and 'Do Dil' that suit Salman's voice more, the songs manage to sound quite nice. It looks like his voice can't meet the requirements of the rock power ballad but do fine when it's a mellow reflective song.
 
But what really sound off are the more sufi and Punjabi oriented numbers that require a voice like Ali's, say 'Nachoon Gi' and 'Masjid Mandir'. It's as if these songs were written for Ali's iron lungs like the days when Junoon was still breathing. Overall, it's a disappointing album with a few gems thrown in between. And it's not just because of his voice not matching some of the more difficult to sing numbers, musically it isn't as appealing as the previous work Salman has done.

Social Circus is a different ball game altogether. It has a very different musical focus than previous material Junoon worked on, and for someone like me who expected a lot of great guitar based hooks leading the songs I was slightly disappointed when I first heard it, with the exception of the excellent 'Mein Challa' which is dominated by a very aggressive riff recorded at a low volume level.

But other than my unwarranted expectation, the album grew on me. The variety in music and melody is quite substantial. Throughout the album there are a lot of numbers that are power ballads. In fact, some of the album moves well into light pop-rock territory. The lyrics are really superior and speak of loss and confusion.
It looks like Ali's experimented significantly with music style. In fact the only song that sounds like it could be a traditional Junoon number is 'Piyass', and that too only in the chorus. 'Dil Ki Sira' has a jazzy groove going for it. 'Mein' is probably the best song in the whole album; it starts off with a sweet low key riff and goes into a very groovy vocal melody. The lyrics are evocative of urban loneliness.

Experimentation wise, 'Dil Ne Dil Se Kaha' is probably the most ambitious song in the album because of its very upbeat commercial start lined with cheesy syths and transforms into high melancholy mid stream. On a personal note, the only song that makes me hit the skip button is the song 'Dil Ka Jahan' (though the chorus is great), which has too much of Ali going into extended "Aaaaahs", which is something a lot of his songs have that give them unintended similarity even though the songs are quite different otherwise.

Overall, it's an album that grows on you no matter how many times you listen to it.

But, what these two albums really aimed to do is distance themselves from the legacy of Junoon towards solo star status. When evaluated though, they also help in correcting what was the real place of each member in that band.

Salman maintains his coveted position despite the Diet-Junoon album that Infiniti is, but it's Ali who really deserves reconsideration. His solo album and the latter day songs with Junoon prove he isn't just a talentless monkey used to prance on stage and bellow like a pirate on rum, but a bon-a-fide artiste with talent that matches Salman's.

And adding to that, Ali gets brownie points for not sticking to the decades old formula Junoon stuck to successfully by expanding his musical range and experimenting beyond it.

It's hard to put your head above a strong legacy. Salman hasn't yet, but Ali certainly has cut through the baggage wonderfully.