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The emergence of lounge music in Dhaka

Cultural Correspondent
Music has become manifold over the recent years in Bangladesh. For a country still developing, still emerging out of its debris of poverty and corruption — art and culture is thriving in Dhaka, Chittagong and other urban locations. It's quite a trend now to turn on the TV to get some 'Bollywood Masala' or to download some hits of the Billboard chart for the urbanities. But does that mean that our national flavours have taken a back seat? No way. And there is more to national flavours than just folk music. Jazz, rock, pop. fusion and all that are now found in the music scene. In this aspect, lounge music plays an important role in bringing Bangladeshi music nearer to urban Bangladeshi audience. Recently, The Daily Star spoke to one of the pioneers of lounge music, Nafis Tahsin Ahmed Shubho, who is the founder and managing director ofWireless.
‘ Wireless -- well, the brand suggests it all! It's basically a chance to bring the crowd closer to live music," said Nafis.
“Of course there are many official' or high paid entry parties where one can get a taste of live music, but the chances of a student paying around TklOOO to go for such music or entertainment is quite slim. Not that it does not happen, but this habit should be three-four times a week, and not three-four times a year. You see, we are really creating a subtle gap from the propagation of our own music. The very idea behind Wireless was to bridge that gap/’he added.
The first Wireless Session was held on July 2007 at Decagon, Dhanmondi. There .
Arbovirus, Black, et al and there were various artists who begin their journey in the music world from the show at Wireless.
“After the first hit. Wireless got frequent. The charm here was that it was the same Arnob, with the same guitar but the charm was “Here is the man. All by himself. Unplugged! The same goes with all the other artistes. Everybody liked the feel
of it, and they called for more! A bit of soft, and a bit of blues. Of course heavy metal and alternative like Radio Active and Black were also there, but the sensations were completely different when the rock bands went wireless','' Nafis said.
“The target groups were the students, say from 15 to 25, and the young professionals at corporate levels. We started
with a small scale...kept the entry fee really easy and manageable and it did the trick. Bengali music had attained a sound and swift platform to shine out and come out of the personal computers and stereos. The first Wireless was a landmark. Here, there was no need of jamming. They all loved it because it was a single ground, all surrounding their favourite musician, just with in their reach. The ambience was affable and casual - lounging you can say with the listeners all sprawled on the mats. Well, where other do you get moments like this?” he continued.
The recent sessions ofWireless continued all throughout the Thursdays of July. So what does Nafis have to say about them?
"The response was simply amazing,” he said to RJ Rono on the show "Nightrider,” Radio Foorti on the last day of the session. Ajob, Arbovirus, Western Milon, German Town, Black, Nemesis, Sever Dementia, Kral, OldSchool, Mechanix, Radio Active, Power surge, Bohemian, Yaatri, Bassbaba Sumon, Arnob, Shunno, Reborn, Stentorian, et al are just some of the names. Also from outside Dhaka some bands were introduced like AOD, Blunderware, Tanshi (solo). Oblique's new album EP Ojothai was released on July 31 at Wireless.
So what's the next plan forWireless? Its going to reach out to more people out of the boundaries of Dhanmondi and even Dhaka, so that more and more people have the opportunity to get introduced to and involved in the exquisite music of Bangladesh.SAS was the Sound Sponsor and Amader Gaan.com was the Web partner of the sessions. The organisers also thank Incursion Music for being a part of it