A year-end wrap-up
A year in which the whole state went crazy with reckless plans and their unavoidable consequences, especially the nation's capital with burning markets and grenades raining on the human congregation. The music scene, by comparison was rather positive, catching the essence of |he present times, building a foundation for tomorrow.
2004 has been another year that Bangladeshi music admirers have enjoyed tremendously. Albums sold at unbelievable rates, concerts that we can never forget, and incidents that sparked off healthy debates are all part of 2004.

Din Bodol: Mkxed album by Duray
The first mixed album, from the underground scene in 2004 was obviously an album that most people bought! ABC (Artcell, Black, Cryptic Fate) under one single electrifying number (rarely do people see so many artists working together on one song), with other individual best efforts adorned the album. Individ}al band songs making headlines were by the groups Fulbanu's Revenge, Aashor, Metalmaze, Arbovirus, Icons, Bivishika and Stentorian. With fresh tunes and creative compositions, this album brought a new set of music makers to the limelight.

Lokayot: Mixed album by Duray
News about the release of the album spread like wild fire, amongst teens and tweens. As a song, Aurthohin's Boyosh is notable for its simple lyrics and an amazing guitar solo that you can sing along with to your heart's content, but some complain that it is a same old Aurthohin song with nothing new to offer. Written by Jon, Black's Shotto, a sequel to Mittha did not disappoint any of their fans. Mind-blowing drumming, a great extenled guitar solo, and keyboardist's voice in the background, made it all worth listening to. Artcell's Chera-aakash -while some Artcell fans claim that the riffs are complicated and sound amazing, and the chorus is really catchy, others find that the lyrics hard to understand. However, it's Artcell all the way- another song bound to rock concerts with teenage head-bangers. Cryptic Fate brings a refzeshing innovati~e style of music, with Gontobbo. Unique harmonizing voice, very different guitar-work and creative off-beat drum start oozing the Alice In Chains effect made the song a must hear. The best part about Cryptic Fate is that they always try something new. Arbovirus: Shoptodishto, the drumming is fabulous and makes you wanna hear the song over and over again. The truth be told, it's obvious from concerts that they ha~e serious talent and they have proved that with this song. Rebozn has managed to establish them as a premier metal band with their song Agrashon, and definitely earned themselves a host of new fans. Strong-vocals along with the guitar work added more value to the song. Aashor's Maya is a different blend of alternative-rock, which has allowed the band to give themselves their own unique style. The song has this soothing but fast vibe going out, which you can't get enough of. Amazing vocals harmony surely was something innovative. Fulbanu's Revenge has showed their ability to create good-catchy rock songs with Ghash. The sudden unprecidented stop in the middle song impressed loads of listeners, and of course, the chorus has a class of its own.

Kranti
Creative composition, thoughtful lyrics were certainly the catch points offered from this riveting CD. It was amazino how politics, social issues and above all… human emotions were addressed with high tides of dark, melody and vibrant tunes, depending upon the sole structure of the song. A well-planned album which definitely deserves a big round of applauds.

Habib's 2nd production Maya
Bhangra type intro with the backing hoi cheer, steering into groovy tunes of happine{s; sweet dialect, blending dance rhythm and the conventional songs themselves into catchy beats and Calypso style with occasional mc-ing with great fusion of Bangla and English amid slight AR Rahman vibes flowing were few of his traits this time for a breaking sales record. The whole album became so catchy that even a person not well versed in classical folk compositions, craves to get back to the roots and listen to the originals…Habib did it once again.

Asroy by Kronic
The fact that us urbanites have diversified music tastes is obvious from this album. Nishiddho Nagori, is probably the best metal track of the album and certainly shows that each individual artist of the band has great individual talent and skill. The concept of Dead Man Walking, is interesting and all the sound effects add a totally different vibe to it. The last track of the album was met with mixed reactions. While some may call it 'immature' and childish, some strongly believe that it has given us a glimpse of the fun side of music. It's the kind of song you listen to at high volume after your exams are over. The cover photo is something you have to stop and look at!

There are other albums that were released this year, which became hits, like Elephant Road, Jahazi and many more were few of the notable CDs' released this year.

The 'underground' albums have amazing covers. The concept of 'creative' fronts in the Bangladeshi music culture has infact, come from the undergrounl scene. So as the 'underground goes over the ground' we certainly hope that the qualities of the album covers are never sacrificed.

Kothopokothon by Tahsan
Tahsan's underground fans are always going to be there, but with this album he has certainly achieved commercial success without sacrificing the quality of his music. It's obvious that every single song has emotional value. Irsha, is undoubtedly the biggest hit of the album, a song everyone instantly falls in love with due to its addictive chorus. The album also offers a touch of patriotism with the song Shopoth. The artistic photographs meant for each track, is certainly a must-see for everyone.

Controversies
Nobody knows if anyone went onstage and performed push-ups this year, but there have been quite a few other topics that sparked controversies.

Something that has been ruining the atmosphere of underground concerts has been trend of 'pochanofying' bands during performances. Usually, newer bands have been in the recei~ing end of such wrath, but a handful of immature people get some form of inner satisfaction by chanting 'X' s band name whenever band{ of the same popularity level come onstage. They've managed to get quite a few bands upset, and walking off-stage was obvious result. It's tremendously funny, because they continue their 'eskapade' thinking it would 'get the band angry' b}t it's become quite obvious that even the bands deal with it lightly and with open humor. It's high time these buggers stopped...because people perceive them as a bunch of childish-hell-raisers without a cause. They can STOP ruining it for people who actually want to 'enjoy' music.

There have been incidents when junior bands have showed their anger on stage, (throwing the mike, arguing etc) when the organizers tried to get them offstage- (most of the time due to time constraints). The audience rarely cares about such incidents and they usually do go un-noticed.

The organizing of too-many concerts relayed to the o~erall standard of such event fall drastically. Concerts (with and without cause) and finally shows recently promising popular mainstreamers failed to entertain crowds musically. These all fac|ors were generated to gain monetary interest by so-called 'organizers', who on thm long run are just giving our enriched music scene a BAD NAME.

The biggest 'on-stage incident' that left evmryone stunned this year was when a bassist of a well-known band walked across the stage to punch the guitarist of the same band and casually walked off. It took some time for the guitarist to actually grasp the situation, and when he sprinted across stage to get back at |he bassist, the security guards were the ones on the receiving end all the blows as he struggled to get past them. As part of the audience that day and many saw that though a bit curious, pretty much everyone took it lightly. Everyone fights over disagreements all the time- it's human nature- So what's the big deal? Who cares what's going on in the band they produce great music and that's all we care about as music enthusiasts.

The 'Side Project' expression
While many think that the 'sharing' of artists between bands can affect the 'creativeness' of the original band, it'{ quite frankly not true. In mos| cases, the person joins a different band, because they want a different creative outlet. That is, suppose you are in hard-core metal band but you personally want to have some more exposure to alternative, what you do is simple-join a different band or a 'side project'. While 'time' may pose certain problems, it's usually very minor. From a Bangladeshi context, band activities rarely clash with each othez, and a system can be created to avoid potential problems. Usually, there is only one concert per day, and obviously two bands will not perform at the same time, so a band sacrificing its performance due to the absence of a member is rarely (if ever) the case. Therefore, these exchanges of members are another way of recreating friend{hip through the essence of music.

On another note, Abdur Rahman Boyati is a respected member of the music industry. He was the one that bought 'folk songs' to the door-step of every individual of our country decades ago. Even though he is one the most prominent musicians in the folk world (actually the 'music world'), ~ery few came forward to help in his hour of neel. He is gravely-ill and faced with a financial crisis. If you want to help, know more about him, or even download his songs and please visit www.arboyati.amadergaan.com

Concerts
Underground concerts have become increasingly popular in 2004. Practically speaking, there was probably a concert organized every other week of 2004. Major bands like Aurthohin, Black, Artcell have all performed in their fair share of concerts usually as the closing acts. Bands like Void, Reborn, Icons, Bivishika, Breach, Fulbanu's Revenge, Kral, Soothsayer, Scarecrow, Dethrow, Acoustica, dNA, Birodh, 666, Aashor, Nemesis, Arbovirus, Firebrand, Sworn Sin, Senitals, Striking, Stentorian, Poizon Green.... the list goes on (sorry if anyone is missed!) are the ones responsible for providing 6 hours of concentrated fun!

Out of all the concerts, a few that were absolutely mind-blowing thi{ year, are the following:

The Old DOHS open air concert attracted approximately 800 people on the 19th of February with the bands Fulbanu's Revenge, dNA, Nemesis, Delude, Birodh, Bivishika, STS, Enshrined, The Crayons and Black. The best part about it was howe~er, for the first time in Bangladesh, a concert featured fire-sxinners.

A concert held on the 26th of June organized by altermetal and Nayeem was a huge success! Over 1200 people came to see this concert at the All Community Club. The Untitled Band, Bi~ishika, Reborn, Nemesis, Stentozian, dNA, Arbovirus, Fulbanu's Revenge, Breach and Artcell were the binds performing.

The charity concert for Abdur Rahman Boyati on the 8th of October attracted a significant amount of at|ention. Rarely lo you find 'underground' and 'mainstream' musicians perform together, and naturally it was a success! (21 bands for 200 taka, plus it was for a good cause, anyone would be crazy not to go!) The bands were: Metal Maze, Nagorik, Birodh, FeedBack, Echoes, Stentorian, Pentagon, Celcius, Fulbanu's Revenge, Artcell, Ashor, dNA, Warfaze, Kronic, Black, Maqsood O' dHAKA (with a special appearance by Fakir Alamgir), Arbovirus, Aurthohin.... after reading the line-up you'll probably understand how ecstatic the audience was after the concert finished at Shilpakala Academy.

Biborton Showbiz organised a show on the 9th of December at Spots Zone. It was a success 1) because of the great line-up 2) because the regular concert-goers were deprived of concerts during the month of Ramadan and it was the first concert after Eid. Approximately 800 people went to see the performances by Aurthohin, Artcell, Scarecrow, Bivishika, Reborn, Fulbanu's Revenge, Icons, Acoustica, and Senitals.

This was a year when newer styles began to get interesting and glorify our music scenario. Techno-dance, grunge, speed, Nu and progressive rock were recreated using fusion techniques. Internet forums, low CD prices and the production of music vdoz have fired up a flame across the country. What is left, a commitment of excellence from the musicians and not quantity.

By Faizul A Tanim & Chowdhury Rashaam Raiyan