Death is the only certainty in life. Always has been so I find our fear of it fascinating. Granted, this was not always the case, far from it as numerous cultures throughout history celebrated death and some, like ancient Egypt, were defined by it. I have a sneaking suspicion certain Western religions, philosophy and increased life standards played a big role in making us increasingly paranoid. Regardless, losing someone close to you is an almost indescribably intense and overwhelming concoction of emotions. It's difficult to put into words if I am being honest and that's completely fine. During my 25 years of existence, I found myself attending funerals much more than weddings and this without a doubt influenced this curiosity as well as my morbid sense of humor. It's a coping mechanism of sorts and the beautiful thing about it is how each of us have their own take on that.
Naturally, music is a superb way to vent all these emotions and this has been a staple of our species, the earliest evidence of burials going as far as 78 000 years in the past. However, I guarantee you that hominids were making sounds with anything they could get their hands on long before that.
All of this brings us to our subject for today, Arooj Aftab's third record Vulture Prince, a lamentation on loss and her coping with it. The tragic death of her younger brother and of a friend. It's a forlorn record for sure but not pessimistic, on the contrary, it's meditative and in a way celebratory, nudging both her and us to move on. Now, I am far from well versed in Pakistani music or culture so I won't have any similar artists to compare this too and honestly, I like that, it's... refreshing!
I'll provide you with the basics though. Even in its core, Vulture Prince is diverse, unifying sounds from jazz, traditional Pakistani folk and modern classical in breathtaking fashion. It's laid back but never unengaging and even without understanding a word of Urdu, Aftab conveys emotions in such a potent way that I felt them. Or at least I think so.
The lack of percussions throughout most of the record was a bold choice and one that ultimately payed off. It gives her vocals room to shine as well as other instruments, most notably the harp which makes me very happy. It's a unique instrument with an unmistakable sound but sadly it's often very underutilized it is in most of modern Western music, excluding classical. One of the stand out tracks "Mohabbat" sees Aftab and co. building off a famous ghazal - traditional Arabic poems that deal with love and all the pain that comes with it. From this, they expand by utilizing both the harp and percussions and meld that with jazz-inspired instrumentation.
All of this is then even more accentuated with Aftab's masterful vocal performance that's focused more on the phrasing then range as some often do. Those distinct Arabic melodies never cease to amaze and let me tell you, it took me many years to start successfully distancing them from the plague known as turbofolk which trivializes this ancient form of singing, to a point of disgust. That my friends, is whole another can of worms that I'll eventually cover so let's just take a step back for a bit and listen to "Mohabbat".
Ah, that's better. Now where was I? Oh that's right, the jazz. There's a good reason why it's implemented as well here. Being a Berklee graduate and composer, Aftab has a clear understanding of how to approach things from a songwriter perspective, to a point where you could call Vulture Prince minimalistic. The truth is somewhere in between of course as there are many intricate and subtle layers to each track and the wonderful instrumentation emphasizes this even further.
Unfortunately, for some reason the whole album is not on YouTube so I can't showcase the album version of "Diya Hai", instead I'll leave this more stripped down version which features only her and Badi Assad on the acoustic whereas the album version contains a string quartet alongside it.
Still, even in this form, the song oozes with beauty and profound longing. It reminds me a bit of Fado which, if you're acquainted with it, says it all.
It's important to note that even with no song being under five minutes, I never felt like the band meandered in spite of the clearly minimalist-influenced approach. In many ways this reminded me of the best slow burners in cinema, always taking their time but never wasting it. "Last Night" encapsulates that slowly rising tension with its strange reggae-meets-jazz drumming covered by superb guitar and double bass work and of course her vocals. I would argue "Last Night" contains her best vocal performance on the whole thing. The again, the closer "Suroor" can just as easily take its place. Using strings as extra percussive elements while Aftab dances around everything was a stroke of genius. Its more upbeat and "active" nature also adds to the appeal, providing that flicker of light which arrives at the end of the tunnel we've been inhabiting. Hm, tunnel is the wrong word here seeing how spacious Vulture Prince is but I think you get my drift.
Overall, I don't have many things to criticize here, if any which to me indicates how much Vulture Prince succeeds. Not only it at everything it set out to do but successfully introducing me to a whole new realm of music I was always curious about. I feel this is THE thing that'll place Aftab on so many radars and I hope this short look does the same for you. It's a really big world out there and it's kinda dumb to just limit ourselves to Western music. Regarding the "message" of the record, it'll vary from person to person but I think "Mohabbat" captures the sentiment pretty well: "The number of people who love will never come down."
Vulture Prince was released via New Amsterdam Records on April 23rd.
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