n the alternative, counterculture music scene that is vast and exciting, any single release by Mehdi Maloof – to use an analogy – is like finding a diamond straight from the earth’s depth and core. It also applies to the collaborations in his growing career.

His latest release, a collaboration with Varqa Faraid and Shamsher Rana called ‘Bijli’ feels like it is his most melancholic, dark release to date. But you have to understand that even with a political, social song that is a painting of the current reality, it is written in a manner that we’ve come to expect from Maloof. So, as you listen, there is always the Mehdi Maloof style that is apparent. If a preceding line speaks about real lack of social justice, the next one is funny because he throws in a pun or even a word. This unassuming artist has a style that feels like an aberration because even rappers haven’t been able to come up with such wordplay.

Mehdi Maloof is not in the habit of releasing songs as quickly as someone like a Hasan Raheem, and that does give him a slight edge. An aberration even for the alternative side of music, he dropped his debut single in 2016 called ‘Do Hi Rastay’, an almost quiet release, which was followed by the gem, ‘Gandi Si Building’, a playful and accurate reflection of Karachi beyond the elite areas, gentrification, with a brilliant video, directed by Iman Azmat.

A collaboration with the high profile Talal Qureshi called ‘Peero’ followed somewhere in between and Maloof – with or without noticing it – had become an artist with so much might that he got a stint on Coke Studio 13. He had also dropped a song called ‘1947’ pre-Coke Studio, and in 2020 took all those songs and released them as an EP called The Return of Cobra.

The exceptions were songs such as ‘Mera Dost’, a collaboration with Varqa Faraid, Ali Hamdani and Shamsher Rana prior to ‘Bijli’ which does not include Ali Hamdani but does feature Varqa and Shamsher.

‘Bijli’ is written and composed by Maloof and its pristine sound is the work of Varqa Fariad, Shamsher Rana (at Attic Productions). Like ‘Gandi Si Building’, this song features Urdu lines, this time written on a stormy sky, full of lightning and the visuals also allow the song to shine instead of overshadowing it. From actual electricity woes to a larger reflection on a broken society, if there are artists for whom one should wait for – in terms of a release, it is Maloof, with cohorts Varqa Faraid and Shamsher Rana, because what they know how to do so well is balancing real life laugh misery with a laugh or two through lyrical wordplay and soothing sonic structure.

Artwork by @sameijanjua