Oh dear, oh dear. There I was, pregnant with anticipation for the arrival of the new Coke studio baby. I eagerly headed for Vimeo where the new child was cradled warmly.
First track, starts interestingly enough -strong rock beat, some strings, punchy repetitive riff. Powerhouse rock’n’roll. More strings. Then guitar solo shredder. Wha? More strings. More ! This is 70’s Prog Rock !!! Mmmm.
Second track. Nice melody, more strings. Going to develop for sure.Okay, so I got the melody. Move on. What happens next? Where is this song going? Answer – nowhere !
This cannot be. What is Rohail up to? Has he lost his mojo? Got to be a plan somewhere.
For those of you based in Asia reading this the rest is history, but the comings and goings of Asian music producers is not something that makes the frontpages of European newspapers, or any page for that matter.
Rohail has quit, and with him goes the creative energy of Coke Studio, it would seem. Disappearing under a cloud after some harsh criticism of Season 6, which in some areas was quite damning, we have new producers with a different vision.
Season 6 was a departure for sure from what had been the recognised formula of CS. But an experiment was needed and I believe due, and obviously so did Rohail. Experiments sometimes work, sometimes they don’t. But with hindsight could it be said that some of the criticism was unjustified? The rhythm section might have been a little wooden at times ………. And frankly that’s all I can really think of.
I enjoyed the brave mix of cultures. The wonderful kora player – the exquisite use of percussion – the occasional harp – the subtle use of strings (go back and check it now) – and the vocal performances were often excellent.
Rohail is a musical Chef….. What we may have now are Canteen cooks.
Before………
After ………..
singlemaltmonkey 
Weeellll…………let’s see how Faisal and Bilal fare as CS producers. The vibe is SURE to change of course.
Pssst. Personally, I never really liked The Strings 😛
Yes, let’s see where it goes. I’m trying to keep an open mind but I found Episode 1 disappointing,as you can tell. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for something different – that’s expected – but still interesting enough to keep me watching. I don’t think I’ll stop watching because I’m always searching – but I do hope that the bar remains high.