KHALID HANIFI

“I was infected early on with the cultural virus of the pop song,” says Khalid Hanifi, “and the form seems to be permanently branded in my mind.  When
I was growing up, there was a joy and identification that I experienced via
the music on pop radio that made reality seem like merely a necessary evil.
Life was difficult, but songs were my armor.”

Now, those are works that pop geeks can identify with!

If you’ve not heard of Khalid Hanifi, now might be a good time to change that situation.  I first heard his music with an old band of his called MAYPOPS, who had a pretty solid release that came out in 2000 but it really clicked for me when his first solo album crossed my desk, “Pamplemousse Presse” in 2008.  Now, THERE’s a record, folks!   (info at: khalidhanifi.com and http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/khalidhanifi)

Hanifi has a new album out.  It’s not what I could classify as ‘power pop’, nor would he but in terms of quality songs, carefully constructed and crafted, well, “A Brief Respite From Shooting Fish In A Barrel” has ‘it’ in spades.  It’s gorgeous.  (you can listen to it and order it – HERE)

I have a track below for you from it – and then look for another track from the release on the November digi-compilation next week.

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DOWNLOAD – “Talk To The Invisible Hand” – HERE

Watch the video of the song, right here:

“Free The World To Death”

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SOME MORE INFORMATION ON HANIFI’S NEW PROJECT:

Under any name, Hanifi’s output has consistently reflected both his affinity
for snappy, concise songcraft as well as his restless creative spirit, and
those qualities are showcased in spades on A Brief Respite From Shooting
Fish In A Barrel.  He describes the project as “an album of resolutely non‐
partisan politically and economically themed songs, the sensibilities of
which are undoubtedly colored by the fact that a) I’m an Afghan‐American,
and b) I think I’m much smarter than I actually am.”

The last portion of that statement is debatable, as such catchy, sonically
distinctive tunes as “Free the World to Death,” “The Splendor of Empire,”
“Black Sight,” “Hog Futures” and “Talk to the Invisible Hand” maintain an
effortless melodic appeal while compellingly addressing large‐scale political
and economic concerns.  While the task of confronting such vexingly
complex issues has proved daunting for countless tunesmiths, Hanifi
manages to instill his chosen subject matter with insight and perspective.

Hanifi co‐produced A Brief Respite From Shooting Fish In A Barrel with
Jonathan Visger (Absofacto, Mason Proper), with instrumental
contributions from an assortment of his hometown’s local legends,
including veteran rockabilly guitarist George Bedard and drummer Vinnie
Dombroski, who’s best known as lead singer of the hard‐rock band Sponge.

The urge to write politically‐engaged lyrics is a new one for Hanifi, who
notes, “I’m constitutionally introspective, so my writing in the past has
tended to be internal documentary, i.e. what I see and feel, which I guess
could be considered a bit juvenile.  I wouldn’t say I’ve graduated from
juvenility altogether, but I am becoming less fascinated with myself and
more interested in the world outside, and these songs reflect that.”

The new songs gain added resonance in light of the personal circumstances
that surrounded their creation.  For example, “Free the World to Death”—
which employs vivid wild‐west imagery to comment on American
imperialism and the war in Afghanistan—opens the album in an English‐
language rendition and closes it in an alternate version sung in Pashto, one
of the two official languages of Afghanistan.  The song’s birth coincided
with Hanifi reconnecting with his Afghan‐born father, with whom he had
not communicated for nearly 20 years.  Although Khalid does not speak
Pashto, his father translated the song’s lyrics into his native tongue for his
son to sing on the album.

While his new material explores challenging new lyrical territory, A Brief
Respite From Shooting Fish In A Barrel’s consistent level of musical craft and
emotional involvement will already be familiar to anyone who’s conversant
with Khalid Hanifi’s prior work.  A Michigan native of Afghan/Anglo descent,
he initially established his creative credentials with Map of the World, in
which he shared vocals with his sister Sophia.  The group’s fresh,
unpretentious art‐pop won it a deal with Atlantic Records, which released
the 1989 EP An Inch Equals a Thousand Miles, an exuberantly melodic gem
whose release Billboard described as a “blessed event.”