Xenophilia: The Aay Jays, “Mirza Ki Dhun”

Xenophilia: The Aay Jays, “Mirza Ki Dhun”: "

In light of recent events, now seems like a pretty good time to pause and remember that not every recording unearthed in Pakistan contains the ramblings of a mass-murderous jihadi nutjob. Specifically, in the decade prior to the 1977 military coup that forcefully installed Sharia Law, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar were bustling with hash-addled emissaries and long-haired locals caught up in the international cultural revolution, and there were some pretty good times being had. Sure, that decade saw Pakistan mired in two wars with India, a civil war, and a devastating cyclone, but once the electric guitar comes a-twangin’ into your neighborhood, there’s really not much that can stop it. That is, aside from Sharia Law. That kind of buzzkill will tend to do the trick. The upside is that the Seattle-based record label Sublime Frequencies put out a double-LP last year called PAKISTAN: Instrumental Folk & Pop Sounds 1966-1976, and therein lay all the evidence you might need to understand that the country that we currently know as “the one that denies having protected Bin Laden” is also not without its element of cool, clandestine though it might have to be nowadays. After all, Pakistan was the first Islamic republic to elect a woman as Prime Minister. She was far from perfect, but under the circumstances, that’s still pretty cool.

So, back in the ’60s and ’70s there were some considerably shaggadelic cats holdin’ it down over there, blooming in the midst of a fascinating cross-pollination of US/European and varied middle-eastern influences. Rock, folk, surf, and pop rub up against the indigenous and naturally psychedelic hand-drums, sitar, and other traditional elements, for an amalgam virtually incomparable in the canon of hip. As for the Aay Jays specifically, very little is known. They released only one single (the cover of which is above), although they did record a handful of other songs. Only one of the songs on the above single is included on the Sublime Frequencies collection, although the collection does include a couple other Aay Jays songs, including the satisfying refrain and infectiously deliberate rhythm of “Mirza Ki Dhun”.

To further reinforce just how much we have in common, here’s another number from the Sublime Frequencies collection by a band called the Bugs. Granted, it’s not the most outlandish of band names, though it still tickles us that some twenty-odd years later there’d come another, totally different but still pop-related band called the Bugs up in Portland, OR, which we’d come to know and love. Onward the rock continuum churns!

Much of what’s on the Sublime Frequencies collection has that fun but also rather shrill keyboard action, and it’s all pretty punchy. For a similar conglomeration of influences in a much more laid-back, folkier groove, I strongly recommend an exploration of the Pakistan International Airline In-Flight Music series of the early and mid ’70s. Soothing yet catchy Pakistani music with international appeal, by Pakistani bands, was apparently commissioned by PIA and recorded by EMI for use as in-flight entertainment, and subsequently released as cassettes over the decades that followed. It’s all but impossible to find those cassettes now, however an online community exists at the HistoryOfPIA.com, which can prove mighty helpful in the hunt for digitized artifacts.

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