Noori is the brainchild of Ali Noor who’s been involved in almost all aspects of music for the last six years. Ali Noor is the lead singer. He & his little bro Ali Hamza would compose and sing songs when they were younger. Ali and Hamza made their musical start in an underground band called Coven, which they eventually left to form their own band, Hamza got involved in his studies at LUMS in Lahore and then Noor joined forces with M Ali Jafri and later Salman to form this rock trio.
Noori has been in development for a number of years - the material for the 1st album being written n finalized, & a direction being adopted. The sound and words of the band provide a fresh, intelligent and a serious commentary of their times & surroundings. This is music with an intelligent attitude, relevant to the present and with a focus for the future.
Noori’s music is best described as raw n energetic and is an alternative to the existing popular music scene of Pakistan. Noori’s first song, Khalla didn’t get much of a reaction and it was Ali’s first solo effort with a track written for a drama that got him attention. His soulful rendition of Manwa Re shot him to fame like a rocket and Noori got much exposure because of him.
The next big hit was scored by Gana No.1, a style very very different from Manwa Re ‘n’, according to Noor,the true sound of Noori. The members of Noori are competent in areas ranging from the conception of ideas right down to the final recording and mastering process of each song. Being songwriters, musicians, audio engineers, producers, and performers -these three men are serious about their music and what it represents.
LIGHTING UP THE STAGE
noori: The best kept secret in town
The net is abuzz with queries and comments on Ali Noor and his band noori. Ali Azmat has sung on their tracks Ooncha and 1947 making them noori the only Pakistani band whose tracks feature the Junoon frontman outside of Junoon. Those in-the-know all want a piece of them. Yet, to the common listening public they remain an unknown quantity. This, however, is now slowly but surely changing.
Only recently Ali Noor has tested the waters with a solo single Manwa Re. He never released the single commercially, choosing instead to hold onto it for the upcoming noori album. (A rough version of the song is however available at noori's web page at )Nevertheless, the song which can only be otherwise heard in its video form on television, has been in heavy rotation on Indus Vision, etc. and recently went to number one in its charts. The quality of the song is such that it with its memorable melody, and lyrics and tasteful, understated video alone makes the noori album one of the most anticipated albums this year.
So, when, in addition to all this buzz, a low key by-invite only noori concert was announced by Aptech in Lahore, the music circles came alive with anticipation and there was a rush for the invites.
Held at Hall no. 2 of the Alhamra Art Centre on the Mall, the concert was a must-attend event. The crowd demographic on the night was a fascinating mix: the trendy LUMS crowd (which knows his music and has given Ali Noor huge support throughout his varied career) and the general masses which know him only from the atypical noori song, Manwa Re, all oured in and very early on the hall was filled to capacity with people practically squeezing into the aisles to catch the band.
Sadly, though the night opened disappointingly as we found out that Aptech was more or less using the program as a promotional event for their institute and in fact had a boring and pointless presentation before noori came onstage (if the teaching standard is as bad as the presentation on the night, Aptech is in serious trouble). An opening act featuring a female vocalist who for her own sake shall remain nameless, also came on that night but after a few songs was well and truly booed off stage by restless noori fans.
And then the wait was over. noori was on. The core of the band comprises of a trio of Ali Noor (formerly of Coven), Mohammad Ali Jafri (also formerly of Coven) on bass and Salman Albert (formerly of Eastern Boys and Entity) on drums. However, for performance, on the night, the group grew to six with Farhan Albert (Salman’s brother) being added on Keyboards and Additional Vocals, Raakay on backing vocals and Edris Khan on second guitar.
Their first song Mainn was a clear announcement of intent, a song with a message (as are all other noori songs). Main, the song is based around an infuriaratingly catchy synth riff and is high energy and uplifting being miles apart from the mellow sounds of Manwa Re. The LUMS crow instantly loved it, the others were somewhat resistant to it: This was not what they were expecting. However such was the energy to the song that by the song’s end most were converted and moving to the beat.
By the time, the band launched into Suno Kai Main Hoon Jawan all resistance has subsided. The song opens with a call to arms, with Ali Noor sneering into the mic: 'Suno Ko Main Hoon Jawaaaaan...'. With populist slogans like ‘Khulla hai sara aasman/ Undar Tarapti Bijli’ littered throughout the song, Suno has all the makings of a youth anthem. This was amply demonstrated by the youths dancing in the aisles. The song also demonstrated that tightness of the band and how well-rehearsed they were: the song has several Stop and go parts and the band easily nailed them.
Khalla was next and is a graphic song (with an equally graphic and disturbing video which true to noori's record was banned on TV [Manwa Re was also banned from PTV for including scenes of Hira Mandi in it]. In the video version of the song, the song has a spare drums and bass groove, which musically seems to signify that its message: the space or Khalla that seems to grown up between people. In its electrified live incarnation, it sounded dense and menacing. Salman Albert's drums took center stage and showed why he is one of the most in-demand drummer in Lahore.
Ooncha (on record featuring Ali Azmat) is an achingly tender ballad with a subversively uplifting chorus. For most part it is soft and is underpinned by the throbbing bassline and little else, narrating the life of an man striving to be ‘Ooncha’ in this world. Its catchy chorus however is completely sing along but each of its line is a slap in the face of the Ooncha class. ‘Ooonchai hain log / oonchai makan/ magar / nicha hai dil / nicha iman / aur us par oonchi yeh shaaaaan.’
If there is a number, I did not like, it has to be Jaana tha Hum Nain. The crowds seemed moved by it, particularly the jungle intro that made Salman Albert an instant hit ; however I was not so moved. The song is much too similar in content and feel to other noori numbers (Gana no. 1 perhaps) and, in my opinion, is not all that good.
Saari Raat Jaaga which followed it up, however is downright excellent. It is an atmospheric number to be featured on the soundtrack of Aks Kada, an upcoming local television horror-plays production. Ali Noor's vocals comprised more of gutteral growls than singing and in the context of the song it worked really well. One could only make out certain lyrics which pointedly indicated that if there ever was a political song written addressed to the apolitical, this is one. With lyrics like 'Teray Ghar ko Aag Lag Jayae / Aur tujhai Jaag na Aayae....' it is a call to arms to all those sleeping through Pakistan's various and varied political crises.
Manwa Re remained the song everyone was there to hear. So Ali Noor did not announce it. Rather, he played coy with the crowd, and finally left it up to the crowd to figure out which song he had launched into. As recognition dawned on the crowd, the roar they let out was massive. All sang along. In fact there was a moment in the song when Ali Noor stopped singing it and the crowd sang it back to him note-perfect.
The night closed with Gana No. 1, a song which has, it is said, been so named because the band believes it was an instant number one. It was an excellent closer with a massively catchy singalong ending on Oasis-like proportions. The song was unfamiliar to all, yet everyone was singing along on its lalalalla outro.
And with that the festivities for the night were over. The crowd milled around asking for more, but there were no encores.
Overall, it was a remarkable night’s work by noori. The songs presented were spectacular, the presentation even more so. Lighting was handled by Ali Hamza (Ali Noor’s brother) and it was simply brilliant, changing with almost every other song. The mellower songs had suitably mellow lighting, the explosive ones had a lot of strobe and glaring lights. Noori not only plays with the audio dynamics, but also with the video. It was nice to notice that the band was shooting the concert with a number of video cameras. A most professional outfit overall.
As for individual performances, the core of the group was stunning. Ali Noor is well and truly the focus of the band and the livewire off of whom everyone seems to feed off. The songs suit him. This was the most relaxed I have ever seen him on stage and he exudes a sense of joy in performance that is rather rare among singers. His rapport with the audience was fun at most times. Sometimes thought it was not and betrayed a sense of nerveousness on Ali Noor's part. Mohammad Ali's throbbing bass formed the bridge that links Noor's lead guitar to Salman Albert's drumming. He is, it seems, the John Enstwhile (of 'The Who') of noori, the calm center with all action around him. Salman Albert on the night’s evidence is good enough to give Gumby a run for the title of best drummer in Lahore.
One critical observation though needs to be made: While the sheer abandon with which Ali Noor threw himself into the performance was commendable, since he did not pace himself, by the end of concert his voice was well and truly shredded. It affected his performance at moments and he seemed to miss certain notes in songs. Something for Ali Noor to keep in mind for the future.
In conclusion, the performance on the night was superlative and the way the songs on their first viewing engaged that crowd, makes one feel that noori's album remains an album worth looking forward to. When it shall be released is anybody’s guess (all Ali Noor would cryptically say is that it is titled IDCB.) In the meanwhile, noori fans will just have to make do with live performances, which Noori informs me there are going to be many.
Noori did not just suddenly materialize out of nowhere. No spaceship left this quartet on our shores. The band has plugged in with mainstream audiences at the right time. With a 24- hour cable music teed pumping muscle for local hipsters, pop needs a makeover. Junaid, Junoon, and the Awaz boys are a lovely bunch who elevated garage guitar playing into an industry involving glamorous personalities, sponsorships and PR. But you qan only nil the drums for the same set all the time. While Pepsi and Coke sign dozens of new artists around the globe, in Pakistan, both beverage giants have it easy renewing old des. Artists such as Najarn, Abrar ul Haq, Jawad Ahmed and Strings have resurfaced successfully. Noon invaded the airwaves and infiltrated cyberspace last year, sounding hip and happening. Meet the new face of popular music in Pakistan; media wise and savvy at IT.
This four piece rock outfit's fame reached critical mass in 2002 but members have been in the news long before. Ali Noor is well known in his native city as part of an underground band called Coven. Band mate and brother All Hamza has a fan following of his own. Bassist Mohammed All Jaifri goes a long way back with Noor from the Coven days. And although drummer John Louis Pinto II a.k.a. Gumby literally drummed his way through adolescence, his stint with Junoon left a lasting impression. So how did
the four combine their creative forces to blend as Noon? On a recent trip to Karachi for a video shoot and a few concerts, frontman Au Noor zipped us through the story he has repeated over the past few months to presswallas catching the bug. "I've bin working on the Noon project with All Hamza for about S to 6 years,3 he says in a tone implying you-should-know-better, "I didn't know when the band would materialize but I wanted to write songs in Urdu for quite sometime." Other than being busy with Coven, Noor took on individual projects such as a Honda song (web: see Audio forthe mp3) and an English polo album for a company called Condor. VCI released the album titled 'Horsin' Around' (seriously!) in 1999 which, if you happen to chance upon, gives a flash of the energetic punk rock that drives fans to Noon today. Noor sounded just as confident of his commercial work four years ago as he does now of his pet project.
The real piece of Noon history begins with Munwa Re a track that decidedly made the band a household name. Munwa Re, unlike most tracks on Noori's upcoming album was commissioned for a film that got canned three years ago. So Noor did what any other intelligent artist would have done with access to a digital editing system; he shot and released a video for the track (web: see the Video section for the uncensored Munwa Re). Munwa Re is a track even your mum would hum to. But despite being Noon's first claim to fame, Noor thinks Turn Hans Diye launched the band. It is also the upbeat sound of Turn Hans Diye (web: see Video) that gives a sneak preview of what to expect from 'Suno Kay Main Moon Jawaan', Noon's debut album scheduled for a January release.
"Turn Hans Diye is our sound," says Noon, who was hours away from 'signing Noon with a record company. "Junoon would be closest to our music since we generate the same raw energy as them but we are very different otherwise. We're a simple band trying to cater to the youth."
Turn Hans Diye, the track with several video versions, was released last year and Noor finds it difficult to pin down a time when Noon took off. Even in a media saturated environment such as ours, events and people do not pop up as headline news unless they meet a major catastrophe. In the age of spin and soundbytes, viral marketing works wonders for upcoming artists. Established artists do no less. Staff and fans for Brittany Spears indulge in shameless advertising tactics such as targeting chat rooms and message boards encouraging people to turn to the pop queen's wailing (oops...did someone just overstep a screaming fan somewhere?). In Pakistan, musicians are still shy of exploiting the new media to their full advantage. Artists such as Abrar havenrt even considered putting up a w-e-b-s-i-t-e. Not so in the case of Noon.
"We want to be the first band that's totally IT-oriented,TM claims Noon who researches, composes, edits and conducts all his audio and video work on
No Rain, Good Food, Bad Music
- Barre Chords, noori and Strings -
The musical extravaganza organized to mark the JPGL takeover of the Food Street at Gawalmandi was originally rained out a month ago by one of the most violent thunderstorms in recent memory. Take Two recently, however, was not rained out: It might well have been as instead of thunderous performances the fare on offer, with a few notable exceptions and delicious food notwithstanding, was soggy and rather disappointing.
What made it even more disheartening was that the promise of three remarkable bands on offer was not fully realized in performance. Strings were headlining the show. Barre (pronounced ‘bare’) Chords, an underground superband featuring the cream of local artists such as Mekaal Hassan and other players from Entity, the Mekaal Hassan Band and Powertrip were up in support. And then there was possibly the most anticipated band of the night, noori (they insist on keeping the ‘n’ lowercase), Ali Noor’s new band which was having its first major public performance.
The weather was humid and hot but the setup at the street was excellent. Pedestal fans were all around and waiters were there to assist the guests - the event was invite-only: all present were truly pampered with delightful food and service. Unfortunately, it appeared little attention had been paid to the sound system and all through the night, the sound suffered.
The event was launched by Natasha (sounded like she said ‘Welcome to Fool Street’) and Ali Salman (‘Bachpan main mai jab chota sa tha’) who were the comperes for the night and after the few initial hiccups both compered well. The delicious food made all the initial self-patting-on-the-back and saluting of sponsors, and as ever Mr. Kamran Lashari, whiz by.
Barre Chords started off the festivities. They are normally a fun group which delivered one of the most memorable performances at a recent Gig Night, so anticipation was high.
They started off with what was essentially a Powertrip segment: Powertrip members Tauseef Dar (Vocals) and Cecil Chaudhry (Guitars) played a Powertrip regular cover In the flesh (Pink Floyd). Fahad Khan was on drums and Sammy was on the bass. The performance was competent but the material was inappropriate. If any irony was intended, one missed it as the rendition was much too earnest. The utterly desolate and bitter In The Flesh has lyrics to the end: ‘So you thought you might like to, go to the show./ … If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes /You'll just have to blow your way through this disguise.’ The cover was totally out of place as singing angsty songs to suited booted tied up executives and denizens of Gawalmandi is rather pointless.
However, the performance really caught fire with the next song, Loser, a song by Powertrip with Cecil on lead vocals. It was possibly Mekaal Hassan coming on stage to contribute a searing solo which upped the ante. Yet it was Tauseef Dar who really shone the brightest on the number as he put his pipes - he is an award winning backup singer- to good use on backing vocals. His falsetto and ad libs were remarkable.
Mekaal then played Pantragruel, an original instrumental tune of his, with the band. Fahad Khan really shone on this number which is truly monstrous sounding and as epic as the subject matter which draws inspiration from the Francois Rabelais epic about the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel. His playing which tends to be bombastic benefitted from playing in a large venue such as the Food Street which provided a booming sound.
Mekaal was excellent but he was on for too short a time. The order of the night seems to have been to get as much exposure to as many friends as possible. So next on was crowd favorite Ahmad Ali ‘Jutt’ Butt. He sang a Limp Bizkit cover from the MI2 soundtrack (was there a point to the most loved actor cum singer singing ‘Why you wanna hate me?’) which suffered from band sound production and was bad background music for dining to. No one seemed to care and Butt sahab did his bit and left.
While individual performances were great, this night the band seemed more like three bands than one. The personnel and type of music kept changing and this gave a disjointed feel to the performance as each of the members seemed to be grabbing this opportunity on a larger stage to promote themselves: Power Trip, Entity, Mekaal Hassan Band. Mekaal translated well to above ground, however Ahmad Ali Butt and to a lesser extent Powertrip did not. It was just not Gawalmandi type of music.
noori was on next.
Ali Noor’s band noori is easily the hottest thing coming out of Lahore. Anticipation was high as they had rocked at the Aptech show in the past and even on the night it all started off so promisingly: Ali Noor came onstage first with an acoustic guitar and rendered a jawdroppingly stunning rendition of his hit song Manwa Re. It was one of the highlights of the night.
Thereafter he and his band which was next ushered onstage went down in a huge and bad way. Ali Noor seemed to have exhausted himself with the one song and thereafter he sounded nasal and like a singer who was nursing a cold: his singing on the night was well below par. With their leader all over the place and struggling badly, the rest of the band (Mohammad Ali Jafri on bass and Farhad Humayun) made a racket which sounded worse with the bad sound mix. Mohammad Ali Jafri was animated, bouncing around with his bass. Overcompensating he did too much. Farhad Humayun was powerful if at times stuttering to keep up with Ali Noor. The wheels truly came apart for the noori bandwagon and all other songs which were, barring one, electric, sounded bad with a horrid sound mix.
Suno Kai Mai Hoon Jawan was plain bad. It was bereft of energy and was a mellow stroll when the lyrics require an attitude laden snarl. Jaana Tha with its big choruses showed up the shortcomings of the trio setup: three people are much too few to make noori songs, which are often anthemic in nature, sound big. The dead crowd did not help much too. Sari Raat Jaaga was done in by horrible guitar sound as was the new single Tum Hans Diyae
Ali Noor struggled to play guitar and sing at the same time as one seemed to suffer because of the other at various times. Noor clearly needs to choose singing over rhythm guitar playing and to get another guitar player to play rhythm. His ability on the guitar is undoubtedly superior and it showed in his spectacular solos on the night: the reason for the ability coming through in the solos was clear: he did not have to sing while playing guitar solos.
To his credit Ali Noor attempted to tailor his material to the event, even airing his song Gawalmandi Kai Siri Pai: but the same was played a bit too fast and failed to work up the audience. A much better version was previously rendered by Ali Hamza at a LUMS show recently.
noori seem to be on the ball with their video making, website designing and their albums that are fast approaching completion, but it is where it really matters, in live performance, that they fell down. They have been good in the past, and no doubt they will soon pick up, but on this night they ended up being plainly poor.
Strings of course can never be poor. They are today much too professional a unit to mess up. For live performance, the group grows to six in number and each player is professional to the core. They were at Gawalmandi well before they were supposed to perform (before even noori came onstage) and were onstage on cue. Musically, their performance was spot on, even though it seemed to lack much joy. They were fine and they played all their hits: not animated or exciting, just fine. It was only occasionally that their performance caught fire. It was perhaps down to the late hour or the lame audience interaction or just that most of the people had left by now or were sated and drowsy from the various heavy foods and heavy shots of lassi. Either all that or there is something in the nature of the band that makes one feel that there is a an edge missing: they are after all a pop band and are so in nature meant to be pleasant, not hard rocking. To their credit they tried out the harder rocking songs from their oeuvre, but the songs barring the last Anjanai were rather ineffectual.
The performance also cleared up another misconception for me: One has often wondered if Strings in its latest incarnation is merely the Bilal Maqsood show with Faisal Kapadia playing Andrew Ridgeley to Bilal’s George Michael. This performance certainly put that silly notion to rest. Faisal has the voice in the band and it showed on the night. Bilal Maqsood’s voice was a little too shrill in performance (Sar Kiye Ye Pahar) and one sees why Faisal Kapadia with his bass heavy voice remains an essential part of Strings.
Overall, the organization of the show was in most aspects excellent: but it was found lacking in the most essential of elements: they seemed to have skimped on the sound system and getting a really good person to mix the sound. Moreover, for security reasons they had set up the stage so far removed from the audience that the crowd interaction turned out to be pretty much nil. And finally the organizers were guilty of starting the show elevenish (invites said eight) and with three bands lined up to perform they were always going to suffer in completing within time.
Just one more qualms off of the topic of music: the commercialization of Gawalmandi is rather sad. There was a time when one could slink off to Gawalmandi to get away from advertisements and get a taste of real Lahore. But even that seems to be a part of the past. Mr. Kamran Lashari for all his tireless efforts to promote Lahore has much to answer for for uglification of the city through permitting ads to pop up all over town and selling off the best parts of the city.
In conclusion, the event was a bit of a disappointment: Excellent service but disappointing music. The event could have been better and more acceptable the other way round.
hmmmm...
i know u guyz will thynk em crazy...
but if neone ov u who likes noori...
read it....
em sure ud like it
aur kuch chaiyay
noori ki pixx...
unk ganay
nething
aur koi interview...
ya article
to poochna mat :p
mai khud post keroongee :p
u know tht song hum bhoolay is it by noorie?
^yup it is by noori..Awesome song..
yeh dat song is by noori 
sooon there'd ba song NAYA JAHAN....
its by noori OFCOURSE
ummm... n yeh most of u peepz dunnoo dat gurl ANAIDA....
SHE IS dere in da videooo.....
i agree Noori Roxz..But there is 1 thing,
Winning Is Not Everything ,Survivin is! so lets see..for how long Noori Survives! :) waisay its a good band with Alot Of potential...i really like songs Ouncha hoon main, Hum Bholay, Manwa Ray offcourse! :)
and Doobara Phir Say ( Acoustic Ver)
ok so he's da bro of ali noor..
ALI HAMZA
[thumb=D]alihamza1.JPG[/thumb]
n he's da guy.... ALI NOOORR..
[thumb=D]alinoor19.JPG[/thumb]
ok so he’s da bro of ali noor..
ALI HAMZA
[thumb=D]alihamza1.JPG[/thumb]
n he’s da guy… ALI NOOORR..
[thumb=D]alinoor19.JPG[/thumb]
another pic of ali noor
[thumb=D]alinoor3.JPG[/thumb]
ohk so he’s gumby da drummer…
he’s 27…
[thumb=D]gumby.JPG[/thumb]
n he’s jaffery… da last member of deir… BAND
[thumb=D]jaffery.JPG[/thumb]
yayyyyyyyyyyyy 
[thumb=D]noori16.JPG[/thumb]
[thumb=D]noori23.JPG[/thumb]
[thumb=D]alihamza12.JPG[/thumb]
[thumb=D]noori34.JPG[/thumb]
[thumb=D]noori6.JPG[/thumb]
lovely hair…thts wht i was admiring in a video earlier:p
yezzzz…