Musicarian - Dweller of No Mans Land

Hear The Track Here

Musicarian, for those who have no clue about this sort of thing, is a well known name to Soundclickers being a jazz rock guitarist from Pakistan - a place not noted for guitarists and certainly not western leaning ones like Salman Anwar (aka Musiciarian). Actually, I probably shouldn't say that because I have no clue whether Pakistan is full of wannabe Eric Clapton's, or in Musiciarian case George Benson's but I somehow doubt it. On a question of utmost seriousness for a second, one of the most frightening things - for me anyway - about radical Taliban based Islam is that music is absolutely forbidden. I suspect being a musician in Pakistan is very, very different to being a musician in any other place on Earth. OK, back to our usual programming....

I first met Musicarian on Soundclick many years ago and he has popped up on a fairly regular basis ever since, pouring out his own brand of soft jazz rock over a series of tracks, some of which I have liked enormously, and some I have been lukewarm about. Not because of any shortcomings in Musiciarian's guitar playing or indeed in the production thereof, both are usually of a very high level indeed. Nope, what gets me is the same that always gets me when faced with music like this, I just plain don't take to it. Blame it all on Kenny G, I usually do. That man has a lot to answer for, doing down a perfectly good genre simply to make a good few million bucks and look stupid doing it.

Woooahhh, is my bias showing much???

Having said all that, Musicarian has still managed to snag a few Must Haves from me, the last one being with his Densyl collaboration on Hope Is All About (March 2010). Dweller of No Mans Land takes us into much rockier territory than normal and I personally liked it much better for it. I would, however, because I am a soft jazz rock philistine but I do love a good guitarist in full flow and on that score, Salman has never let me down. I can't stand a guitarist who noodles, if you know what I mean, and Salman is a bit too good to fall into that trap, his leads are fluid, vibrant and right on the money. However, when all is said and done, it is another guitar instrumental in a veritable sea of said tracks and I suspect it may not do as well as some of this musicians tracks.

Recommended rock, nonetheless.