Finders Keepers Records : Life Is Dance! Vinyl 2LP

Bollywood? Nah dude, Lollywood! Leave it to Finders Keepers to shed light on the most dusty and obscure genres. On Life Is Dance, FK was once again given carte blanche on the EMI vaults to dig up a comprehensive compilation of the oft-mistaken Lollywood sound from Pakistan. From the label: "Commonly, ignorantly but understandably lumped in with its wealthy not-too-distant cousin, Bollywood, Lollywood was inspired by, but often overshadowed by its posh and well travelled relative. Following the simplistic Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood name game (that would in later years spawn Nollywood in Nigeria), Lollywood’s Lahore based film industry was a profitable and vibrant one that found great success in the modest boundaries of its own country but was seldom savoured outside Pakistan. However, the hugely important musical business spawned a bi-product that was viewed as a potential earner for international entertainment industry, EMI, which allowed talented musicians to create ambitious music with world class mediums at there disposal, which throughout the 60s and 70s ranged from fuzz guitars, space echo machines and American and European synthesizers, but, due to the composers indigenous roots, rarely a drum kit. Here you’ll find fuzzy, scuzzy, twang-happy, spaced-out and funked up Urdu-grooves complete with harmonium melodies and driven by some of the most random factor, freakish, finger numbing, percussion that the South East Asian mainstream has ever had to offer. Above all, Lollywood soundtracks sound RAW! Re-imagine some of the most action packed Bollywood productions (which Lollywooders actively did) then fire the make-up department, take away the special effects budget and then improvise. The lack of gloss on a dusty Pakistani mini-LP makes for truly experimental Eastern pop music." Get to know about these seldom heard sounds over 15 tracks from the styles most illustrious composers (basically the R.D Burman's, Gainsbourg's, and Morricone's of Pakistan). Recommended.

• music label: Finders Keepers Records 2015

reviewed by Bo Linas 04/2015