Isha
Khan Duray
Bangla
music recording prodigy of the 21st century
By
AES & Faizul A Tanim
Ever
wonder how the story goes behind each successful audio album from
the market? Whether the tunes and compositions are arranged in perfect
harmony?
The answers all lie in the recording studios making
the valiant effort of orchestrating the compilation. In addition,
the engineer who steers his way to bring out a crisp CD becomes the
focal identity of music's rise. One such studio sprung up--Sound Garden
and the man who came up from that music factory to promote sophisticated
rock music was Duray.
The mixed album producer Duray's work became a representation
for the underground musicians. Charpotro, Onushilon…Dinbodol…he has
done it all--the music drew the line that differentiated between the
Metal crowd and modern Alternative traditions as the compilations
made swift promotion of almost all the popular genres. It assorted
emotions and styles from Metal, Alternative, Rock, Pop and anything
underground as it allowed us to grip the craving within music enthusiasts.
And it all started like this:
"I was in an underground concert, greatly enjoying the music
and sympathising with the performing bands for the meagre support
from the crowd and using the word 'crowd' is gross exaggeration as
the turnout was extremely low. I enjoyed their music a great deal
and was horrified, appalled even, to witness that people were completely
oblivious of the fact that there are so many young musicians having
such virtuoso in Bangladesh. So I conjured up a plan to help these
musicians come to the limelight or at least get the attention they
deserve. So I approached the underground bands and proposed to record
a mixed album and the rest is history the unveiling of Charpotro the
first underground mixed album. We put a gargantuan amount of effort
to bring out Charpotro. I remember working till 10 in the night putting
up posters. Sumon and Khaled bhai helped a lot to bring out Charpotro
and I couldn't have done it without their help and therefore I am
indebted to them. Also I must add that Shakib helped a lot to get
the sponsor."
Recent projects:
Duray is working on two mixed albums Lokayot and an Unplugged album.
The latter is unprecedented and is expected to be the first unplugged
mixed album in Bangladesh. He is also working on music videos and
is working on a TV show titled Fast Forward.
Plans for the Future:
Duray dreams to release a mixed English album from his studio in the
near future. He hopes and is quite confident that the English album
will gain international accolade. "After cricket, music can bring
fame to Bangladesh," said Duray. "Indeed these underground
bands are Bangladesh's best kept secret."
Duray also added that he plans to go abroad after
a few years and do some courses on music and come back to our motherland
and open a Music School. He also plans to do a workshop to educate
upcoming bands about the process of recording.
His rewards:
"I do not release these albums for monetary gains. My sole intention
is to promote good music. My greatest reward is being addressed as
Duray bhai by these young and talented musicians and I want them to
know that that as long as I live I will always be by their side and
always play the role of their Guardian Angel" held Duray in a
voice choked in emotion. He added that it is very disheartening that
most of the senior mainstream musicians are not doing anything to
help these upcoming underground bands. "Only Azam Khan and a
few others are trying to help these groups get the award they deserve.”
What makes him different from other mixers
and sound engineers?
"The fact that I love rock music and want to promote these musicians
makes me different from others," replied Duray. He also added
that he is different because unlike most people, he has great faith
on the young prodigious musicians.
On
the current standards of recording in Bangladesh:
As spoken to Duray, he emphasised on sound mathematical knowledge
with good sense of music to comprehend sound frequency as a sequence
to becoming competent sound engineer. He added the need for institution
to learn sound engineering better, which is mandatory to master the
album mixing.
About the present technological scenario of recording,
he affirmed a lacking of 50 years from the international standard.
He remarked the main deficiency as lack of quality equipment. An A
class mixing console is the most important part of studio recording
priced at 20 lacs alone and is unavailable to the local recording
facility, It is the missing part of the puzzle why Bangladeshi recording
standard is not rising. We are definitely behind international standards
but won't be for long when these equipment stars to ship in.
On drugs and music:
Duray proudly claims that he is yet to witness any member of an underground
band take drugs. He firmly believes that to become good musicians,
drugs are not needed. Hard work, dedication and devotion are required
to become good musicians. Therefore, he urges everyone to say no to
drugs.
When
it is all said and done, the musicians found an amazing similarity
with the early 90's release of Hooray with the Duray's mixed compilation
Charpotro. An uprising of bands sparked on release of that CD back
then. It was a re-incarnation of the early 90's rock music revolution
when that mixed compilation was launched in 2001. From the release
of Charpotro in 2001 onwards, many people term it a 'rock music rebellion'
taking place. The music admirers know what they deserve, not allowing
commercial bands to have domination among the enthusiasts anymore.
Sites
Unseen
By Niloy
Recently, I came
across a few sites devoted to the underground: military trenches,
bunkers, fortresses, and especially abandoned, hidden (US) nuclear
missile silos. The appeal of the underground on the net is obvious:
it matches with internet's own obscure nature, and the fascination
with concealment, conspiracy and secrecy.
But there is a
deeper irony here: that these missile silos were created to carry
out a war of indescribable violence, and so was the internet. It began
with the need to create a communication technology that could carry
on after a nuclear strike that would allow data to be transferred
even when telephone exchanges were smoking ruins. The Pentagon's DARPANET
was the great-great grandfather of the system that now allows us to
download pictures of pop stars nude. It was designed to evade control,
to seek ways around information blockages, because it was supposed
to survive the end of the world.
In the same way,
those nuclear silos were dug deep and scattered across the loneliest
parts of America, to evade detection and make it impossible knock
out the country's nuclear capability with one blow. Those dank bunkers
are the unlikely cousins of the internet: both are the children of
the Armageddon that never took place.
Stuff
to discover
www.24-7media.de/BWS/
A true example of what a website of the next generation will be. Stunning
design, striking graphics, excellent background music and, well, huge
sized 2 megabyte pages that demand a super fast broadband connection.
This is the kind of website you will come across everyday, in a few
years.
The website is
about safaris… and it has nice content. But it's nicer just to hang
around and experience the next-generation futuristic qualities of
the sites. Seriously, this site isn't for anyone with a internet connection
that is less than 20kbps.
Stuff
to watch
www.gumblonds.com
So, what do you do with a chewed-up chewing gum? Stick it into someone's
hair or seat? Or just spit it away and litter our littered town even
more? Well, there is some guy out in the net who doesn't do any of
these… He creates elaborate and gorgeous artwork (something like a
painting) with chewed-up chewing gum. Visit this site to check out
his bizarre and colourful work.
Stuff
to download
www.sourceforge.net
A site for the power users… with thousands of quality software downloads
for all popular platforms. Very useful site for the ones who's always
being creative with their PCs. The source codes of all the softwares
are also available, if you feel like a programmer.
Get a
break now
www.worth1000.com
The world is full of people with a PC with Photoshop installed and
lots of time to waste. At least that's what you would feel if you
come across this site. Hundreds of Photoshop enthusiasts creating
bizarre but admirable pieces of tweaked artwork and photographs showcase
their work in this site. They compete for creating the coolest piece
for funny competitions with titles like "Day jobs for Super Heroes"
or "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good". Very funny
and always worth a look.
Then get
happy
maddox.xmission.com
It had taken a lot of thinking to finally make up my mind and pluck
up my courage to recommend this site. Undoubtedly, this site would
be "unsuitable" for many of my dear readers. Finally, I
make the decision and present you the best page in the universe. Seriously,
it's indeed the best! You will soon understand what the site about
when you visit the site; but please, please don't visit the site if…
…you are scared of strong language
…you are younger or older than 18
…you have any intention of suing RS (or me, my family, my editor,
my colleges, my friends, my friend's doggy, our President, Saddam
Hussain, Bush, Microsoft or God)
…you don't have any sense of humour
…you are planning an assault on me
If the descriptions stated above don't match you, then you are actually
someone cool. Congrats, you are free to browns and enjoy the best
page ever in the history of mankind (and also of alienkind).
Or get
sad
www.iworkwithfools.com
Life isn't nice, warm and cosy. Pretty soon, we'll have to peruse
our careers and, as we go on with our career, we are very likely to
find it pretty boring. And unsatisfying… and nauseating…and pretty
unbearable. This is mainly because we would probably be working in
a cubicle… in a large, gloomy, grey building, calculating balances,
signing files and writing official reports. All these, just for earning
some money. Of, course, there are exceptions… but they are pretty
rare.
Anyway,
the people around the world is facing boredom… and stupidity along
their career. This is a website that gathers and presents the truly
outrageous and idiotic moments that people face during their career.
Most of the stories here are funny and some are plain dumb. Still,
they are good for a nice laugh. But after you finish laughing, consider
the fact that within a few years, you would probably be someone facing
the labyrinth of a typical boring career.
Hmm,
lets end things here. I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, if you are interested
about any particular subject, let me know (niloyx@yahoo.com). I might
just have a good link for you. Until then, happy web surfing.
The
almighty Nintendo DS
Who said Nintendo isn’t the
best?
By Niloy
Well,
the console gaming industry is preparing for a massive transition…
An advance to the next level of gaming. And each and every console
giant is participating in this transition. Sony has the portable "PlayStation
Portable" and Playstation 3. Big deal! Microsoft has its Xbox
2. Nintendo has the next Gamecube thingy, named Revolution… and the
ultimate, innovative, almighty Nintendo DS (also portable). And if
you already haven't gotten the impression that I'm impressed with
the system yet, well, I am.
The Nintendo DS will seriously revolutionize
how people approach, identify and enjoy games, while including additional
options that enhance the game-play experience. It'll simply change
your impression of what a game should be. So let's see what comes
with the Nintendo Ds…
·Two screens, both much larger
than GBA's one
·Both screens are touch sensitive (actually way more that simply
"touch sensitive")
·Excellent 3d graphics capability
·Built-in microphones that can be programmed to recognize voices
·Wireless networking (built-in)
·Nice speakers
·Play Gameboy Advance (all Gameboy) games too
These awesome features combine to make Nintendo DS the most innovative
system.
The two screens aspect does open up
a lot of opportunities, especially since the action can be spread
out comfortably. I'm sure a lot of people will judge a game's creativity
by how it's used. But at the same time, it's easy to cheap out and
simply throw a map up there. Certainly helpful, but definitely not
creative.
The Nintendo DS system is, in its
current form, about the size of two Game Boy Advance SP systems placed
side by side. It's approximately as wide as the original Game Boy
Advance system, and designed in clamshell fashion exactly as the Game
Boy Advance SP is. Each half of the clamshell contains two brightly
lit LCD screens fixed in the center. The controls are located on the
lower portion of the system, with the eight-way D-pad positioned on
the left of the lower screen, and the A, B, X, and Y buttons laid
out identically to the Super NES controls on the right of the lower
screen. The system's microphone, for built-in voice recognition in
certain games, is currently located on the front edge, directly below
the D-pad. The unit's L and R buttons are circular and in similar
location to where they're positioned on the Game Boy Advance. The
system's audio speaker is located to the right of the upper screen.
The system features some really impressive
3D capabilities, and though Nintendo seems to be downplaying its 3D
prowess the system can definitely pull off some stunning effects.
It sits somewhere between the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube in its
abilities. It can display 3D on only one of the system's screen at
any time, but it's up to the developer to decide which screen to push
the polygons. And in many cases, the switch between screens was absolutely
seamless and unnoticeable - a 3D Pikachu would romp from lower screen
to upper screen in the Pokemon demo, for example, with absolutely
no hitch in performance when the two screens swapped the 2D/3D priorities.
The hardware can pull off some nifty effects even in its early demos,
from toon-shaded 3D to plasma flame effects to transparent sprite
and background overlays.
The touch screen technology is incredibly
sensitive and mirrors the same amount of pin-point control that PocketPCs
and Palm Pilots have been enjoying for years. The two LCD screens
are larger and higher resolution than the Game Boy Advance's, with
much better lighting technology to illuminate the image in darkened
situations. The lower screen has a harder, clear plastic over it for
the constant abuse of the touch screen. Wireless connectivity is another
one of the system's strengths and the system boasts its ability to
have 16 players in a local network within a (modest estimate) 30 foot
radius.
So far, so great. Let's see what kind
of games these features will accommodate…
·Use the stylus to draw an action hero… then bring him into
life and fight enemies!
·Play some games where you have to command or encourage the
character you are playing… using your voice!
·Play awesome 3d games
·Create a massive party with all your friends. Just walk in
an area where there are a few gamers with Nintendo DS and start shooting
each other! (in a game, that is)
Well, this awe-inspiring little piece
of console is coming out later this year. The DS will be priced around
$180 (10800 Tk) and the games' price will be $38 (Tk 2300) at max.
Still, you shouldn't bother about money for a console that great!
On the second thought, why bother about anything? We would surely
be left out of this console revolution, thanks to our filthy console
dealers. They would at least charge double for everything and won't
bother about acquiring the latest games (by latest, I meant games
released within a year). We are damned.
Anyway, if you have further questions
or want more info, mail me at niloyx@yahoo.com
Anchorman
The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Review by Gokhra
Cast:
Ron Burgundy - Will Ferrell
Veronica Corningstone - Christina Applegate
Brian Fantana - Paul Rudd
Brick Tamland - Steve Carell
Champ Kind - David Koechner
Ed Harken - Fred Willard
Opposing Anchors - Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Tim Robbins, Ben Stiller,
Bill Lawson
Narrator - Bill Kurtis
In "Anchorman: The Legend of
Ron Burgundy," Will Ferrell co-writes the story and stars in
the title role of Ron Burgundy. He plays the ultimate dumb guy with
so much aplomb as an Emmy-winning San Diego news anchor and local
Casanova.
The plot: The story is set in the
70's sporting big silly hairdos, silly male chauvinism and further
silliness in TV newscasting goofups.
The
date is 1973 and Ron is a charismatic but fairly empty-headed news
guy who will read anything that is on his teleprompter (that's the
machine newscasters read from leading to an empty trancelike stare
common in BTV news). Ron has an award-winning "news team"
as well that manages to land the prizes totally by fluke. The team
comprises of a cowboy-hat wearing gay sportscaster Champ Kind (David
Koechner). Then there's a weatherman with a no brain and zero IQ with
a very appropriate name, Brick Tamland (Steve Carell). Finally there's
a field reporter, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) who is like Ron but only
dumber. That's a lot of dumb guys in one boat.
The four have a great time being macho
and manly in a very satirical way. Into this post post-adolescent
phase comes Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) who is the
first in the news team to have a brain. She's dazzling, charming and
extremely efficient and wants to be an anchor herself. All this is
fine but you have to remember the movie is set in the 70's with a
very serious male chauvinistic attitude. Ron cannot stand such an
intrusion so an all-out effort is undertaken to keep her covering
silly things like cat fashion shows. But the determined newswoman
that she is, she finds a way to sneak into the real news stepping
on Rons toes.
Soon
Ron and Veronica are on the warpath but that doesn't mean they do
not fall for each other. There's a scene in the movie where the dumb
news group faces off in a backstreet rumble with a cameo rival newsgroup
consisting of Vince Vaughn, a luckless Luke Wilson, pipe-smoking Tim
Robbins and the usual insanely freaky Ben Stiller.
The movie is extremely stupid and
hysterically funny. In fact the stupidity of the movie ends up working
for itself. If you are looking for the "meaning of life"
moments in this movie, well, there are none. Or maybe the message
is that you should stop looking for messages and once in a while just
enjoy a movie as it is.
