Kashmir’s Khwaab — Bringing Back Alternative Rock and Nostalgia at the Same Time

Kashmir — the Band, is an alternative rock music band that came into limelight when they competed in Pepsi Battle of the Bands and won the competition. ‘Khwaab’, is there debut album, which has nine songs and two bonus tracks. This is a compilation of all the songs that the band has released so far.

The band has lived upto its potential since their competition days and brought an original flavor to the music industry. This band from Karachi has contributed along with their originals many popular covers and mashups as well which has taken many of down the nostalgia road. Their work has earned them well deserved critical acclaim and success.

Those of us 90s kids have a different kind of attachment to the music we grew up with. Before the fully digitization of music, buying the albums, first the cassettes and then the CDs was very much part of our musical experience.

I still have my personal collection and that of my mother with, as they are part of the story and journey of the evolution of music. Receiving Khasmir’s ‘Khwaab’ album that they are launching today in Karachi, followed by a national tour that will include Lahore, Islamabad and Multan, brought all the feels of storytelling connected to collecting physical copies.

Conceptualized and designed by Rearts, the black box with the band’s logo gives a very elegant look. Opening it, the first thing you come across is an autographed sheet by all the band members. They all get full points for very eligible handwriting and personalized thank you messages. There is another rolled up sheet which is an A4 sheet poster, you can tell that the designer has brought in play the aspects of being a music fan that he grew up with. We also have two badges in the box — badges are never going out of fashion, they can go on your denim jacket or your bag. I still carry my John Legend ones with pride and the Kashmir ones will be accompanying them for sure.

What looks like a CD cover and indeed is, also carries a booklet, which is not just a picture book but has the lyrics of all the tracks and has the names of the other musicians who were involved on the production front.

The CD is not the only collectable source of music in the Kashmir box, there is a small packet which hold a flash-drive card which also carries the full album, add the digitized version in which we consume our music now. Also, the flash-drive has a lot of extra space for your on the go use as well. Practical and collectable, what’s not to like. In addition to this there is the most unique aspect of the collection, tarot cards, one card representing each of the band members. The designs are really classy and each has a few lines from them talking about how their individual musical journey started.

Kashmir’s music has beautifully weaved lyrics that is compliments the music and is a reminder of the by strong resonance to the unique style the Pakistani music industry is known for around the world. They might as well help bring back our strong rock music genre back to the mainstream.

The album is well though out, on both fronts, the music compilation and the album box, checking all the quality boxes.

Kudos to the entire team for their out of the box soch!

Originally published at https://pk.mashable.com on March 7, 2020.