Prahelika 1 2: Contemporary Bangla music at its Best
Obaidur Rahman is a Dhaka based Bangladeshi singer/musician/songwriter and very recently this young artist has came out with his self-produced debut double albums, titled, Prahelika-1 & Prahelika-2, both of which contain 15 of his original songs. Already the albums have made quite a stir in both the music communities of the capital as well as amongst the music lovers of the nation. Uniquely, unlike other contemporary albums by solo artists, Prahelika-1 & Prahelika-2 are entirely acoustic guitar based studio albums, the first of its kind in the history of Bangladesh’s music scene. And not only that, all the songs of these two albums have been written, tuned, composed, produced and arranged by the singer himself where he penned down all the lyrics and played all the instruments like acoustic guitars, lead and bass guitars, drums and percussion that went into making his debut double albums. Not to mention he sang each and every song from his albums all by himself.
The songs in Prahelika-1 & 2 mostly talk about the singer’s inner-spiritual quests, experiences, i.e. his strengths, limitations and finding peace and serenity within his own self, in the great vicinity of this majestic Universe. The lyrics as well as the melody of the songs are the singer/musician Obaid’s take and understanding of life in general, the struggles, ambitions, dreams, his longing for positivism and efforts to better himself as an individual by fighting off all sorts of negativity and pessimism and listeners can easily identify themselves with these magnificent songs. But regardless of the theme, however, some key characteristics of the entirely acoustic guitar based albums are that they are very confessional, absolutely sincere and very serious. In other words basically the very perspective of the singer himself, on life, world and the things he goes through. Both Prahelika-1 & 2 have some notable creations like “Ekakitto”, “Cheeromlan”, “Mounata”, “Dosh”, “Bhoy”, “Adhar”, “Ebong, O, Aar”, “Pashobik”, “Shikarokti” and many more.
It is important to mention that the albums are self-published albums and not released from any record label or production house. Also all the songs of Prahelika-1 & Prahelika-2 are legally owned by the artist Obaid himself as per Bangladesh government’s copyright law. All in all, Prahelika-1 & 2 are great works of music that the artist Obaid has so devotedly created. As far as his musical influences are concerned, according to the artist himself, Obaid is mostly influenced by 80’s hard rock music as well as the mainstream pop music of that musically wonderful era. Beside that, music from the early 90’s grunge and alternative movement and rock music from late 60’s and 70’s also educated him on elements that precisely influences in the making of some good, decent and soulful music. Aside from the fact that these are self-produced albums by the artist where he played all the musical instruments that went into making these albums along with writing all the music and lyrics of it, Obaid also is responsible for the artworks of the albums as well. All the illustrations of the albums including the covers of both albums have been painted by the artist himself. This is undoubtedly a great accomplishment by the artist Obaid.
The listeners and admirers of good music will surely love the soulful and comforting creations of Obaid who made a pretty impressive effort with his albums which will indisputably inspire and soothe the listeners with their lyrical warmth and harmonic compositions. The CDs of Prahelika-1 & Prahelika-2 are available all over the nation and international listeners can check out the album online as well.
