‘Obak Bhalobasha’: legendary Warfaze track gets Coke Studio Bangla treatment
Celebrating 40 years of the country’s pioneering band Warfaze, Coke Studio Bangla season 3 has released a mesmerising collaboration with the band on Saturday, as the platform brings a revived rendition of the iconic Warfaze song ‘Obak Bhalobasha’.
Admired by listeners for decades, the song was originally written, composed and performed by the former lead vocal of Warfaze Babna Karim and was featured in the band's sophomore album titled ‘Obak Bhalobasha’, released in 1994 from Sargam.
Uploaded on Coke Studio Bangla’s digital platforms on Saturday evening, the song was also premiered at the Liberation War Museum at the same time in the presence of Warfaze members and Coke Studio Bangla producer Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, among others.
The Coke Studio Bangla rendition of the song is composed, arranged and performed by Warfaze alongside the Coke Studio team. This revived edition is produced by the Coke Studio Bangla producer Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, alongside Warfaze co-founder and band leader Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu and its guitarist Samir Hafiz.
Babna Karim, the former lead vocalist of Warfaze penned the original lyrics amidst the serene yet powerful backdrop of crashing waves on the seashore of Cox’s Bazar. This new version, a tribute to the timeless original, is a symphony of nostalgia and innovation, featuring a choir, a string orchestra, and the distinctive heavily distorted guitar riffs that define Warfaze's sound.
However, this new rendition signifies a beautiful amalgamation of two popular vocalists of the band representing two different eras of Warfaze - as Babna Karim is accompanied by the soulfully melodic Palash Noor, the band's current vocalist.
Two other founding fathers of the band, Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal and Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu took their helm as the guitarist and drummer of the song, alongside Samir Hafiz on guitar, Shams on keys, and Roger on bass, accompanied by Md Jalal and Sayonton Mangsang on flutes among others.
The choir and Strings arrangement for the song was done by Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, Kaushik Ahmed Antar, and Shuvendu Das Shuvo. The Chief Sound Engineer for the music arrangement was Faizan R Ahmad (Buno), and the song was mixed by Buno and mastered by Saadul Islam.
Since the song’s release on Saturday evening, netizens on social media embraced the new rendition with appraisals for keeping the original vibe of the track while enhancing it with instrumentals and a soulful visual in the music video, directed by Krishnendu Chattopadhyay from Dope Productions.
“Like many other fans of 90s music, I have been an admirer of this track and this new version has made justice to the song in my opinion. The arrangements for the cello and choir gave an additional depth of serenity to the track, and I have been listening to this reprised version on repeat, finding that I like it more and more,” Samiha Mahzuza, a former student of Chhayanaut currently living in Sydney, told UNB expressing her love towards the reprised edition as a listener.
According to Coke Studio Bangla, the latest track promises to captivate the audiences with one of the classic hits of the Bangla music industry while introducing this iconic song to new listeners. The song is available on the official YouTube & Spotify channels of Coke Studio Bangla.