Hasan Raheem, along with collaborator Abdullah Kasumbi, makes modern, global pop. This brand of music is the cutting edge of Pakistan’s pop scene. This title track from his first EP, completed last year, features a chorus in his mother tongue Shina. Hasan’s style of Urdu delivery is not common in the popular music scene, which adds a layer of intrigue to each of his compositions.

His brand of music seems to draw less from 60s rock as it does the R&B and soul that came after it. As such I find this new brand of Pakistani pop interesting because it represents a distinct and separate lineage from much that came before it in this market. Consequently, it includes artists and audiences previously outside the scene. This transition forces us to face the diversity inherent to a nation of 200 million people, and even to our big cities, which on their own are bigger than many countries.