Braadri Broadcast first released recordings in 2016. At the time, Maheen Sabeeh wrote a profile for The News:
A collaborative effort between MAD School (Music Art Dance) and Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI), Braadri Broadcast is the result of the vision of one Hamza Jafri, Co-Ven front-man, who is the creator and producer of the project. It features an entirely traditional, all acoustic, 32-piece desi orchestra and 10 original musical compositions that have been performed by the orchestra in 10 different languages: Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Pashto, Siraiki, Shina, Brusheski, Marwari, Hindko and Urdu.
Several noteworthy others are also involved in various capacities. Song direction and composition duties belong to Akram Khan while Sikandar Mufti (Co-Ven, Coke Studio house-band, percussion king) is the Technical Head and Creative Associate. Rola and Rushk duo Uns Mufti and Ali Jafri are serving as Video Director and Video Edit & Post Specialist respectively; theatre darling and director Nida Butt is serving as Executive Producer and Bilal Nasir Khan, co-founder of indie music collective Forever South (FXS) is heading the audio production department.
"We live in a multicultural society and yet, people from different traditions prefer to segregate," explained Hamza J in a press statement. "Braadri Broadcast seeks to overcome these barriers through the universal language of music."
A few weeks ago Braadri Broadcast began releasing a second set of recordings. In their words, a “series of 6 song videos paying homage to 6 vibrant hardworking resilient Karachi communities”. Maheen Sabeeh captured in her profile what makes this year’s releases, even four years later, refreshing as the first set of recordings. Braadri Broadcast “differs from other sonic efforts because it is not playing around with the overdone east-west fusion ideas”.
These are tasteful recordings of sounds that exist around the physical space of Karachi, but the memories of which may be lost if not transformed into forms suitable for our current digital archival tradition. In a sense, this work is reminiscent of Sachal Studios in Lahore, although the musical focus there has been on jazz and less so on local-folk.
The transition from a studio-set to outdoor settings in Karachi is a beautiful change, the camerawork allowing these recordings to be not just aural memories but preservation of a city that does not get its fair share of discourse.