8 April 2026 - FILM (Qasim Naqvi)

 

 

Release Date: 29 September 2017

Song Count: 10

Duration: 28 minutes, 9 seconds

Rating: 5.3/10

Description:  

 

From the drummer of electronic band Dawn Of Midi arrives a solo project of his to our doorstep, as today we dive into a past work from Pakistani-American producer Qasim Naqvi, made and composed as part of a soundtrack for a feature film named Tripoli Cancelled. FILM is a short yet tightly packaged ambient album that seeks to set in a variety of atmospheres through tracks that are brief in length and minimalist in composition.

 

The tracks consist of primarily slow, wavy electronic sounds permeating the aural scape one at a time as it is kept as vast and vacant as possible with a lot of breathing space left amongst the very low amount of melodies playing at once. One can really sense the intended soundtrack style the music takes, since what the listener hears here is practically designed by nature to make way for a more central focal point, such as a scene in a visual film, and as such, the biggest strengths of the ambient nature of the album comes through quite spectacularly. Everything contained in this set of songs is placed deliberately and with care as to not disrupt a sort of fragile balance set between the sounds and the medium it is supposed to accompany.

 

Respect has to certainly be given towards Naqvi as the mastermind behind FILM, for being able to create an accompanying piece that is this simple in the way it plays out yet manages to still invoke something in its audience and have something to convey. At the same time, however, going into this album while it is stripped from its original context of being an add-on to something greater, the great sense of emptiness does act to the LP's detriment, as if there were something major missing from the puzzle that makes it all click. As it stands, though perfectly listenable and even with some mesmerising hooks in store, the album feels, in a sense, almost incomplete and just out of reach of its full impact. Perhaps, however, that is but the fault of the medium and purpose that it is meant to serve, rather than any lack of inherent quality on its own end.