Shut Up and Dance - Srabonti Narmeen Ali, also known as Tushi's debut solo album Dhadha this Eid-Ul-Azha

Shut Up and Dance
Srabonti Narmeen Ali, also known as Tushi, will be releasing her debut solo album Dhadha, produced by music genius Arnob. It’s a record that will definitely travel wide and far – from dance floors to computers and mp4-devices, writes Faizul Khan Tanim and Naheed Kamal, meeting the two in Arnob’s studio

Shut up and dance is the pop-puffed, rap-grooved song that will leave your feet tapping and fingers snapping. At the same time, it raises questions of facing up to and fighting realities – maybe with some fatalities on the dance floor!

Not only relieving stress and lifting you out of your melancholy, it is a song that addresses many social anomalies and it will definitely influence you to listen to the entire album. It’s an inspiration to think and feel, infused with the peculiar combination of both happiness and contemplative ideas.

“The best part about working with Arnob is that he takes a lot of my inputs. I have creative freedom and we shared our ideas while we worked on this album”, says Tushi, casting a glance at Arnob, sitting behind her.

Collaborating with Zohad and Maher from Nemesis in the song Dhadha, the album also introduces a new voice to Bangladesh, that of Young Hollywood. The rapper’s name will soon be on everyone’s lips, predicts Arnob and Tushi.

Listening to Tushi and Arnob talk about the production process, it is obvious that the tunes played as important a part as the lyrics for them.

Tushi’s favourite songs from the album are the self-written ‘My City’ – verses of it reflecting upon the loneliness in a city like Dhaka, talking for a woman alone, a lonely boy and ending with a verse about herself, sometimes feeling isolated and removed, as an artist. “The song is about living in this city, volleying back-and-forth between contemporary and conventional attitudes – the modern and the traditional”, she says. “Then there is ‘Dhadha’ and ‘Deluded’ talking about corruption and ‘Dhar’ written by Sahana Bajpaie – these are all songs from my soul. I think the strength of my album lies in the fact that I can’t label it under a single genre. There is plenty of variety and my voice sounds different in each and every track, bringing out the character, affection and angst within them”.

She continues, “Arnob always told me that all my sides should be reflected in this album and I think my crazy side was the most appealing to him”, she giggles. “That’s how the story of this song began, blossoming into this track called ‘Shut up and Dance’. People in the studio who worked on the songs, Samir and Saadul, loved it so much that I agreed to include it.”

Everyone present at the studio remarked in agreement – as loud as red headlines and as mellow as a summer breeze, everyone would love ‘Shut Up and Dance’.

Tushi mentions how being a new homemaker, a wife and an energetic mother were factors that influenced the maturity of this album. For example, her songs talk about living in two different extremes of our society, with emotions ranging between the rampant corruption, the evident love of family and friends, the push and pull between modern and traditional standards and “all that jazz”.

Arnob says, “The best part about working with Tushi is her genuine participation while producing the melody. She is not one of those artists who just sings the songs over anyone’s composition. She’s well informed and involved, making the songs soulful”.

*This article was first published in The Independent's City Life section on 23/09/2010

http://www.theindependentdigital.com/?opt=view&page=9&date=2010-09-23