From Mole to Mundari, the third episode of Coke Studio brought pleasant surprises and disappointments.

Baageshri by Mole

How does one describe Mole’s music? It’s electronic fused with a live instrument here and there with vocal sounds and absolute strangeness. The band is delightfully different and one can see members of the house band, especially Javed Iqbal on the violin, having a good time.

The second half of the song has a distinctively ‘desi’ sound to it compared to the first half (which was more catchy). The song has no lyrics and CS took a bit of a risk featuring them – something that might pay off considering Mole’s ‘strange’ music is catchy and might just encourage a wave of new-age music in the country.

Lamha by Bilal Khan

The more one listens to Bilal Khan, the more one is convinced he writes perhaps only slow, brooding, emotional music. Lamha is one such broody number that talks about the pain of separation. One lost track by the second half of the song. The break in the first half and the second half was simply not interesting enough to retain listeners’ attention.

Ith Naheen by Sanam Marvi

After her whopping 16-minute rendition of Sighra Aaween Saanwal Yaar (by Sachal Sarmast and Sultan Bahu) in the first episode this season, Sanam Marvi returns with Ith Naheen, also by Sachal Sarmast. This song however, is only six and a half minutes long.

Sanam Marvi is an accomplished singer with her own signature when performing. Ith Naheen was performed well although it left one feeling as though it should’ve been longer.

Panchi by Jal featuring Quratulain Baloch

Jal returned to the crimson stage to sing a newly arranged version of their hit song, Panchi featuring new singer, Quratulain Baloch on a medley, which also includes Teray Ishq Mein Jo Bhi Doob Gaya by Alan Faqeer and Muhammad Ali Shehki.

This performance of Jal was a lot better than their previous one of Ik Aarzu in the first episode. Having said that, their re-arranged version of Panchi will not be a hit. The second part of the song where they sing Teray Ishe Mein Jo Bhi Doob Gaya with Quratulain Baloch was actually very good but like all good things, that portion of the performance came to an end very soon.

They might have gone terribly wrong with their wardrobe – wearing what appeared to look like extremely uncomfortable, shiny, plastic jackets with a bit of denim sown together – but what they got right was in teaming up with Quratulain Baloch. She added a new dimension to their performance. They mentioned in their behind-the-scenes clipped that they had performed with her before.

Mudari by Ustaad Naseeruddin Saami

It’s about time Ustaad Naseeruddin Saami was featured in CS. One can tell the producer, Rohail Hyatt, appears a tad intimidated especially when he breaks the news to the house band.

Saami Sahib performed Mudari which is a classical composition based on the raag Adana and according to the studio’s official description, “a raag that is known to have the effect of holding a listener captive by its beauty and for the bitter-sweet emotion that it can invoke.” Watching Saami Sahib’s simple performance yet complicated delivery ‘bitter-sweet’ is not the emotion that came to mind, ‘joy’ did.