Haseeb Iqbal at The Listening Room

Two years of music history and storytelling from the Studio Crumb boss.

DJ, Studio Crumb founder and vinyl obsessive Haseeb Iqbal has spent the past two years as a resident host at Devon Turnbull's Listening Room at 180 Studios, building sessions around the music that's shaped him: from the golden age of Pakistani cinema to the sound systems of Jah Shaka, the roots of Lovers Rock and the reach of spiritual jazz.

In his own words, the room gives an outlet to his "love of poetry, theatre, and music", proof, as he told VF in his Meet The Selectors profile, that "impact doesn't have to be viral. I'd rather touch a thousand people deeply than a million fleetingly." Below, we look back at some highlights from his time storytelling in the room so far.

A Pakistani Music Road Trip

Drawing on cinema vinyl he's spent years collecting, and, more recently, digging for in Karachi, Iqbal plays the soundtracks of Pakistan's golden age of film, from Noor Jehan and Nahid Akhtar to M. Ashraf, Sohail Rana and the Tafo Brothers.

By 1970, Pakistan was the fourth-largest producer of feature films in the world, and much of that music survives only on vinyl. Between records, Iqbal explores the history that nearly erased them, touching on the collapse of the industry under General Zia-ul-Haq's military rule, the 1979 Motion Picture Ordinance, the Cold War backdrop, and his own path from London back to his roots through music.

Blue Note Special

"You can't trace the entire catalog of a label as prolific as Blue Note, but you can certainly do your best to zone in on a few of the greats and what they did to change the scope of modern music. Honestly, without them, we wouldn't have jazz music in the way that we know it, and it wouldn't have evolved in the way that we know it."

Celebrating the discography, story and sound of Blue Note Records, Haseeb moves through selections from the late 1950s to the early 1970s including John Coltrane and Marlena Shaw, setting each against the wider development of Blue Note and jazz as a whole.

Jah Shaka

Iqbal traces the life and legacy of Jah Shaka, the man many consider a father of UK sound system culture, tracking the story back to its Jamaican roots and the rhythm and blues records that first shaped it, born from an underground explosion of outdoor parties once British colonial rule restricted Jamaican radio to British and American music.

He shares the Twinkle Brothers' "English Girl" and "Faith Can Move Mountains," and "Jah Children Cry," the first-ever 12" on the Jah Shaka label. "There is no other sound and no other frequency that I've ever heard in my life that has made me feel the way that Shaka's sound system made me feel," Iqbal says.

Lovers Rock

Iqbal explores the development of Lovers Rock, tracing the genre's roots from American soul/R&B through Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae into the distinctly British sound pioneered in 1970s London. Featuring firsthand stories from a phone call with Dennis Bovell (the genre's key producer/inventor) and covering artists like Louisa Mark, Brown Sugar, Cassandra, and Janette Kay, he reflects on community and sound system culture.

"When it got to the '70s, you suddenly had the first generation of Caribbean British kids who were born in England and felt English, but all they heard was this quite angry political music," he explains. Lovers Rock was the answer, and the first reggae sub-genre spearheaded by women.

Songs of Healing & Resistance

"Everything that's been written, every song that's been made is literally an expression of one's humanity. It's just that the artists are taking the time to do it. We're all actually artists."

Moving from the contemporary jazz sounds of composer and educator Angel Bat Dawid to the dub poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah and the spiritual explorations of Soweto seven-piece band Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, Iqbal's Songs of Healing & Resistance session highlights the power that music has to ignite change, express pain and maintain hope.

Spiritual Jazz

Iqbal explores the evolving narrative and deep-rooted lineage of the spiritual jazz movement.

Navigating from the cosmic foundations of Sun Ra’s 1966 landmark Nubians of Plutonia to a sought-after rarity by Sandra Douglass, Haseeb traces the trajectory of one of music’s most profound and enduring jazz traditions.

"If you wanna be a visionary in whatever craft that you're in, then don't listen to other people if you truly believe in it."

Haseeb Iqbal hosts upcoming Listening Room sessions on British Reggae and Unsung Heroes on August 25 and September 28, respectively. Book tickets now.