Rare Budhaditya Mukherjee 1982 'Enchanting Hour...'

Here is a rare 1982 Budhaditya Mukherjee LP. The vinyl is in great shape and sounds pretty clean. I'm not sure why EMI put an hour of recording on one LP... On vinyl, the quality diminishes the closer the stylus goes towards the middle of the LP, because the same amount of information is being squashed into a smaller space... I often ponder over how Indian music is actually completely not suited to LP - which prefers loud music at the start and quiet music at the end, however Indian Classical performances are the complete opposite - starting with quiet intimate Alap and growing with intensity towards a climax at the end. This usually isn't a problem when the recording is kept to around 16-17 minutes but 30 minutes per side is really uncommon. Anyway, enough of my analysis - a nice LP - enjoy!!! Feel free to join in discussion or musings about Budhaditya.

Label: EMI ‎– G/ECSD 41506

Tracks:
A1 - Raga Yaman Kalyan
B1 - Raga Bhopali
B2 - Raga Tilak Kamod

FLAC unaltered

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Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

Ali Akbar Khan 1982 'The Soul Of The Sarod'

Here is a 1982 LP of AAK. A nice listen - fairly clean recording. I'm not a huge fan of the standard practise throughout the LP era of separating the Tabla on the left channel and the Sarod or other instrument on the right... On this LP - separation has been done on side A, but Side B is centred? To add some consistency I've centred the Sarod more on Side A (on the cleaned version), which I think sounds a lot better.

Label: Oriental Records ‎– BGRP 1041

Tracks:
A - Rag Lalit
B - Tilak Kamod With Ragmala

FLAC unaltered

FLAC cleaned

MP3 320kbps cleaned

Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

Rare Shivkumar Sharma, Zakir Hussain 1982 '...When Time Stood Still!'

Hi friends. Here is another treat from Shivkumar Sharma, this is a hard to find double LP from a live performance in Bombay 1981. The quality is very good. I know half of this recording is available in digital format on Saregama's site as part of Shivkumar Sharma 'the Complete Works'... But here is the full thing! The back cover and inner gatefold pics aren't so great because they are super reflective... I've only edited the front picture to get the reflections away. What a great opportunity it is to have an extended recording of one Raga!

Label: EMI S/EMGE 12508/9

Tracks:
A - Kaunsi Kanhra (Alap, Jod)
B - Kaunsi Kanhra (Jod, Jhala, Gat in Roopak)
C - Kaunsi Kanhra (Gat in Madhyalaya & Drut Tritaal)
D - Mishra Kafi Dhun and Ragamala

FLAC unaltered

FLAC cleaned

MP3 320kbps cleaned

Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

Rare Shivkumar Sharma 1967 'Shivkumar Sharma'

Here is a very rare LP - Shivkumar Sharma's first from 1967. I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this in my local store for $30. It's still in pretty good shape, but there is wear, lots of crackles and surface noise. This was released as a special edition on CD by Saregama, however the CD is not so easy to get a hold of and I don't know the quality. There is a fairly good digital version of side A on Saregama as part of 'Shivkumar Sharma's Complete Works' (IF you can find it - many of the names aren't labelled adequately, aren't in order and don't refer to the original release album...).

Label: His Master's Voice ‎– ECLP 2346

Tracks:
A1 - Raga Lalit (Gat in Jhaptal &Teental)
A2 - Dhun in Bhairavi (Keherwa)
B1 - Raga Kalawati (Gat in Teental)
B2 - Dhun in Pahadi

FLAC unaltered

FLAC cleaned

MP3 320kbps cleaned

Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

Kartick Kumar 1978 'Ritu Samhaar (Thirty-One Sitar Concerto)'

Here is a 1979 Japanese pressing of Kartick Kumar's 1978 LP featuring an orchestra of 31 sitars. Quite an interesting sound - it's quite rare to have so many sitars playing together. There is an LP by Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan from 1968 'Sitar Quintet' which I enjoyed a lot. The recording is pretty clean. A nice LP! Sorry I forgot all my high school Japanese so can't do any translation!

Label: Philips ‎– 6405 642

Tracks:
A1 - Grishma (Summer)
A2 - Varsha (Monsoon)
A3 - Sharad (Post-Monsoon)
B1 - Hemant (Autumn)
B2 - Shishir (Winter)
B3 - Vasant (Spring)

FLAC unaltered

FLAC cleaned

MP3 320kbps cleaned

Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

Ali Akbar Khan 1982 'Halfmoon'

Here is a 1982 live recording of AAK. The recording pretty good quality. I know that Malashri is rarely performed (because it's only three notes...) I'm not going to pretend I wouldn't have rather heard side B as Chhayanat extended in Gat - however I did enjoy hearing something unique (AAK trying to make a tri-chord sexy for 25 minutes...).

Label: Metalanguage ‎– ML 122

Tracks:
A - Rag Chhayanat (Alap)
B - Rag Malashri (Gat)

FLAC unaltered

FLAC cleaned

MP3 320kbps cleaned

Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

Ali Akbar Khan 1965 'Raga Miyan Ki Todi, Raga Zilla-Kafi'

Here is a 1965 pressing of Ali Akbar Khan. Like the other LPs released around this time, the recording isn't great... The quieter sounds seems to cut off like a bad filter. I have heard the digital version on Saregama, but like usual, the LP sounds much better. The vinyl looks new, so maybe the original recording and/or the pressings weren't manufactured well. But still definitely worth a listen! I love this cover art as well.

Label: His Master's Voice ‎– EASD 1290

Tracks:
A - Raga Miyan Ki Todi
B - Raga Zilla-Kafi

FLAC unaltered

FLAC cleaned

MP3 320kbps cleaned

Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.