A weekly blog dedicated to 78rpm recordings of folkloric and vernacular music from around the world.
These items are from my own collection and have been transferred to the best of my abilities, without the aid of expensive noise reduction software. They are for research purposes only.
As I mentioned in my first post:
It’s been my philosophy that good music is best when it is shared. Of course, nothing beats that feeling, say, when you alone break open that box from Turkey or Indonesia, place the fragile platter on the turntable, only to feel your hair stand on end when the music begins. The feeling that you’ve never heard anything like this before in your life; it transports you to a place where words are irrelevant. But part of that feeling is thinking how you’d want to share that with others, to have them feel exactly the same way.
Record collectors are eccentric people. I don’t even like the term “record collector.” They’ve been parodied far too many times. Accurately, I might add. But I could not live with myself as a “collector” without at least one person I could share sounds with. So this blog is for my friends, and for you, stranger.
If you like what you’re hearing, drop me a line. Yes, yes, it’s okay to download everything and then leave, but seriously - if you feel so moved, give me a shout out!
E-mail me for more information, or if you are the copyright holder of materials herein, and would like something removed.
With respect to the pioneers: Pat Conte, Richard Spottswood, Benno Haupl, Chris Strachwitz, and Paul Vernon.
And of course, if you find any interesting 78s and would like to unload them, please get in touch!
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FAQ
Q: What kind of equipment do you use?
A: For at home listening, I use a workhorse Esoteric Sound turntable from the mid-90s (when they rebuilt Gemini turntables), with an Ortofon 3 mil needle. (Why the Ortofon 3 mil, and not a Stanton 2.7 mil? I’ve got a Stanton setup and quite frankly, to me it didn’t sound as good on postwar records - I went back to the Ortofon. Next step is to try Expert Stylus, though. Those might win me over.) I run the turntable through a KAB MK12 preamp, and then a NuMark 30-band equalizer. I use Cambridge Sound speakers. So, nothing too outrageous.
Q: How do you transfer the tracks?
A: I bring all tracks into the computer raw, clean them up and EQ them using SoundForge and Cool Edit Pro with a variety of noise reduction plugins. Then a mono mix-down.
Q: How come you don’t post more tracks per week?
A: It takes me anywhere from 20 minutes to 6 hours to clean up a track. So, one per week is pretty much all I have time for.
Q: How long are the mp3s posted for?
A: It depends on my monthly bandwidth usage (which is quite generous). I’ve had to delete the majority of early posts and will continue to do so as time goes on. If there’s something you want to make sure you have, get it now. I believe there are both good and bad reasons for keeping the tracks up in perpetuity. I’ll do what I can.
Q: Any chance that you’ll repost the tracks that have been taken down?
A: Possibly. If I decide to do that, I will make an announcement ahead of time.
Q: Do you have any stuff from [fill in the blank]…?
A: Maybe. I have material from all over, although there are many gaps I’m constantly trying to fill. Most really great 78s are at the same time some of the hardest to find. Some regions are exceptionally difficult in terms of finding authentic music on 78. Central Asia is one example. My specialty is probably music from Africa, but obviously it’s such a vast continent with many recorded musical styles in each country, that’s crazy to even state. Let’s just say that I’ve worked hard to find lots of tough African 78s.
Q: I really like this one track - can you make me a CD of all your tracks from that particular region?
A: I hate to even bring this up, but I’ve received a lot of requests like this, and I kind of understand. But, unfortunately, I just don’t have time to do that. I wish I did, but I just don’t, I’m sorry. Keep checking in and perhaps I’ll post more of whatever you’re particularly interested in.
Q: What’s the strangest search term anyone has used to find your website?
A: That would be “how to pronounce thong.” Glad those folks finally made it here.
I hope any viewers and listeners out there appreciate the music.
And, also:
The work on this blog is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
April 23, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I can vouch for this guy - he’s the real thing. And that room pictured above smells exactly how you might imagine it does. Aaaah, musty shellac!
May 22, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I really like what you are doing here. Thanks for sharing your finds with us, and please keep it up! :p
June 8, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Thanks for the great tunes!
June 9, 2007 at 4:01 am
Thank you very much.
DaveM: love the rebetika. Big fan.
June 26, 2007 at 6:24 am
We will so be following your lead here in historical accordion music for our Accordion Noir radio show. We already play old cylinders off the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization site. Nothin’ like a bit of the 1890’s to liven up a show, lead into Russian punk-rock.
Thanks much. I’d love to have a copy of that Squashbox record. African and Asian accordion are very interesting to me right now.
October 24, 2007 at 1:53 am
Wow i came across your site while looking for info on a aremian columbia 78 by A. Kevorkian i just junked,glad i found this great site,the real treat was hearing Rizeli Sadik,what a wonderfull side,and chance you may put the other tracks up by Sadik?
Keep up the great work
October 24, 2007 at 5:50 am
Thanks, Michael - I appreciate the kind words. Sadik is a master…you never know, I might post more!
November 20, 2007 at 12:48 am
The Internet seems smaller and grander thanks to coolcats like you; thanks much for all your wonderful posts of esoteric (for me at least) music. There is nothing better than being exposed to new things, and there is nothing better than a foreign entity to foment thoughts of how beautiful life can be.
November 20, 2007 at 3:32 am
Thank you very much for the kind words!
February 23, 2008 at 12:09 am
Love, love, love it! Now I feel guilty for not doing anything with my tons of ethnic 78s…
May 7, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am so excited to find all this precious music here! I downloaded few tracks (Arnautka, Sadik with his kemanche, Jeirani) , all of them are fantastic. I have special interest in Armenian music, do you have some more and is there a chance to reupload A.Kevorkian?
May 7, 2008 at 5:49 pm
It’s possible that the old tracks will be resurrected relatively soon. I will keep you posted. Yes, I do have more Armenian music, though I’m not sure when I will post more. Stay tuned and thanks for visiting!
May 8, 2008 at 3:53 am
great blog.
May 8, 2008 at 4:58 am
i stumbled across your jewel of a blog, thank you so much for the time and energy you put in it. gorgeous selections! the eastern european, south american(!) and south asian tracks are especially mesmerizing. please, keep them coming, especially any indonesian ones you might have!
May 8, 2008 at 8:41 pm
[...] his About page, JW writes “It’s been my philosophy that good music is best when it is shared”. [...]
May 22, 2008 at 7:56 pm
In howling abjection I write you after having missed the cut off
for your precious Phata Phata post at Matsuli Music. Such agony!
I find it impossible to assuage the pain I feel in missing this ebullient
boat. Is there any hope that any of the South African material you so
generously offered up will find its way to some new availability?
To find oneself on the wrong side of this sublime offering is
grievous in more ways than I can say.
May 22, 2008 at 8:02 pm
There is always hope…
If I have any news, you’ll know about it here first!
May 22, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I am most grateful to you for all your generosity elsewise.
May 31, 2008 at 12:12 am
Thank you so much for this blog! Layout is beautiful, writing is wonderful… and the music!
June 20, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I see your text about Maria Alice and like it very much. I´m a portuguese collector of 78 rpm. I have quite a lot of recordings, specially from the frst two decades (Zonophone. Gramophone, Odeon, Columbia, Victor, etc).
I would like to konw if you have other portuguese records, Maria Alice recorded a lot. I also have LOUCO but Brunswick 9126. I can tell you that I´m going to start a new series of my collection Fado Archives, that you can check in my website and Maria Alice qill be one of the 12 new releases. José