Taping Sessions -- PTom

Taping music.. that was a most sacrosant activity. Someone from say Hostel7 would surface with a third generation copy of Hendrix at Monterey Pop, and immediately all of us had to have that. Boomboxes and various patch cords would be organized, along with a trip to buy japanese blank tapes ( localmades would not do ). If no money for new tapes, we'd have to agonize over how to split the music in tapes as fillers, or wipe out something else.

The taping session would begin around midnight in the lounge, as the cassette deck was always the recording machine, it being able to adjust recording levels. The big speakers would blast the music repeatedly as each of us made copies of the same. Accompanying the music would be a continous inhalation of various noxious substances.. when we had them. The lounge floor would be scrounged clean of ciggie butts. A few other habitual latenighters would be hanging around, reading endless magazines and papers, or ocasionally punctuating the music with yells and the staccato of the carrom board. Skinny the dog would drift in with his stink, wag his tail and settle down in the middle of the divan. No one dared shift him.

Most of our taping was done in lounges of H4 and 6 with some in 7, 8, 9. We were probably recognized as the late nightlife of these lounges. Past 3 am, the machines keep working. These were real hardworking machines in the hostel lounges. We keep writing songlists on the cassette covers, which already had older stuff on them, so that necessitated sticking papers on them, that were then painstakingly endowed with psychedelic lettering and grafix, most of the music being rock from the 60s and 70s.

The hours wear on, and the air gets stale with the reek of ciggie butts. The predawn chill creeps in through the door. We go out to clear the mind circuits. Life stirs in the messkitchen, where we partake a cup of the first tea of the day, a potent sweet wakeup brew for messworkers only. And as the dawn arrives on the eastern horizon, heralded by screeching birds maniacally glad to see another day for whatever reason, and some fitness types come down the stairs to sally out for a morning jog, we creep up the stairs, blearyeyed, hanging on to all the equipment, feeling we'd done a solid night of work, and now can have one last smoke, listen to a tape that we'd freshly made and crash out.

Taping Sessions: then and now -- Usam Nov 2003

Going back in time - I remember the first time I recorded a tape - twas in madras in 1985 - bad co - desolation angels, black sabbath - sabbath bloody sabbath, and queen - live killers. There were quite a few shops in madras that stocked imported LPs and recorded tapes - one album fit on one side of a tape. The tape of choice (by gods decree?) was TDK d90. I would score it in the black market (those days the color was black, not grey), and then head to these stores to choose from a collection of 1000 or so LPs. the price in 1985 was 20 bucks an LP for recording. That was also the price of a beer (if not less) in those days. Ciggies were real cheap - methinks a packet of navy cut would cost less n 10 bucks

Anyways, with whatever little pocket money I had (it always seemed little in those days), I averaged 2 tapes a year for 2 years - the cost of a TDK d90 was about 30 to 35 bucks then. I think of all the lot of tapes that I bought maybe about 200 or so (I must have picked up 5 fakes). so I reckon I always had lissened to music taped on good tapes, recorded on good turntables like technics, cosmic, marrantz, gerard, and the tape decks were sony, aiwa, technics, and so were the amps - some even had marrantz amps. So fidelity was assured. So much so that I never bought pre rec indian tapes that cost about 50 bucks (poor recording on inferior tape) or so per tape and for 2 of them tapes I cd buy a D90 blank and record 2 LPs - for less than the price of 2 tapes. Initial phase of taping - a fair bit of 60s brit blues - john mayall. 85 was the time I first heard dio. I was mighty freaked, the voice, the music, the lyrics...so I had a desultory (but deadly!) collection that carried on into bombay. then with the education gained from rock shows, other people, guitar mags (I wonder how we ever managed so many of those), and of course mr Zulf who helped me see the light of day in appreciating metal, and jazz too (the angry young man tho not that young now), and mdol coming to town with blue trane. it was exhilerating and educative. I shouldve gotten a degree in music and recording, not in EE. Speaking of which h6 had the best turntable - aiwa and the best deck aiwa with cosmic amp and 2 pairs of arphi speakers that would make it about 300 RMS! - and the number of taping and lissening sessions that we had out there…after many a toke

one time in 1989, I was in Calcutta. With information provided my Messieurs Tom and Loon (does anybody remember the Neanderthal shuffle?) – I was guided to Lenin sarani, rani rashmani rd, and free school street. Free school street – not sure why it is called that – was full of recording joints by day and red joints by night. As per loon’s directions I headed into paradise music center - I had never seen so many records in my life. 3/4 stacks of LPs each 10-15 high. and what LPs! blind faith, cream, 60s sykedelia in love, QMS, moby grape, mountain, coltrane, miles davis, weather report, stuff that I had never seen in madras. These were glorious times in the pre-Internet era when the thrill and mystique abounded in new discoveries albeit of a personal nature. Today, every little piece of info is available at the touch of a few keystrokes, and mouse clicks. A time will come when one will undergo 3-D simulations or have holographic images pop up when bandwidth is high and cheap.

That was one time I wished I was loaded with bread, like record 100 tapes or so coz I was never sure when I would ever get back to Calcutta again (this has nothing to do with me being a bong, but the city is freaky, still has places that have stood the test to time by being stranded back in time, centuries old buildings and streets that have not been given a coat of paint or varnish – the greyed out look of apparitions, or bombed out look of dilapidated buildings, the paint long faded, the plaster dropping out in places to expose tbe red bricks…) and that shop called blind faith. I was walking down Lenin sarani when I came across this shop with the big signboard. BLIND FAITH. I had to stop and enquire. He had an amazing collection and also charged the highest for recording. Those were precious moments - at that age and that stage.

There is this shop in delhi – pyramid in the basement mall of palika bazaar. This shop is run by surdis. He is a well known pirate. Rumour has it that he has been in and out of prison on FERA charges. At that time, (I had been to delhi a couple of times to attend the IIT delhi culfest – and one such time was the time that I met Zulf) he was the only one in the country (to my knowledge) to have allan holdsworth. Suffice it to say that he had an awesome collection. But the ambience of free school street, a shop called blind faith… palika bazaar can never compare what with metal detectors at every entrance, paranoid security everywhere

Taping in Bombay – as mentioned earlier, h6 had the best music system. So there was many a taping session carried out by the brothers there. H9 had a first floor lounge where gunsing did his recording in the nites.

Taping sessions and the latur earthquake – can anyone remotely figure out the connexion? It was me and Mr. tom one night in h7 with mitra. It was around that time that dabs was in town all the way from the US of A. He carried with him an amazing collection of CDs – TYA, Hendrix, and mayall so recording entered the industrial phase. It was way past midnite and me and mr tom the indefatigable recording folks who sat in the lounge, smoking jay after jay. Suddenly, what must have been 2 or 3 am (not that it mattered), we see some inmates come running down. We were stoned out of our skulls. One of them entered the lounge looking harried and worried at this time of the night. Had he seen a ghost? He tells us in worried tones that the bed, the table and chair shook! After hours of auditory assault, and jays of neurological assault, nothing could have fazed us. We looked at him, quizzically, and with mirth in our minds. We must have told him – oh yeah! Far out! The next days papers, the headlines were screaming – thousands dead in latur earthquake…

over the years, times have changed -technology is changing too fast - if one has 40Gig portable hard drives and with server blade technology that will compact the size of the storage whilst making it more portable. Already, there is a shift from CD to DVD. A blank DVD can be obtained from 60 bucks (for 4GB) to about 200 for 15 GB (which is doublesided double density).

Above and beyond all of this - I still have all of my tapes (I can remember losing 2 of my tapes - because I lent it. One of them I gave to ptom who gave it to rajneesh (not the bhagwan). it was one more for the road - (this is a must acquire DVD!))). (Programming practice make me close all the braces) the first records were made of aluminium or some other metal (ask edison) it was very scratchy and made much noise. Then someone thought of vinyl as the right medium. In the 50s came tapes and there were more portable, less delicate and easier to handle. in the 80s came the CD - the first storage medium for music (in relation to tape and record) where no mechanical friction was necessary unlike in tape or vinyl. And today we have DVD and compression technology - if I can store 10 albums in a 700 MB disk, then in can store 200 albums in one DVD. there’s no telling whats gonna happen next how we shall all blindly follow and embrace it.

At this stage, I have near abouts 200 CDs, 15 MP3 CDs, 300 tapes ( I must tell you that some of them tapes that are 15+ years old still sound great. of the lot TDK scores! I also have about 50 LPs - but the blues is I dont have a turntable - its tuff to get a decent used one)

(my friend met a man who owns plantations - he has over 1000 LPs. Every time he comes to the city, he heads for the music store - buys 15-20 CDs, 10 books and heads back home. He packs the CDs in bunches of 2/3 and keeps them in the boot of his car, and takes them home one bunch a time spreading it over a week. His family does not like his obsession with CDs. in fact he has invited my friend to his plantation, which means I can tag along...)

I reckon what dabs do is cool - airplay, bootleg, live shows; and then I buy them MP3 from blore. santana, bob d, eagles, judas priest, metallica, megadeth, sepultura, dream theater, rainbow, deep purple... all on mp3 theres more out htere to buy - l zep, dire straits, doors, pink floyd, speaking of which when I took ron to the grey market, he bought a neil yound DVD and 10 MP3 of various artists. however rohan refused to buy the pink floyd MP3. said originals only, it would be sacrilege to do this to a group so sacrosanct...