m_007
Member
Sony DADC brings us another classic soundtrack pressed on vinyl. Following my review of Teesri Manzil I opened up Kati Patang to review but after one play decided to save that review for another day. I dont want to sound too negative so delved deeper to the titles I bought and picked Sony DADC release of Kashmir Ki Kali. This is a title that I do not own on vinyl so any comparison is to the RPG Made in UK CD (paired with Mere Sanam). O.P. Nayyar shines with this soundtrack and brings a range of interesting melodies and arrangements that need to be experienced through a sonically pleasing medium.
Cover Art: The Sony DADC LP uses pictures from the original LP cover art on a glossy sturdy sleeve. The cover art pictures are very low-res when compared with on-line pictures of the original LP. The contrast of the pictures used is out of whack, blown out whites and crushed blacks. The original LP features a green band at the bottom that includes a picture of Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor. This band is replicated towards the centre of the Sony DADC sleeve, but the picture is artificially manipulated and the results are not pleasing to the eye. One of the things I love about Indian LPs is the cover art all those sleeves designed by Mohanmurli. With these batches of releases I wish that Sony had employed some more thought to the cover art and either gave us a total good quality replication of the original cover art or maybe gone with a whole new design. When you have Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor in a movie it goes without reason that you would want to feature their good looks as much as possible to make an eye catching and colourful cover (especially for a film such as Kashmir Ki Kali that has some beautiful photography!)
The rear sleeve largely replicates the original LP with the addition of the copyright and license info from Sony DADC.
The record: The record is pressed on great quality vinyl. Very glossy and no warping issues. It is housed in a plain, poly-lined inner sleeve and was amazingly clean. My copy does have some minor scuffing on side two, but this is not audiable and a vast improvement on Saregama pressings where there were issues with warping and scuffing. The label is bare bones and really only has the LP Title and an interesting statement "See Inlay Card for Details" which reminds me of the cassette days. No track listing is on the record label itself. One interesting point to note is that the dead wax for these Sony DADC pressings is very large about 1.5. I dont know why this is the case, but something to note.
The LP Cover track listing is:
Side 1:
1) Taarif Karun Kya Uski
2) Hai Duniya Usiki Zamana Usika
3) Phir Thes Lagi Dil Ko
4) Meri Jan Bale Bale
5) Balma Khuli Hawa Men
Side 2:
1) Diwana Hua Baadal
2) Isharon Isharon Men Dil Lene Wale
3) Subhan Alla Haseen Chehra
4) Kahin Na Kahin Dil Lagana Padega
The LP replicates this track listing faithfully.
The sound: I played the LP on my Audio Technica LP-1240 paired with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge and stylus with about 60 hours of usage. I played each track and compared with the CD. I can (on request) try to provide a track by track breakdown between the CD and LP releases that I have - but for now I am posting a summary of the complete LP.
The LP opens very strongly and compared with the CD sounds sonically more pleasing. The CD was mastered from a relatively noisy record and I cant figure out if this LP is mastered from the same source as the CD and whether digital cleaning was applied to remove the static sounds from the master. It is a great opening and I enjoyed the punchy bass and the definition of the instruments. This is awesome to hear on vinyl and again I only had the CD to compare with but great start! This LP (similar to Teesri Manzil) has an underlying hum that is coming through at the end of tracks in particular. You can hear (on some tracks, not all) a quick fade-out that reveals the hum. As this LP is pressed on quality vinyl it is very noticeable.
As we progress half-way in to side one, Phir Thes Lagi Dil Ko I noticed that the recording or original source to be of lesser quality. Ashajis voice is very subdued and you can hear a lot of digital cleaning that has been applied to this song. Ashajis voice gets lost in parts of the song and the power that should be coming through remains muted. I could also hear elements of digital cleaning artifacts on the top end (that digital squelch) which is a shame. I know that these songs may have had their own set of issues back in 1963/1964 during the recording process. Maybe this is one of those songs where the original recording was noisy, as far as I recall this song did not make its way in to the actual movie. Things really pick up again with Meri Jan Bale Bale great sounding song with great bass definition.
Side two of the record shows minor sibilance issues and doesnt ever seem to reach those peak sonics of side one (especially track one side one). The music is great but there is definite compression (I know that the original LP was made from a compressed source but analog compression sounds very different to digital compression). Isharon Isharon Mein sounds especially bad. The musical interludes sitar and percussion pieces are messy. I compared with the movie soundtrack (I have VHS and DVD) and those both exhibit very clear definition of instruments during the interludes in this song. On the LP they descend into noise and this is probably the biggest disappointment on the LP. Side One has the standout tracks sound quality wise (Taarif Karun Kya Uski & Meri Jan Bale Bale).
I have to say overall I really enjoyed this LP. I would recommend picking up a copy.
Issues aside it is much better than the very hard to find Made in UK CD. I will still seek out a good condition vintage pressing (it is on my wish list) as I would like to properly compare with this Sony DADC release. As a stand-alone LP (comparisons aside) of a 43 year old soundtrack this is pretty good.
I would still iterate that the masters from a well preserved LP should be made for these new pressings with extra care taken on how much digital cleaning is applied and also care needs to be taken of how much wasted space there is on the actual LP. The dead wax is huge and all that valuable space could have been used to get the best out of the source.
Thanks for reading.
Cover Art: The Sony DADC LP uses pictures from the original LP cover art on a glossy sturdy sleeve. The cover art pictures are very low-res when compared with on-line pictures of the original LP. The contrast of the pictures used is out of whack, blown out whites and crushed blacks. The original LP features a green band at the bottom that includes a picture of Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor. This band is replicated towards the centre of the Sony DADC sleeve, but the picture is artificially manipulated and the results are not pleasing to the eye. One of the things I love about Indian LPs is the cover art all those sleeves designed by Mohanmurli. With these batches of releases I wish that Sony had employed some more thought to the cover art and either gave us a total good quality replication of the original cover art or maybe gone with a whole new design. When you have Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor in a movie it goes without reason that you would want to feature their good looks as much as possible to make an eye catching and colourful cover (especially for a film such as Kashmir Ki Kali that has some beautiful photography!)
The rear sleeve largely replicates the original LP with the addition of the copyright and license info from Sony DADC.
The record: The record is pressed on great quality vinyl. Very glossy and no warping issues. It is housed in a plain, poly-lined inner sleeve and was amazingly clean. My copy does have some minor scuffing on side two, but this is not audiable and a vast improvement on Saregama pressings where there were issues with warping and scuffing. The label is bare bones and really only has the LP Title and an interesting statement "See Inlay Card for Details" which reminds me of the cassette days. No track listing is on the record label itself. One interesting point to note is that the dead wax for these Sony DADC pressings is very large about 1.5. I dont know why this is the case, but something to note.
The LP Cover track listing is:
Side 1:
1) Taarif Karun Kya Uski
2) Hai Duniya Usiki Zamana Usika
3) Phir Thes Lagi Dil Ko
4) Meri Jan Bale Bale
5) Balma Khuli Hawa Men
Side 2:
1) Diwana Hua Baadal
2) Isharon Isharon Men Dil Lene Wale
3) Subhan Alla Haseen Chehra
4) Kahin Na Kahin Dil Lagana Padega
The LP replicates this track listing faithfully.
The sound: I played the LP on my Audio Technica LP-1240 paired with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge and stylus with about 60 hours of usage. I played each track and compared with the CD. I can (on request) try to provide a track by track breakdown between the CD and LP releases that I have - but for now I am posting a summary of the complete LP.
The LP opens very strongly and compared with the CD sounds sonically more pleasing. The CD was mastered from a relatively noisy record and I cant figure out if this LP is mastered from the same source as the CD and whether digital cleaning was applied to remove the static sounds from the master. It is a great opening and I enjoyed the punchy bass and the definition of the instruments. This is awesome to hear on vinyl and again I only had the CD to compare with but great start! This LP (similar to Teesri Manzil) has an underlying hum that is coming through at the end of tracks in particular. You can hear (on some tracks, not all) a quick fade-out that reveals the hum. As this LP is pressed on quality vinyl it is very noticeable.
As we progress half-way in to side one, Phir Thes Lagi Dil Ko I noticed that the recording or original source to be of lesser quality. Ashajis voice is very subdued and you can hear a lot of digital cleaning that has been applied to this song. Ashajis voice gets lost in parts of the song and the power that should be coming through remains muted. I could also hear elements of digital cleaning artifacts on the top end (that digital squelch) which is a shame. I know that these songs may have had their own set of issues back in 1963/1964 during the recording process. Maybe this is one of those songs where the original recording was noisy, as far as I recall this song did not make its way in to the actual movie. Things really pick up again with Meri Jan Bale Bale great sounding song with great bass definition.
Side two of the record shows minor sibilance issues and doesnt ever seem to reach those peak sonics of side one (especially track one side one). The music is great but there is definite compression (I know that the original LP was made from a compressed source but analog compression sounds very different to digital compression). Isharon Isharon Mein sounds especially bad. The musical interludes sitar and percussion pieces are messy. I compared with the movie soundtrack (I have VHS and DVD) and those both exhibit very clear definition of instruments during the interludes in this song. On the LP they descend into noise and this is probably the biggest disappointment on the LP. Side One has the standout tracks sound quality wise (Taarif Karun Kya Uski & Meri Jan Bale Bale).
I have to say overall I really enjoyed this LP. I would recommend picking up a copy.
Issues aside it is much better than the very hard to find Made in UK CD. I will still seek out a good condition vintage pressing (it is on my wish list) as I would like to properly compare with this Sony DADC release. As a stand-alone LP (comparisons aside) of a 43 year old soundtrack this is pretty good.
I would still iterate that the masters from a well preserved LP should be made for these new pressings with extra care taken on how much digital cleaning is applied and also care needs to be taken of how much wasted space there is on the actual LP. The dead wax is huge and all that valuable space could have been used to get the best out of the source.
Thanks for reading.
