The Album That Shouldn't Exist

#1

I just came across something that I really should have known about almost 20 years ago and I want to share. A lot of you guys are probably well aware of what I’m about to talk about, but I wanted to post this so anyone who didn’t already know about it can go down this particular insane rabbit hole as well.

Apparently, back in 1982 a Bollywood music producer got the idea to buy a Jupiter 8, an 808, and a 303, and use those instruments to play classical Indian ragas. He banged it out in a couple of days, recording the first takes, and released it as the album below. Does something about this weird Indian electronic musical experiment sound familiar to you?

Yeah, I know. That’s acid house, from well before that genre was supposed to exist. And amazingly for such an early experiment, it’s fucking great! It sounds for all the world like Analord. In 1982. What really kills me is that there are sounds in here (on the first track for example) that were all over '90s trance, but this album flopped into obscurity and wasn’t re-discovered until 2002.

Mind. Blown. This re-writes the history of acid that I thought I knew. But what really kills me is that it seems to be a completely independent development of acid that ended up sounding just like what would later come about in Chicago.

The world doesn’t make sense anymore!

#2

Cool stuff :slight_smile:

This sounds like an unreleased Phil Western (RIP) or Plateau song. I wonder if cEvin Key knows this. He would probably love it.

It’s not entirely surprising that someone did that in 1982, frankly. Because it was India, the western world’s chances of hearing it would have been slim, but who knows, maybe future household names in the genre did get their hands on it. We tend to remember a few people and credit them for the birth of a movement because they became famous and were there early on. But what of the numerous obscure musicians who never did become famous and were doing the same thing, maybe in the same place or somewhere else in the world? History always favors the winners, etc.

If you’re interested in curiosities, check Boomkat. They often release (or repress) all kinds of obscure/forgotten stuff from countries you wouldn’t expect to make certain types of music, like some Nigerian DnB or whatever. Some of the stuff is wild and hardly anybody has ever heard of it.

#3

Hey thanks, that sounds interesting.

#4

You know, now that I think about it one explanation could be that this guy just happened to pick the same instruments as Chicago acid house, and was working from the same Giorgio Moroder influence.

EDIT: I just realized something. Goa. That’s why certain elements of this remind me of '90s trance, it makes sense that this album would have influenced Goa trance.

#5

Yea dude. This is a far out album. I was just as awe struck when I first came across this.

#6

Never heard of it before, so thanks for the post! that is indeed crazy how acidy that is.

#7

Ha! just heard this tune a couple of hours ago in my car… :heart: while starting to compile my upncoming wedding playlist.