Sit Properly

Acyutananda Swami – India
Radha Krsna Productions
RKP 1001

Acyutananda Swami’s India LP isn’t really all that rare. It’s pretty available on Ebay, Gemm.com, etc. It’s comprised of seven studio tracks, all sung by Acyutananda Swami and all recorded in Mayapura. It’s a great album to listen to and you’ll be very happy with it.

But just because it’s a solid record doesn’t mean there isn’t mystery behind it. With this recording, there are three main mysteries (aside from when it was actually recorded).

The first is about the record label that released it. My copy was released under the Radha Krsna Productions label. It is the first of five records to be released under that moniker. However, opon closer inspection of the record itself, while the label clearly states that it’s Radha Krsna Productions release, the etching in the center of the vinyl (called the “matrix”) reads: “HKR – 1005 – A” (or “- B” depending on which side).

HKR stands for Hare Krsna Records, Hamsadutta’s label. There were, as far as I can tell, only four LPs released by Hare Krsna Records. They were catalog numbers 1001 – 1004. If this were to be their #1005, it would have been the only LP where Hamsadutta played no role in the production.

To me, that seems reason enough for Hamsadutta to kick it to another label even after Hare Krsna Records pressed it. But what is the real story? Beats me.

Keep in mind, Hare Krsna Records and Radha Krsna Productions shared at least one release: Hare Krsna Festival – HKR #1003/RKP #1004. So why this is the India LP RKP #1001 as well as HKR #1005? I’ve got no idea.

Also, there are other copies of this LP with yellow labels. Their matrix “correctly” reads RKP1001 as one would think it should. At this time, I don’t know more about these copies.

The second mystery is this…

It’s a “cut out” … sort of…

In the recording industry, a cut-out refers to a deeply-discounted or remaindered copy of an LP…. When LPs were the primary medium for distribution or recording, manufacturers would physically cut the corner, punch a hole, or add a notch to the spine of the jacket of unsold records returned from retailers; these “cut-outs” might then be re-sold to record retailers or other sales outlets for sale at a discounted price. A special section of a record store devoted to such items was known as the cut-out bin or bargain bin. – Wikipedia (lazy me)

But the actual mystery is this: The cover that I have is not a cut out. It’s a photograph of a cut out. The photograph used on the cover of this LP was made from a cut out version of the same LP. Why?

What this seems to indicate is that someone wanted to print more covers, but the only covers they had were ones with cut outs. So they photographed a cut out cover and used it. I’ve only personally seen one copy of this LP (though there are tons out there), so I don’t know if this is common to all of them, but it’s weird.

Again, I’m wildly speculating, but a guess would be that maybe Hamsadutta actually released this one, made a bunch of copies and then “destroyed” them via the cut out process. But really, who knows (and probably who cares).

The last mystery is more of a “why” than a “what” or “how.” While digitally cleaning this recording up, removing the pops, hisses and clicks (as described here), I made the discovery that the recording heard on this record is actually a recording of an earlier pressing of this record. This pressing wasn’t recorded from its master tapes as it should have been, but from an earlier pressing of the same record.

Basically, the first pressing of the India LP was recorded from the original master tapes. When it came time for a subsequent pressing, the master tapes were not available for some reason. In order to make another pressing, they had to resort to a copy of the first pressing and use that as the source – crackles, pops and all.

You can actually hear the crackles and pops where no dust or scratches can be seen on the record itself. Also, the right channel is pretty muddy and most of the crackles live there. I was able to remove 99% of the crackles (which were very present on both sides of the LP). Some remain, of course, but the cleaning up process (at a rate of taking an hour of work for one minute of music) has done wonders.

Additionally, at first I thought I had recorded this record’s volume too high. I was getting distortion at the louder parts (called “clipping”). But no, my levels were just fine. When this record was recorded from the original pressing, whoever did it didn’t bother to check the levels, so there’s a bit of clipping here and there. I was able to remove much of this.

This is the best job that I could do. There are those who could do better, of course, but this is definitely as good as this LP has sounded since the mid 70s.

Okay, so let’s get to the record…

Side I

1) Gaya Gour (5:09)
2) Radha Govinda (4:55)
3) Jasomati Nandana (5:10)
4) Kesava Kali Mala (5:21)

Side II

1) Manasha Deha Geha (6:12)
2) Nama Sankirtana (7:09)
3) Gopinatha (7:55)

On the back cover of the LP there’s a bit of a write up. Here it is…

Acyuthananda Swami is an American sannyasi, who left his homeland at the age of 16 years and has been living in India since the last 10 years studying the spiritual culture and music of India. He is world renowned for his masterful singing of Bengali Vaisnava folk songs and playing on mrdanga (clay drum, unique to Bengal).

The recordings on this LP were taken in Mayapura, India, and we beg the listeners to excuse the obvious shortcomings due to circumstances beyond our control. This record has been produced especially with the idea of helping the needy people of Bengal by sending the profits above the cost of actual production to our international center in Mayapura, India (Bengal), where thousands of people are fed each day from contributions coming through the sale of this record. Give generously.

Whether the needy people of Bengal ever got anything from this is unclear.

Several samples of the songs are available in the comments.

Click here to download the entire album in one big zip file! (93 MB)

Technical Information:
Media Used:
Vinyl LP from my personal collection.

Artwork Scanned from Original @ 300 dpi
Edited and Restored Using GIMP Image Editor 2.6.6