The only thing better than new music is old music.

The future of the record industry is vague, but the past is bright and, most importantly, unpredictable. Over the past few years, the most important genre has finally become the genre of archival compilation, and the only possible and necessary discovery is the discovery of an artist who shone forty years ago. It’s not clear why record new music if so much has already been recorded that it’s impossible to sort it out. It is this decadent logic that guides labels, whose task is not to look for something new, but to unearth what has long been forgotten. They would probably have been laughed at long ago if the results of these expeditions had not been truly amazing.

For example, last year the album 10 Ragas To A Disco Beat by the Indian Charanjit Singh was re-released for the first time. This is genuine Indian acid house, recorded in 1982, that is, apparently, the first acid house in the world. Little is known about Singh: he was a session musician in Bollywood, brilliant at various strange instruments like electric accordions, and, apparently, promptly acquired the newly introduced Roland TB-303 and TB-808 synthesizers, adapting their characteristic screeching sound to Indian ragas. In 1982, no one noticed 10 Ragas, but they were included in almost all lists of the best albums of 2010, despite the complete obscurity of the artist himself and the obvious exoticism of the record. The same list included the collection Pomegranates - Persian pop music from the 1960s–1970s, recorded in Tehran during the Shah's time. In general, the archives of third world countries are not becoming scarce. Recent discoveries include Vietnamese rock (Saigon Rock & Soul: vietnamese classic tracks 1968–1974), Pakistani surf (Pakistan: instrumental folk & pop sounds 1966–1976), Nigerian afro-rock (The World Ends), Indian psych-funk (Psych- Funk Sa-Re-Ga!) and especially the Thai underground (Thai? Dai!, The Sound of Siam).

Judging by the fact that the compilers of these compilations have taken up Czech psychedelic rock, someday they will reach the Soviet Union. And we will also see “Ariel”, “Skomorokhov” and the rock opera “Stadium” by Alexander Gradsky in the lists of the best albums of the year - the only question is which one.

Listen in this genre

The Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk-thung, Jazz and Molam in Thailand 1964–1975, Soundways

The fruit of the labors of researcher and DJ Chris Menist, who scoured all the vinyl stores in Bangkok for strange records from the 1960s and 1970s. An unpredictable hybrid of rustic Thai folklore

and the most fashionable music that ever reached Thailand in the 1960s.

Pakistan: instrumental folk & pop sounds 1966-1976, Sublime Frequencies

Distant echoes of the Pakistani “swinging seventies”. The insinuating melodies of Karachi nightclubs and Pakistani films of that time. Rumor has it that The Shadows were much more respected in Pakistan than The Beatles.

Psych-Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Stones Throw

It is well known that Bollywood film composers have successfully mastered all styles and genres known to the world, from disco to funk. The news is that now this music is sold under the deceptive slogan “world psychedelic classics.” But if you don’t grease it, you won’t go.

How do I get to the library?