Album Notes

Nagraan is the brainchild of Singapore producer and studio owner, Paul Russell, of Calamity Studio.

The Story

In 2004, after many years of writing and producing material in the the rock and pop format, Paul started to move into more ambient spaces. While he liked making new spaces in between the notes, his pop sensibiities still drove him to write, record and mix tracks that were not only great to listen to on headphones, but also immediately accessible to the average listener. His role as part of the crew of WOMAD Singapore was also opening up his mind to music from every corner of the world, and the new grooves that he was making didn\'t fit in the rock genre.

One evening, the singer that he was working with failed to turn up for the Nth time and he decided to find another way of getting material out that didn\'t rely so much on other people.

So soon afterwards he found himself down in Singapore\'s Little India, scouring the bargain bins for inspiration. Coming back to the studio with a big stack of ancient Bollywood, Paul started discovering some of the timeless pop songs from the 1940\'s to 1960\'s. He realised that these classic melodies, hidden from western ears for decades, could now be recycled, remade and remixed for a completely new generation.

Paul decided to do for that era/genre what Fat Boy Slim had done for big beat records. He started sampling, slicing and splicing up new grooves into the first few tracks, which were Naaam Gum Nagraan, Beats for Bmore Freaks and Nagraan Goes to Bollywood. Trial listens with family, friends and people in Paul\'s internet circle were favourable. People were liking this strange mixture of eastern melody and western groove and instrumentation.

So began nearly three years of writing and production, bringing in collaborators from all over the world along the way. Each one gave of their time and talent generously.

Around 24 tracks were eventually written and recorded, but we whittled these down to our favourite 16 tracks to make up a very fulfilling album that ebbs and flows up to its eventual and satisfying conclusion.

Most of 2007 and early 2008 were taken up with clearing the samples. In February 08 Paul gave the entire album a complete remix all in one 14 day period, which is why it sounds so consistent from start to finish.

Mastering was done in May at Sunbreak Studios, Portland Oregon USA, by Cass Anawaty.