Seek Tape Journey (Volume 1) : In quest for my first tapes at Ram's Musique

How cute do these tapes look!

Typing out this blog entry, with as much enthusiasm and joy as I picked these tapes at the store!

Backstory

It was a lazy Friday. While lazing around and thinking about the impending purchase of tapes, I quickly whipped up a plan to visit Ram's Musique Experience at Ashok Nagar to see if they did have any available tapes for Malayalam Cinema Music. I had made a list of stores to frequent, the day prior and this could be ticked off the list, with a sure journey to the halls of music.

I had read a couple of blogs online, detailing about how the store became a haven, helping teleport people with taste in vintage music, to a bygone era of riffs and sashays. Deciding that this could be a promising lead, I set off to the store.

Upon reaching the quaint shop nestled in the Public Utility Complex, a staff member was helpful in guiding me to the tapes section. This is located in their second store, with the stairway (pictured) leading up to the tapes section

Credits : What's Hot 

I was on a mission and I had to get some Malayalam tapes!

During my search that spanned thirty minutes, Ram uncle mentioned that the possibility of unearthing Malayalam Cinema tapes would be kind of tough, judging by the stack of tapes that he had in stock. "I'm one unique customer", I thought, with a thought bubble forming above me. He nonetheless encouraged me to rummage through his tape stock.

After much hunting on the shelves named 'Devotional Songs and Film Music', out came 3 stacks of Malayalam tapes, that were placed in a corner of one such shelf, on the bottom. My hands quickly raced through them and I picked 7 that I liked.

These are the tapes from my initial collection (as arranged in the photo above):-

1. His Highness Abdulla and Bharatham (combined soundtrack tape)

2. Azhakiya Ravanan (assorted mixtape)

3. Devaragam

4. Aniyathipravu

5. Harikrishnans

6. Ishtam

7. Meesha Madhavan

It was particularly thrilling to unearth the tapes of Azhakiya Ravanan and Harikrishnans, as the former was virtually non-existent in online stores and the latter being sold out on MossyMart, when I checked last. 

500 bucks was charged for each tape, which in hindsight is a steal for tapes that otherwise go for higher prices on online stores. Some of the tapes may not be readily available as well, I guess.

 

Other movie tapes that I came across were 'Vasanathiyum Lakshmiyum pinne Njanum' (i can't seem to remember any more :/) .What's particularly interesting is that, Yesudas had a lot of tapes featuring him, like the ones titled 'Top Hits'. There were some from movies in the 80's as well.

The store had more Malayalam devotional tapes than filmy ones, but I got what I needed. The saying “Seek and ye’ shall find” came true today, an afterthought that I had while typing this. How true these words were.

If you love your music, whatever be the language, do check the store out to own some great music.

Ram's two stores have Vinyl, Cassettes and DVD's on sale, which is able to cater to people's varied tastes in music. They do have an extensive collection of music in multiple regional languages and in English, which is surely a treat for old music heads.  

Uncle was also was kind enough to invite me to his son's Vinyl LP Record store, with many records (both new and old) on display. The Vinyl Record store is located adjacent to the cassette shop. 

All that ends well, i guess. Made some cursory talk with uncle and left the store with a smile on my face and felt an invisible tug from the sounds of old and someplace magical, that beckoned me to follow.

Follow my tape collection adventures here

~Noel