Magic Carpet – Self Titled (1972) (24/44 Vinyl Rip)

Review from Progarchives:
When the North London-based group Magic Carpet's LP was released on Mushroom Records in 1972, it failed to leave an impression on the consciousness of the general record buying public. It is difficult to say why the music of Jim Alford, Clem Alford, Keshav Sathe and singer/guitar player Alisha Sufit disappeared through the metaphorical 'cracks in the sidewalk', but it is likely that a combination of the label's economical restraints, which subsequently led to only a small pressing of the album ever being made and the era's perpetually shifting musical-climate played more than a small a part in the fate of what has become a jewelled crown in the treasure trove of psyche-tinged folk music. It is in turns haunting and beautiful; happy and sad; poignant and light-hearted. An unique journey of sounds!

Biography from their website:
Way back in the early seventies in London, three friends came together to play some unusual music: Sitarist Clem Alford, guitarist Jim Moyes and tabla player Keshav Sathe formed a unique Anglo/Indian fusion, calling themselves Sargam (the name of a note in an Indian scale).
They made one album under the name 'Sagram', mispelt by the Windmill recording company and inappropriately entitled Pop Explosion Sitar Style! This album was released without the band's permission, the ludicrous cover photograph bearing no relation to any band members or anything about them.
Featuring the guitar playing of Jim Moyes as well as the sitar of Clem Alford, Pop Explosion Sitar Style! is a beautifully played and distinctive acoustic album that reflects many musical currents of the time – from Alexis Korner to the Bauls of Bengal to Ravi Shankar. The complex rhythmic, sensitive tabla playing of virtuoso Keshav Sathe underpins all six instrumental tracks. We may at least be grateful to Windmill for recording the music for posterity.
In 1971, soon after the release of "Sagram", the Sargam trio were offered another LP recording contract by Mushroom Records, with the proviso that they find a singer. Having met her when they were both at Chelsea School of Art, Jim Moyes contacted the singer Alisha Sufit. At the time Alisha was living in Islington, London, singing and writing songs for acoustic guitar and Appalachian dulcimer. She busked in street markets and in the London Underground by day, and did gigs round the clubs and colleges at night. Jim Moyes invited her to play and the four musicians soon renamed themselves Magic Carpet, forming a unique Anglo-Indian musical collaboration, greatly facilitated by the fact that Alisha was writing songs mostly set in open modal tunings on the guitar (DADGAD etc.) making them instantly compatible with the tuning of the sitar.
Alisha's comment: "The odd thing was that a friend had asked me what sort of band I''d like to be in, a short while before Jim's call. I said that I'd really like to play with sitar and tabla, and then, hey presto, a few months later Jim rang me!" The band recorded the Magic Carpet album in the winter of 1971–1972 on the Mushroom Records label (MR 20). The four stayed together for nearly a year, doing a few prestigious gigs – the 100 Club in London, Wavendon (Cleo Laine and John Dankworth's venue), several festivals, Sounds of the Seventies on BBC Radio, etc., but they finally parted company in 1972. They thought no more about the album until many years later. Some ten years after its first release, the original Magic Carpet album started to become highly collectable, changing hands for upwards of £120 UK sterling on the collectors' market, and illegally bootlegged at least once. Magic Carpet Records officially re-released the album on CD and 1,000 limited edition vinyl (MC1001CD & MC1001LP). Pressed from the original tapes on top quality EMI heavy-weight vinyl, the LP re-issue quickly sold out and has become collectable in its own right. A growing audience for Magic Carpet soon asked would they be getting back together? Was there any more Magic Carpet material hidden in the cupboard? After a considerable gap, the four met up again. Jim was no longer performing in public and Keshav had retired, but Clem and Alisha were still playing professionally and it was a natural step to do another album – the "rush follow-up"! In 1996 they recorded the album Once Moor (subtitle Magic Carpet II) released on the Magic Carpet Records label (MC1004CD & MC1004LP). Once Moor consists mostly of songs written and sung by Alisha, plus some purely instrumental tracks, with Clem Alford on sitar and tamboura, Alisha on guitar, and Pandit Dinesh and Esmail Sheikh on tabla percussion. The album was issued on CD and top quality EMI heavy-weight vinyl, with a virtuoso full-length classical raga as the bonus track on the CD.

Tracks
01. The Magic Carpet 02:22
02. The Phoenix 03:17
03. Black Cat 03:58
04. Alan's Christmas Card 03:18
05. Harvest Song 03:37
06. Do You Hear The Words 02:59
07. Father Time 04:18
08. La La 02:38
09. Peace Song 03:46
10. Take Away Kesh 02:31
11. High Street 03:35
12. The Dream 03:55
Total time: 40:07

Musicians
Alisha Sufit: vocals, guitars
Clem Alford: sitar, esraj, tamboura
Jim Moyes: guitars
Keshav Sathe: Indian tabla, percussion