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One great source of Yiddish and Klez music is Global Village Music. Although modern albums often reflect current production standards, their rereleases of selections from 78s beg the question of whether music should ever be released in such poor shape. Is it a mitzvah to release the music to be heard despite the poor quality of the masters and lack of cleanup? If not, we'd be entirely lacking Harvey Kandel and Naftule Brandwein. But why can't we have both? Why is it impossible to release clean, well-documented archival collections? Other labels do it, but GVM seems to feel that it is enough of a mitzvah to get something out the door.
Truth is, the average Global Village Music album looks and sounds less inviting than albums from other labels. Liner notes are likely to be spotty, and poorly typeset and presented. If there was going to be a Klez label (and they have, by far, the largest selection of klez, Yiddish, and Jewish albums in the world), I wish it could have been better. Still, so long as you stick only to material recorded in the last ten years, you should enjoy the results. If you were foolish enough to purchase a rerelease of pre-klezrevival material, the odds of hearing music through the snap, crackle, and pop are low.
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