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KARACHI: To succeed in Muhammad Hussain’s vinyl library in Karachi, guests should make their approach via a congested neighborhood teeming with motorbikes and rickshaws till they attain a nondescript off-white constructing on the sting of Violet Avenue.
As soon as there, they climb a staircase to the fourth flooring and stroll down a dusty hallway to a door that bears no signal that past it lie 25,000 vinyl discs — seemingly the biggest personal document assortment in Pakistan.
The three-bedroom apartment-turned-library is filled with wood cabinets lined with albums, some nonetheless in plastic wrapping, others labeled with post-it notes marking them as uncommon. Picket crates and cardboard cartons overflow with soundtracks and “better of” collections, and vintage radios and gramophones in several sizes and styles sit atop tall piles of information.

And the music is at all times taking part in: The vastly common ghazal and folks singer Malika Pukhraj’s well-known rendition of “Abhi to mein jawan hoon” (“I’m nonetheless younger“) may very well be heard final week.
“I got here to know the way uncommon and valuable these items (information) are, how necessary their existence and upkeep is,” Hussain informed Arab Information on the music library as he thumbed via some sleeves to discover a document. “That is an asset of Pakistan.”
The music library was as soon as the warehouse for Rhythm Home, a document retailer run by Hussain’s father on Karachi’s well-known Tariq Highway that was pressured to shut in 2006 after the digital revolution sounded the demise knell for audio tapes, discs and information.
Six years later, aged 20, Hussain, who usually listened to previous Pakistani vinyl information whereas rising up, determined to discover the remaining assortment of household tapes and information. Cleansing information on the warehouse and searching titles on the web, he quickly realized that he had a treasure trove on his palms.
What started as a quest to rearrange hundreds of information, cassettes and CDs left behind from Rhythm Home led Hussain to what’s now his life’s work and fervour: Vinyl information.  
Right this moment his library of 25,000 information boasts 4,000 LPs, round 10,000 singles of qawwali and ghazal masters, main pop names from the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, and a few uncommon releases from the Nineteen Fifties.
“I began listening to music from Nazia Hassan’s (information),” he stated, referring to a Pakistani singing sensation from the Nineteen Eighties who has been known as the queen of South Asian pop. “Then, regularly, I moved on to Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hassan, Iqbal Bano and Farida Khanum,” he added, itemizing grand masters of the ghazal type.

Hussain is well-known among the many group of document collectors, and sometimes will get calls from individuals wanting to purchase and promote albums.
“Once I discover information in different elements of Karachi, it takes an entire day to journey there,” he stated. “To go there, return, type out the information, deliver them again and clear them and do the entire processing, it takes me two or three days only for a number of information.”
Orders to purchase and trade information come from throughout Pakistan, in addition to different international locations.
“I’ve obtained loads of messages and calls from all around the world, from many different international locations, saying we would like these information,” he stated. “When I’ve additional copies, I give them away and assist individuals full their collections.”
Hussain refuses to place a worth on his “valuable assortment,” however stated information may go for as little as 2,000 rupees ($10) to as excessive as 50,000 rupees.
His assortment isn’t merely about earning money, but additionally being a part of a group of vinyl devotees. “We’ve got stored this (enterprise) alive for passionate individuals. It’s our ardour to gather these things and get them to those that care about them,” he stated.

Many connoisseurs go to the library, some in search of a selected document, a uncommon discover, whereas others simply need to browse and hearken to music for hours — a responsible pleasure.
Recalling a latest customer from Lahore, Hussain stated: “When he noticed my library, consider me, his six hours right here handed like he had spent simply 10 minutes. Whereas leaving, he stated, ‘I’ve been looking for these items for the final 15 years.’”
Hussain understands the passion. “It is a ardour which received’t allow you to sleep if you come to know that there are some information,” he stated.
“It’s devotion, a ardour and craze.”
What makes information so completely different from different storage codecs is their audio high quality, which Hussain believes is superior to something that trendy, extensively out there know-how can provide.
“The sound high quality you’ve in authentic information can’t be discovered on YouTube or another digital format,” he stated. “The sound high quality of the document is such that if you hearken to it, it’ll really feel as if the musician is singing proper in entrance of you, and its readability is so stunning that you can be misplaced in it whereas listening and earlier than you recognize it, the entire document has ended.”
Requested how he felt about proudly owning presumably one of many largest collections of vinyl information in Pakistan, Hussain smiled. Behind him, a document participant started to spin a blue disc: “Better of Noor Jehan Vol. 1.”
“Music is sort of a large ocean; it is a ardour that may by no means be fulfilled, regardless of how passionate an individual is,” he stated.
“There’s such an enormous library simply in Pakistan that nobody individual has a whole assortment.”