This vinyl store in Delhi will give you better music recommendations than Spotify

Instagram.com/diggingrecordstore

Curiosity made him buy the Disco Party vinyl by Percy Faith eleven years ago at a flea market, but it was a fortuitous meeting with his now deceased friend Jeff Valla that changed his life. “He was a big record collector in New York and pursuing his PhD in Gurgaon,” the 30-year-old recalls. “We got talking because the friend I was with was wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt.” A reluctant law student at the time, Mittal was instantly captivated by Jeff’s shop talk. “He started speaking about records, and somehow, it was everything I ever wanted to do,” he smiles.

Instagram.com/diggingrecordstore

Instagram.com/diggingrecordstore

Today, good friends share Spotify playlists, but back then, Jeff took Mittal record digging—an activity that involves fishing out an unexpected banger from a pile of records. Having grown up on a steady diet of Bollywood music, Mittal suddenly found himself completely immersed in jazz, psychedelic, funk, rock ‘n’ roll and disco. “Disco came into the world in the late ’70s, and I discovered that all the best-selling records were also pressed in India,” says the DJ and music archivist, attempting to pass on the knowledge bestowed upon him by his friend to me. “When you start focusing on ‘Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja’ or any Bappi Lahiri song, you realise how electronically complex Indian music was and how futuristic they sounded.”