LP pops or performance pats?

The album from which this sample was taken has percussion from castanets, several variations, boot heals stamping, at least two distinct sounds, hands clapping in a number of ways, various thumping and tapping on guitar, and a few instances of twanging a single guitar string that seems to be purely for emphasis rather than part of any melody. Some of this is fairly regular, some is syncopated, and some seems, to me, to just be thrown in whenever the spirit moved the performer.

The particular thing in the attached sample is in only one track (out of twelve). It appears in two different vocal pauses and once a few times in one place while there is singing.

Normally, based on its sound, I would just eliminate it, but it isn’t exactly so much like most vinyl impulse noise. Given the variety of special purpose percussions sounds on the album, and the fact that these noises are semi-regular, I wonder if it is some peculiar part of the performance.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is much more on the LP to help identify it. Maybe someone else has better audio discrimination, or experience, and is able to place it more definitively-- good/keep, bad/remove. Maybe someone even has the album and can make a definite answer.

It is Flamenco! by Vicente Escudero on Columbia CL 982. This was taken from track 4, La Debla. This album is, in my experience, an unusual and unusually good Flamenco recording. Unfortunately the copy I found is rather replete with surface scratches and scuffs, and the occasional gouge.

I don't know the slightest thing about flamenco, phlegmencko, geckos, and whatnot, but my vote is leave it alone.  Unless you have an authoritative score or source to indicate that those sounds were unintentional and would have been edited out had the technology existed, consider it part of the music and the joy of "live" performance.  That's my tuppence.

Having listened to the .mp3 there seems to be some ambience on these sounds which would lead me to suspect that they were acoustic and therefore part of the perfomance.

Hmmm... I looked up Vicente Escudero here, and the only conclusion I could come to was that Andy's original supposition that this was driven by a spirit-moved performer, and that almost anything could happen is very likely to be correct, considering his history.

I support ryclarks opinion that there are acoustical pops on the record. To one part I have listenend to similar performances with slight hand tabs, to the other part I have never noticed similar sounding surface deficiencies on vinyl. I would not eliminate it.

For better or worse, it is part of the CD until and unless I get positive information that says otherwise, such as another copy of the recording. While it doesn't sound quite like a vinyl defect, itis hard for me to hear it as belonging to the performance either. It might have been deliberately created during the singing, but why oh why?