Blood, Sweat & Tears – Blood, Sweat & Tears [Stereo] (Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step Series 45 RPM SuperVinyl Box Set Edition)

(ADA) — Lacquers cut by Krieg Wunderlich at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab from a DSD 256 (digital) transfer by Shawn Britton of the original analog master tapes.

Quadruple-Platinum and Grammy-Winning Record Ignores Boundaries: Blood, Sweat & Tears Established Precedents for Production and Fusion

Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 6,000 Numbered Copies: Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Box Set Presents 1968 Album in Exacting Sound

1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe

Don't call it a comeback. Not only did Blood, Sweat & Tears' eponymous album establish new precedents for musical fusion and record production upon release in late 1968, the quadruple-platinum set marked a new commercial beginning for a cross-cultural group nearly decimated months earlier when its prominent co-founder, Al Kooper, departed along with two other members. The resultant sophomore effort simply went on to top the charts for seven straight weeks, earn the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, spawn three successive Top 5 singles, and land the group a headlining slot at Woodstock. No wonder its reputation remains golden among listeners, particularly audiophiles, which have never experienced the hybrid fare in more vibrant fashion than on this collectible reissue.

Limited to 6,000 numbered copies and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's ultra-hi-fi UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP edition presents Blood, Sweat & Tears with exacting sonics and unsurpassed visuals. Prized for decades for its rainbow of textures, colors, and openness – as well as the tonalities, extension, and subtleties associated with the horn section – Blood, Sweat & Tears now comes across with multi-dimensional scope and tremendous frequency responsiveness. The collective's genre-bending brass and woodwind instrumentation possess pointillistic details as rich, deep, and complex as a succulent Turkish espresso. Similarly, the originality, sophistication, and melodicism of the songs – anchored by Jim Fielder's can-do-anything bass playing – emerges with a newfound warmth, realism, and presence that surpass those even on the out-of-print ORG 45RPM reissue.

The lavish packaging and gorgeous presentation of the UD1S Blood, Sweat & Tears pressing also befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. It is made for discerning listeners who prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in everything involved with the album.

Speaking of these critical aspects, it remains obvious producer James William Guercio valued them above all else when he manned the boards for the sessions. Working with engineer Roy Halee and the band's sensitive arrangements – including that for the Number Two smash "You've Made Me So Very Happy," co-arranged by Kooper – he helped spin the nonet's melange of classical, jazz, rock, folk, and blues into pop gold. Ignoring any stylistic boundaries, and preceding Chicago's similarly jazz-rock-centric debut by almost four months, the album interrupted formal convention and went against the grain of the era's dominant psychedelia. Along with creative interpretations of tunes by Traffic, Laura Nyro, and more, and fearless interplay of horns and keyboards, a key to the effort's mega-success and sterling reputation remains the vocals of David Clayton-Thomas.

Reportedly discovered by Judy Collins, Clayton-Thomas brings a soulfulness and drama to the palette absent from the first album. His baritone emerges front and center on the country-leaning "And When I Die" and syncopated "Smiling Phases." The singer's multifaceted ability complements his colleagues deft approaches to tempo, transition, and tension, with solos dovetailing with jazz-derived segues to produce music that's at once elaborate, eclectic, and accessible – never better represented than on the thrice Grammy-nominated "Spinning Wheel," a sly takedown of the LSD-addled era that ends with an Austrian tune from 1815 added at the last minute by Guercio to correct a mistake – a one-off error on a set that seemingly has none other.

Indeed, the most enduring appeal of Blood, Sweat & Tears pertains to the cohesive performances of a group that blazed its own trail. To focus on the playing of trumpeters/flugelhornists Lew Soloff and Chuck Winfield, drummer Bobby Colomby, organist Dick Halligan, guitarist Steve Katz, alto saxophonist Fred Lipsius, trombonist Jerry Hyman, and the aforementioned Clayton-Thomas and Fielder (many of whom also played auxiliary instruments) is to experience one of pop music's remarkable adventures.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called “converts”) are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.

MoFi SuperVinyl

Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound devised. Expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces ultra-quiet surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of clean grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer.

(Above description from MusicDirect.com)