The Original Pressed at Pallas Mastered by BG Was No Slouch
does this "One-Step" better the original?
Despite the dozen years between 2002's break-up masterpiece Sea Change and 2014's Morning Phase, the musical gap between the two albums seemed in many ways minimal. Beck seemed to be revisiting his past. On the opener "Morning" he sings "Can we start it all over again?" On "Say Goodbye" he sings "cause these are the words we use to say goodbye".
No wonder the album disappointed many fans expecting something new since in the interim he'd been dabbling in various styles in his producing phase not his morning phase.
No matter! We are not here to discuss the musical merits of an album fans will either buy or not depending upon how well it improved upon the original 2014 release. Beck, always the sound connoisseur didn't spare the expense: he recorded again at Ocean Way, L.A. and Nashville, at RAK in the U.K. at Capitol and Sunset and a few other places along the way, probably recording digitally or perhaps to tape and then mixing to digits because the mastering credit went to Bob Ludwig and the cutting credit to Bernie Grundman..
Beck wanted only the best. He even had the record pressed at Pallas through Eric Astor's Furnace Record Pressing, which at the time was packaging America bound Pallas records, saving money on shipping weight that way. Eventually Furnace had its own presses at Pallas before more recently opening up it's own pressing plant in VA.
Put it all together and you had a "top shelf" vinyl package housed in a single direct to board jacket. And it sounded good. Not as good as the AAA Sea Change but still good.
For this "One-Step" reissue the original vinyl master 96/24 file went to Levi Seitz at Black Belt Mastering in Washington State. He cut multiple lacquer sets, sent them to RTI, where Dorin Saurbier at RTI plated all and RTI pressed in the "One-Step" process that puts the pulled metal part directly on the press.
Anyone who's heard the previous releases in this series whether from tape or digital appreciates the potential for what this can do and when I made the comparison it was clear that it again made a substantial difference all for the better as good as the original was.
I'll just pick one track, the aforementioned "Say Goodbye". The bass definition is far better, of the kick drum and electric bass. You'll hear that immediately. Fats Kaplan plays banjo. The attack is way cleaner, with each pluck exhibiting that particular banjo transient. Image separation and three dimensionality is far better compared to the original. Only on Beck's voice is there a bit of a trade-off with Beck's voice having a smoother tonality on Bernie's cut. You hear more of Beck's nasal passages. But the differences there are minimal and detail is far better on the One-Step. You hear further into the soundstage, the images are better separated,, there's more to "see" and if your system goes low, you'll immediately hear the improvement in clarity and especially bass transient definition.
It's better. That's all I have to say. Sounds better, has a nice gatefold paper on cardboard jacket, and a slip case in which a great classic album deserves to be stored.
Is Morning Phase a great classic album? That's your call! I will say it more closely approaches that status on this "One Step" where everything better "pops" rhythmically and you can far better hear all of the expert instrumental and arranging layering Beck and his father, who arranged the strings, put into these dreamy tracks.
It'll cost you $100.00
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