Marvin Gaye • What's Going On
 his is the fifth in Mobile Fidelity's slowly expanding One-Step LP
series of half-speed-mastered, 45rpm LPs. In case you were unaware, One-Step is a
proprietary process that aims to produce LPs that are closer to the source, the master
tapes, than any previous LPs. With One-Step, the lacquers, cut at 45rpm, are used to
create what Mobile Fidelity calls "converts," which are formed into the stampers
from which the records are pressed. This eliminates two processes and two sets of metal
parts, putting the stampers two steps closer to the original source. However, because
stampers wear out and can have defects or become damaged, each One-Step pressing run is
limited. Mobile Fidelity will announce a number of copies for each title, 7500 for What's
Going On, but the number ultimately produced will be determined by the condition of
the stampers. Another limiting factor: What's Going On is already sold out, only
a couple of weeks after it began shipping.
But the particulars of One-Step are old news. What's new for this release is something that's primary to LP records, the vinyl. SuperVinyl is a special carbonless formula. Records pressed with it look opaque, but when you hold them up to the light, you can see through. SuperVinyl's advantages are fundamental to analog playback: lower noise and better groove definition, which lead to more musical detail. SuperVinyl is more expensive than even the best traditional formulations and it's also much more difficult to work with, maintaining exact temperature during pressing being vitally important. RTI has been heavily involved in its development, and it is exclusive to records they press. Beginning with What's Going On, all One-Step releases will use it, and Mobile Fidelity has said that others may as well. What's Going On is the greatest album released on the Motown label, a concept album of sorts that lays out the social and political climate circa 1971. If you know your history, you know there was a lot to lay out: social unrest, a failing war, a growing racial divide, a sense that government by the people wasn't for the people. For its twentieth anniversary, Rolling Stone listed What's Going On as number ten of the one hundred greatest albums, and critical opinion has only continued to burnish its reputation. Marvin Gaye's smooth and sinewy voice, the loping rhythms, the guitar and sax -- it all makes the message seem more knowing and empathetic. This music has sunk in and stayed with us, and it seems eerily relevant today. Without a mint original or MoFi's earlier half-speed-mastered version for comparison, I can only rely on what I hear from the One-Step LPs, which sound wonderful. Instrumental and mixing lines are well delineated, and the bottom end is substantial, as it is with each One-Step release I've heard. Resolution of fine detail, important for the layered arrangements, is especially high, increasing the sense of hearing all the master tape has to offer. The records are dead quiet. You'll notice this when you drop the needle at the beginning of a side or after a track ends, but also when the music is playing, when the whoosh endemic to vinyl normally is present. Not here -- SuperVinyl will satisfy even the pickiest noise-haters. Dennis Davis declared Bridge Over Troubled Waters,
Mobile Fidelity's previous One-Step release, the best of the series so far, but it wasn't
pressed on SuperVinyl, which, to my ears, makes What's Going On even super-er.
This vinyl earns its lofty moniker and delivers on the promise of quieter records,
bringing you closer to the music. |
