Bob Marley & The Wailers' Rastaman Vibration UHQR Clarity Vinyl

Bob Marley & The Wailers' Rastaman Vibration

Analogue Productions' UHQR, the pinnacle of high-quality vinyl!

33 1/3 RPM Ultra High Quality Record release limited to 3,500 copies.

500 will be available through Tuff Gong International.

3,000 will be available through Acoustic Sounds.

Mastered from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound

Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl®

Purest possible pressing and most visually stunning presentation and packaging!

When Rastaman Vibration was first released in America in 1976 it did what some in the music industry considered nearly impossible at the time. It took Bob Marley into the Top Ten alongside disco records and corporate rock, points out Rolling Stone, which rates the album 4 stars.

Despite the good cheer of the title track and the upbeat "Roots, Rock, Reggae," Rastaman Vibration contains some of Marley's most intense images of oppression, paranoia and despair. Tracks such as "Who the Cap Fit," "Crazy Baldhead" and "War" are offered by the Wailers with dire urgency as Marley's brutal visions are echoed by his own church choir, the I-Threes. More than four decades later, neither Marley's music nor his message has lost its sting.

Now, Analogue Productions presents perfection — Rastaman Vibration in UHQR format on Clarity Vinyl. This Ultra High Quality Record release will be limited to 3,500 copies, with gold foil individually numbered jackets.

For Bob Marley, 1975 was a triumphant year. The singer's Natty Dread album featured one of his strongest batches of original material (the first compiled after the departure of Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) and delivered Top 40 hit "No Woman No Cry." The follow-up Live set, a document of Marley's appearance at London's Lyceum, found the singer conquering England as well. Upon completing the tour, Marley and his band returned to Jamaica, laying down the tracks for Rastaman Vibration (1976) at legendary studios run by Harry Johnson and Joe Gibbs. At the mixing board for the sessions were Sylvan Morris and Errol Thompson, Jamaican engineers of the highest caliber.

Of the material on Rastaman Vibration, "War," for one, remains one of the most stunning statements of the singer's career. Though it is essentially a straight reading of one of Haile Selassie's speeches, Marley phrases the text exquisitely to fit a musical setting, a quiet intensity lying just below the surface. Equally strong are the likes of "Rat Race,""'Crazy Baldhead," and "Want More." These songs are tempered by buoyant, lighthearted material like "Cry to Me," "Night Shift," and "Positive Vibration." Not quite as strong as some of the love songs Marley would score hits with on subsequent albums, "Cry to Me" seems like an obvious choice for a single and remains underrated.

This UHQR is remastered by Sterling Sound's Ryan K. Smith from the original analog master tapes. Each UHQR will be pressed at Acoustic Sounds' industry-leading pressing plant Quality Record Pressings (QRP) using hand-selected Clarity Vinyl® with attention paid to every single detail. These records will feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable. From the lead-in groove to the run-out groove, there is no pitch to the profile, allowing the customer's stylus to play truly perpendicular to the grooves from edge to center. Clarity Vinyl allows for the purest possible pressing and the most visually stunning presentation. Every UHQR will be hand inspected upon pressing completion, and only the truly flawless will be allowed to go to market. Each UHQR will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

More About Clarity Vinyl

As we set out to make the world's best vinyl record, we began by establishing a set of exacting standards to address all of the components that comprise an LP. We call our records made under these strict standards Ultra High Quality Records (UHQR). Most audiophiles would understand that the list of critical components in UHQR includes recording, mastering, plating, pressing and quality control. But some may stop short of considering the raw material used to make the record: the vinyl itself.

We did some research and learned some interesting things about the history of the iconic black vinyl record. The most compelling revelation to us was the fact that LP vinyl is not black in its pure state. The off-white color of the record you are about to listen to is the color of raw vinyl in its purest form (un-tinted vinyl). The black color you're used to seeing is a colorant called "carbon black" that was part of the original compound formulation used in old shellac records. As vinyl compound replaced shellac-based compound, carbon black continued to be used as a colorant. We've expected our records to be black ever since.

To make the ultimate record, we decided to enhance sound quality by removing anything we believed could detract from it. Record styli vibrate (or jitter) on a microscopic level, and any particles of carbon black pigment that happen to be on the surface of the groove could introduce surface noise. By not adding carbon black to our Clarity Vinyl, we eliminate the possibility of noise contamination due to carbon black particles. Instead, your stylus is allowed to effortlessly slide down a glossy and silky smooth groove wall.

When we purchased Classic Records, the brand name Clarity Vinyl® came with it. We're proud to have resurrected, refined and trademarked Clarity Vinyl, the perfect canvas for our masterpiece: vinyl in its purest form.