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Jeff Beck: Truth

Jeff Beck: Truth

Mobile Fidelity  UDSACD 2223

Stereo Hybrid

Pop/Rock


Jeff Beck


MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES, LIMITED TO 2,500 NUMBERED COPIES: SACD PRESENTS MUSIC WITH UNLIMITED DYNAMICS AND EXCEPTIONAL CLARITY

The core lineup – Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Mickey Waller, Ron Wood – responsible for the groundbreaking performances Truth alone qualifies as a watershed accomplishment. That the 1968 landmark predated and impacted Led Zeppelin's debut; involved members of Zeppelin, the Faces, and the Who; continues to be cited by many experts as the blueprint for hard rock; and unspools with indescribable guitar wizardry and primal energy put it into rarefied territory. Among the most influential sets ever released, Beck's solo debut has never spoken with more truth than on this exceptional reissue.

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Review by Mark Werlin - November 12, 2022

Note: The album review, below, is from Jeff Beck: Truth, with a brief listening comparison of this MoFi SACD and the Audio Fidelity SACD.

ALBUM REVIEW

Who doesn't want to hear the Truth?

Mickie Most, for one. The struggle between Most, a hit-making producer-manager, and virtuoso rock guitarist Jeff Beck, his most stubborn client, impeded the progress of the first Jeff Beck Group and guaranteed that the raw energy of the band's live performances would never quite be captured in the recording studio.

The Jeff Beck Group were at the vanguard of British blues-rock from their first live appearances in spring 1967. Performances in the UK club circuit built up an enthusiastic following of blues fans, but Mickie Most didn't want to manage a blues band: he wanted to remake Jeff Beck into a mainstream pop entertainer. Their contest of wills—captured in documentary footage shot during the "Beck-Ola" recording sessions, where Most acidly chastises Beck for failing to show up at the studio during booked session time, and Beck blithely replies that he can't be expected to create music in the confines of four blank walls—robbed fans of a chance to hear what the band could have sounded like in the hands of a more supportive and imaginative producer.

Mickie Most couldn't read music or play an instrument; he relied on his instincts and a perspective shaped by recordings that had been successful circa 1964-66, which were already sounding dated. A year into the Jeff Beck Group's existence, those irreconcilable differences left Beck in the unfortunate position of heading into the studio to make an album that his manager would certainly hate.

Fortunately, it was the gifted Ken Scott, then an assistant engineer at Abbey Road studios, who would operate the board at the May 14-15 and May 25-26 sessions for "Truth". Scott likely used one of Abbey Road's customized 4-track machines to record the basic tracks and overdubs. Chief producer George Martin had acquired a 3M 8-track deck early in 1968, but was holding it back until technicians could perform modifications to his exacting standards. Studio practice at the time was to record basic parts onto three tracks, mix and "bounce" them to the remaining fourth track. An additional three new tracks could then be recorded onto the original tape. This seems to be the method used on "Let Me Love You", where the rhythm guitar, bass and drums are mixed together and panned left, and some generational loss of signal quality is detectable. But the opening song "Shapes of Things" is mixed quite differently and sounds as if all the instruments are in the same tape generation.

Ken Scott was unafraid of Jeff Beck's reliance on extreme guitar sounds and studio effects. Beck's use of distortion ("You Shook Me") and wah-wah pedal ("I Ain't Superstitious") are landmarks in the development of electric guitar tone. Scott accommodated the guitarist's excesses by isolating Beck's guitar amp ("stuffed in a closet") so that it wouldn't bleed into the drum tracks. He must have used one of the studio's best large-diaphragm microphones to capture Keith Moon's astonishing kettledrum performance on "Ol' Man River".

The rhythm section of Micky Waller, drums, and Ronnie Wood, bass guitar, distinguishes the band from many of the other blues-rock groups of the time. Waller was a jazz and Motown-influenced traditionalist, at 26 a veteran of the British blues scene who was stretching into unfamiliar territory in the group's live shows. He knew how to play quietly as well as full out, and that control of dynamics keeps the heavier tunes from sounding monolithic. Wood, a young, accomplished guitarist, had stepped into the bassist role after Beck exhausted the patience of several other four-stringers. In concert photos, Ronnie is shown playing a Fender jazz bass through a Marshall stack—and that's what his bass sounds like on the record, aggressive with a trebly attack.

"Truth" is one of Rod Stewart's earliest recordings, and notwithstanding his wayward pitch on "Shapes of Things" and the questionable choice of "Ol' Man River", he displays, in the rough, the qualities that would bring him attention as the frontman of the Small Faces after Steve Mariott's departure: skillful phrasing and a music hall performer's sensibility—dry humor chased with honest sentiment. Like the tone of Jeff Beck's guitar, the sound of Rod Stewart's voice was instantly recognizable. Rounding out several tracks are Nicky Hopkins on piano (he would later join as a touring member of the group) and John Paul Jones on electric organ.

Sharing office space with Mickie Most was road manager Peter Grant, who saw in the group greater potential for commercial success than Mickie Most could envision. The studio time was reserved and paid—reluctantly—by Most, but it was Grant who sat in the studio and listened. Once the tapes were mixed, Most offered them to EMI Columbia/Epic, but the executives didn't understand the music and hesitated to commit to a release.

Grant was undeterred; he booked the group into high-profile engagements at the Fillmore East and the Boston Tea Party that generated a wave of enthusiasm and an outstanding review in the New York Times. Grant wired the press cuttings to Epic, who signed Jeff Beck and rushed the album into production. It charted in the US and elevated the group to headliner status. The production of "Truth" and the marketing of the Jeff Beck Group to US audiences seems, in retrospect, a test run for Peter Grant's next project, Led Zeppelin.

COMPARISON OF MOBILE FIDELITY AND AUDIO FIDELITY

In brief: the MoFi SACD presents deeper bass and smoother or "rounder" mid-frequencies than the Audio Fidelity SACD. The second track, "Let Me Love You", has rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums mixed together in a single track, panned hard left. On the Audio Fidelity disc, the snare hits have a sharper "ping" than on the MoFi version, and Beck's lead guitar, panned hard right, sounds harder-edged. These differences reflect MoFi's characteristic sound signature.

Journalistic coverage following the revelation of MoFi's tape-to-DSD step in their LP mastering process emphasized customer outrage and overlooked the careful work by MoFi's engineers in the tape-to-DSD stage, including painstaking adjustment of the tape head azimuth for each track on tape, and critical listening evaluation of the resulting DSD64 files. It's not surprising that there are noticeable differences between the two SACDs. Taking nothing away from Hoffmann and Marsh's leaner transfer, which some may prefer, I recommend the MoFi release as the better SACD version of this venerable album.

Copyright © 2022 Mark Werlin and HRAudio.net

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Comment by Downunderman - September 24, 2021 (1 of 3)

There is now an additional Truth in the SACD domain!
Mastered for SACD by Shawn R. Britton, assisted by Rob LoVerde and comes with a booklet.

And it is very good - better than I had been expecting, given the era (1968) of the recording and it being an 'amped up' album.

It sounds very natural, well balanced and detailed. The bass is nicely weighted in the mix, with just the right (smallish) amount of bloom. The disk is also full sounding without seeming to be pumped up. There is reverb present, but again it is nicely weighted.

The average DR is 10. This compares to an average DR of 11 for the Audio Fidelity SACD from 2017. Commentators who have heard both (which I have not) have indicated that the MoFi sounds noticeably louder - more so than you might expect from the respective average DR values.

If you are looking to obtain this title then this version is well worth getting. The Audio Fidelity version (whilst well regarded back in the day) is long OOP and expensive in the after market.

Here's hoping someone who has heard both versions will weigh in with a comparative opinion.

Comment by Postercowboy - December 8, 2022 (2 of 3)

I also compared this release to the Audio Fidelity SACD from 2017: The MoFi appears to be a lot louder, but an (entirely unprofessional) comparison using a soundmeter app on an old iPad showed only a rather small difference of less than 1 dB.

Amateur measurements aside, it seems to me the MoFi SACD comes over so much louder as if offers so much more in way of dynamics and sheer musicality, it just hits you with a ‚full blast‘. While the AF always sounded merely ok to me, the MoFi immediately had me bopping my head and tapping my toes over the entire run. Highly recommended.

TRUTH was the last release before Audio Fidelity unexpectedly folded. Allegedly only 1000 copies have been printed and it has been said to be the rarest title in their entire catalogue. It sold out in no time and is now offered for pretty brutal collectors prices. From a sonic standpoint, the AF is now obsolete in my collection, as I like the MoFi so much better.

That aside, I assume there will be a demand from both Audio Fidelity and Steve Hoffman completists for a long time coming, so I guess I will just keep the AF version around ‚for investment purposes only‘.

Comment by analogue - February 24, 2023 (3 of 3)

Both the Steve Hoffman sacd and the Mofi version are a great listen. To be sure there are slight differences as different hardware and different human beings created the transfer. The earlier sacd has slightly better instrumental separation while the Mofi is more up front presentation. . Love-em both.
Cheeers
.Analogue.