James Brown Sex Machine Hybrid Stereo SACD

Numbered, Limited Edition Hybrid SACD from Mobile Fidelity!
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 439/500!
A true funk monster: James Brown and his band deliver an electrifying performance with "Sex Machine", which was named one of the 500 best albums of all time by Rolling Stone! No wonder: "Mr. Dynamite" gives everything and more on this masterpiece from 1970! "Sex Machine" is transgressive, sweaty, rousing and emotionally charged. You just want to drop everything to dance... Originally marketed as a live album, "Sex Machine" contains six songs that were recorded in the studio and later supplemented with recorded audience noise and reverb. With the exception of "Low Down Popcorn", the tracks of the second half of the album come from a phenomenal performance recorded in October 1969 at the Bell Auditorium – in Brown's adopted hometown of Augusta, Georgia. The special relationship between the singer, the audience and the venue can be felt from the first notes. Brown screams, screams, pleads, moans, preaches, commands, witnesses, hums and croonts: The Godfather of Soul delivers one of the best vocal performances mankind has ever heard. "Sex Machine" is often considered one of the best and most important funk records of all time and can confidently be described as the highlight of Brown's creative heyday.
In 1989, the album was ranked No. 1 on SPIN magazine's 25 best albums of all time, and in 2005 No. 96 in a poll by the British television channel Channel 4 (to vote for the 100 best albums of all time). "Sex Machine" was also voted the 34th best album of all time in a 2003 VH1 poll of over 700 musicians, songwriters, disc jockeys, radio programmers and critics. Led by brothers William "Bootsy" Collins and Phelps "Catfish" Collins, Brown's band – along with two different drummers – recorded an almost eleven-minute version of "Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine" and a rousing medley of "Bewildered", "I Got The Feeling" and "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose". Two then-current studio singles recorded in 1969 at different venues, "Brother Rapp" and "Low Down Popcorn", each featuring his earlier group, supplemented the material for the second LP, which completed the originally planned live set. Complicated? A little bit. Unusual? Absolutely. The floating, almost soothing "Spinning Wheel" puts the instrumental virtuosity of Maceo Parker and Co. in the foreground and functions as a seamless transition to the delicate, brass-accompanied "If I Ruled The World". But Brown and his buddies are far from done: Try to resist the double final punch "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" and "Mother Popcorn". Not a chance!
James Brown wants to know one thing before he and his band begin Sex Machine. "Can I get into the thing, really?," he asks. His cohorts enthusiastically respond in the affirmative. And for the next hour and change, Mr. Dynamite gets into it and more, turning in a sweat-soaked, feet-moving, hip-swiveling, emotion-purging, in-the-red, drop-everything-you're-doing-and-dance performance for the ages. Ranked by Rolling Stone among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the sweeping 1970 effort towers as a testament to Brown's inimitable legacy as well as the peak powers of his voice, vibrancy, and bands.
Sourced from the original master tapes and housed in mini-LP-style gatefold packaging, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition hybrid SACD presents Sex Machine in audiophile sound for the first time. It explodes with the energy the lightning-strike music demands. Dynamic, immediate, present, airy: Everything from the brassiness and fluidity of the horns to the snap and decay of the snare to the swell and carry of the organ comes across in full-range perspective.
Then there's Brown's superhuman singing, which here emerges with a purity, naturalism, and transparency that ensure you feel everything. Screeching, shouting, pleading, moaning, preaching, stinging, commanding, testifying, crooning, humming: The Godfather of Soul contributes one of the finest vocal performances known to man. This definitive 55th anniversary reissue of Brown's monster funk statement further exhibits a combination of clarity, solidity, separation, and imaging that helps bring to light what he and his crack ensembles committed to tape. Both in the studio and on the stage.
Originally marketed as a live album, Sex Machine contains six songs recorded in the studio and later overdubbed with canned crowd noise and reverberation. Save for "Low Down Popcorn," the tracks on the latter half stem from a phenomenal performance captured in October 1969 at Bell Auditorium in Brown's adopted hometown of Augusta, GA. The special relationship between the singer, the audience, and the location is palpable.
As the 1960s gave way to a new decade, Brown experienced immense success and dealt with unexpected change. Soul Brother Number One soon expanded his idea for an official live album captured in Augusta when the ensemble that backed him on that date morphed into the original version of the world-famous J.B.'s just months after the show. The virtuosic abilities, sticky chemistry, and rhythm-forward nature of the J.B.'s prompted him to book a one-off session in Cincinnati, OH, on a late July night.
Anchored by brothers William "Bootsy" Collins and Phelps "Catfish" Collins, the group — as well as two different drummers — laid down a nearly 11-minute rendition of "Get Up I Feel Like Being Like a Sex Machine" and a thrilling medley of "Bewildered," "I Got the Feeling," and "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose." A pair of then-recent studio singles cut in separate locations in 1969, "Brother Rapp" and "Low Down Popcorn," each featuring his prior group, took care of the second LP worth of material that complements the originally planned live set.
Complicated? Somewhat. Unusual? Definitely. But just as he elevated the expectations for all present and future R&B artists, Brown not only makes it all work. He makes it positively electrifying.
"Get Up I Feel Like Being Like a Sex Machine" is alone deserving of a dissertation on the art of funk music, seeing it moves up and down akin to an oil derrick, witnesses Brown unleashing a trademark series of grunts, squeaks, and "good god" asides, and glides to a hypnotic groove that won't quit. Or look to the syncopated rhythms of "Brother Rapp (Part I and Part II)," one of multiple pieces here that signify the point where Brown began viewing every instrument as a percussive tool. Brown closes the three-song medley with his new band with a skedaddling "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose," which provides jolts on the order of sticking your finger into a socket.
Not that the actual live material falls short in any way. Setting an insistent tempo for the vitality that follows, "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing" positions Brown as a role model, leader, and self-sufficient entrepreneur. All simmer and boil, the short and sweet "Licking Stick" dares you to keep pace. The floating, almost comforting "Spinning Wheel" spotlights the instrumental prowess of Maceo Parker and company, and functions as a seamless segue into the tender, horn-saluted "If I Ruled the World."
And Brown and his mates still aren't done. Just try to resist the one-two closing punch of "I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)" and "Mother Popcorn." Mercy.
On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the album, lovingly remastered by Krieg Wunderlich in the Californian MoFi studio, this funk milestone receives the well-deserved audiophile processing for the first time: MoFi's numbered hybrid SACD explodes with the energy that Brown's thunderclap-like music demands - dynamic, immediate, present and airy! From the razor-sharp brass sounds, the whipping sound of the snare drum to the groove of the organ, everything now comes into its own in full range. Then there is Brown's superhuman vocals, which come to light here with a previously unheard purity, naturalness and transparency. Krieg Wunderlich, Senior Engineer at the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, explains: "There were some artifacts that sounded a bit like 'missteps'. But it turned out that they were breaths on the vocal microphone. That's part of the story. JB worked hard and breathed heavily. And there were edits whose timing was really strange. That, too, is part of the story." In short: MoFi's hybrid SACD of "Sex Machine" – housed in a gatefold packaging in mini-LP style – is an absolute must-see!

Features:

• Numbered, Limited Edition
• Super Audio CD
• SACD Stereo SACD Layer
• This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!
• Sourced from the Original Master Tapes
• Mastered by Rob LoVerde at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA on the GAIN HD SYSTEM
• Mini-LP-Style Gatefold Packaging

Selections:

1. Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like A) Sex Machine
2. Brother Rapp (Part I And Part II)
3. Bewildered
4. I Got The Feeling
5. Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose
6. I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door I'll Get It Myself)
7. Licking Stick
8. Low Down Popcorn
9. Spinning Wheel
10. If I Ruled The World
11. There Was A Time
12. It's A Man's Man's Man's World
13. Please, Please, Please
14. I Can't Stand Myself (When You Touch Me)
15. Mother Popcorn (You Got To Have a Mother for Me)