Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat 1STEP
Impex Records is celebrating the 35th anniversary of this seminal audiophile classic with our final and finest collaboration with long-time partner and raconteur Jennifer Warnes.
This ultimate authorized production of Famous Blue Raincoat is getting the complete Impex 1STEP treatment.
After Bernie Grundman cuts the last lacquers, Jennifer’s analogue master tapes will return to her personal vault for good.
Impex has always treasured their work with Ms. Warnes, from the original Famous Blue Raincoat 45 Box, The Well, The Hunter, and her latest LP, Another Time, Another Place.
Each of these releases celebrates Jennifer’s singular legacy of musical excellence combined with exceptional craft in coordination with the original production team of Jennifer, C. Roscoe Beck, and Bernie Grundman.
For FBR’s ultimate release, Impex returned to Jennifer’s first-generation analogue “slave” master tapes and let Bernie work his magic within the laborious 1STEP mastering process on BG Mastering’s tube-cutting lathe.
They will cut as many refs and test pressings as needed to get the quietest surfaces and intimate detailing.
Final discs will be pressed at RTI on VR-900 super vinyl, illuminating every note and nuance of this cherished masterwork.
The three 1STEP LPs and the elegant new 24-page booklet are housed in a deluxe four-sleeve Monster Pack tip-on jacket and booklet with metallic accents and spot gloss applications.
Even if you have every version of this pop classic, you will find considerable value and new benefits from this unbeatable production
The 1STEP Process
The Impex 1STEP process relies on short, tightly controlled runs that require a new lacquer after each run of 500 pressings.
This unforgiving format has the lacquer skipping the regular father-mother process, going right to a single convert and then pressing.
Though this dramatically increases mastering and production costs, it also assures each run is more consistent from disc to disc, with less noise, clearer details, and deeper bass.
Reducing production complexity to just a single “convert” disc between the lacquer and the press greatly improves groove integrity, diminishes non-fill anomalies, and increases signal integrity from the master tape to your system.
Features
Lacquers cut by Bernie Grundman from Jennifer’s 1987 analogue master tapes.
Each set of lacquers is used for short runs of 500 to optimise detail, dynamics, and soundstage.
Doing this required Bernie to cut over 100 lacquers throughout the 1STEP production cycle
Track List: Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat 1STEP
Side A:
First We Take Manhattan
Bird on a Wire
Famous Blue Raincoat
Side B:
Joan of Arc
Ain’t No Cure for Love
Side C:
Coming Back to You
Song of Bernadette
A Singer Must Die
Side D:
Came So Far for Beauty
Night Comes On
Side E:
The Ballad of the Runaway Horse
If It Be Your Will
A Singer Must Die (8-track Analog Demo Version)
Side F:
Joan of Arc (Live)
