How do you explain the 'magic' of Aja's sound?
Late last month a pricey, much-anticipated new vinyl edition of Steely Dan’s 1977 album, Aja, began landing with a thump on the doorsteps of eager Danfans throughout the land. The $150 Ultra High-Quality Record (UHQR) consists of a pair of 200-gram 45 rpm LPs pressed on translucent so-called Clarity Vinyl. (“Deacon Blues” is given the entire Side B to luxuriate in its own mythic loserdom.) The release comes individually numbered (the pressing is limited to 30,000) and packaged in a brown slipcase that calls to mind the bookshelf binders that may have once held your dad’s archive of Playboy.
The UHQR version of Aja is the latest from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. With the release of Gaucho in December, Katy Lied in March 2024, and The Royal Scam in June 2024, the Kansas-based label will complete a reissue program of Steely Dan’s first seven records that was approved by Donald Fagen himself. (Simultaneously, Geffen/UMe has reissued the Dan’s magnificent seven at 33 1/3 rpm on 180-gram black vinyl at a significantly less sticker-shock-inducing price point.)
As with the other reissues, the new Aja edition was remastered by Bernie Grundman, who originally mastered the album back in ’77. From the confines of his Los Angeles studio, the legendary engineer, who remains as busy as ever as he turns 80 next month, explained what makes Aja such a special-sounding record, one engineers and audiophiles still turn to as the gold standard for testing audio equipment. What follows are Grundman’s words lightly edited for clarity.
Aja was one of those landmark recordings, which was noticeable when Steely Dan came into the studio for mastering. From the minute I put on the tape, it was clear they approached the recording in such a way that they captured all the energy of the performances. It had an immediate impact.
They mixed Aja in such a way that the power of all the instruments is right up front, in your face. But it also has space, almost like you can go walking behind it. It’s a special environment that takes you into a deeper experience of the music.
The best recordings have the aspect of transporting you. They actually create their own environment. That is the goal of anyone mixing or mastering—to help the music make that emotional connection with the listener, to make the sound easily accessible so that the music can just come out and grab the listener. It puts the listener in this special magic place that is only for that music.
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